January ePrayer Alert

We at Beauty From Ashes™ Ministries (BFA) have been busy and exited entering into 2013 with a continued passion and excitement to reach women affected by sexual abuse, exploitation and/or trafficking.  We don't know all the Lord has in store for this year, but we trust and know it will be good and for His glory, and His love and hope will continue to set captives free.  We can't begin to thank you enough for your ongoing commitment to pray for the staff, interns, volunteers and clients of BFA!

CLIENTS:  We have seen women break free from unhealthy relationships, continue to pursue their educational dreams and take the necessary steps to either begin or continue rebuilding life.  Please continue praying for each woman we are honored to serve; pray they recognize that through Christ they are able to have the strength and courage to change the lives of themselves and their families.  Pray they continue to strive for healing and restoration.  Pray they seek all the Lord has in store for them and that they rest in the knowledge that He is always good and faithful.  Please also pray for the families of the women we serve as healing, renewal and restoration often needs to take place.  We also ask for prayers for continued wisdom and discernment on how the Lord wants BFA to serve each woman, how BFA can be a constant source of His hope and love, and if and when He wants BFA to offer additional programs in order to serve His children in a greater capacity.

OUTREACHES:  We are so thankful at how the Lord has continued to use outREACHEs to bring His truth, hope, love and joy to women throughout Florida and beyond.  Our weekly inner-city outREACHes and our monthly strip club outREACHes, along with daily social media posts and life skills/support groups, have allowed BFA numerous opportunities to not only speak of the Lord's love, but to show His love in tangible, practical ways.  Our Christmas party for the women we serve and their families was a night full of fun and festivities, and our prayer was that everyone could see and feel the love of the Lord.  Please continue to pray as we constantly seek wisdom from the Holy Spirit for how He wants every outREACH to go, and that hearts are continuously opened to the Author and Perfecter of our faith.

PROGRAMS & SERVICES:   Every program and service offered by BFA has the objective of serving the Lord will all our heart, mind, soul and strength, and then to be a source of encouragement and hope for women who have endured much but are now seeking help.  Please pray for a constant posture of worship for all involved with BFA, allowing the Lord to lead everything we do.  Through professional counseling and Christ-centered mentorship, we desire to see everyone we serve come fully alive through their identity in Christ alone, and we pray for the knowledge to offer the most effective programs and services we possibly can in order to best serve the community while being the hands and feet of Christ.     

CURRENT NEEDS:  Pray that our daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly needs to fulfill the call God has given us are filled according to His perfect will and timing.  CLICK HERE for the entire list of our needs.

EQUINE FACILITY:  We continue to be left in awe how the Lord is using the equine programs we are able to offer as a source of healing for both the women we serve and their children.  We are extremely grateful the Lord is allowing the programs to continue even as our founder, Julie Shematz, will be participating in a four-month internship at the Eye of a Horse Equine Education Center in central Florida.  Equine Specialist, Marie Shelli, comes to us with 18+ years of horsemanship, certification from EAGALA (Equine Assisted Growth and Learning) in Equine Therapy, and over four years experience as an Equine Specialist at a girl's residential program in Wyoming.  Please pray for her involvement with BFA and that the Lord will use her in mighty ways!  For more information on the programs and facility, CLICK HERE.    

FUNDING:  We praise the Lord so much for how He continues to provide for our financial needs month in and month out, and we thank Him for both long-term supporters and the supporters He is currently preparing to begin a partnership with BFA.  Please pray we always honor the Lord, those we serve and those who give by being good stewards of every dollar donated towards BFA.

PARTNERSHIPS:  Any kind of ministry requires partnerships.  No one organization can offer every service that everyone will need, which is why we are so thankful for the partnerships already established, allowing greater effectiveness in reaching women affected by s*xual abuse, exploitation and trafficking.  Please pray these partnerships continue to flourish, and for spiritual, mental, physical and emotional protection for all involved.  Please pray for new opportunities to open in order to develop new partnerships, and for wisdom and discernment in order to determine which partnerships should be created.      

VOLUNTEERS & INTERNS:  Please pray for a greater number of women to want to partner with BFA by offering their time and talents to the organization, and for the new group of interns that began in the Spring of 2013.  We are so thankful for every volunteer and intern we have or had, and ask the Lord to continue expanding our volunteer base.  

STAFF:  Pray that our Founder, Julie Shematz, and Program Manager, Christa Hicks, would sustain balance and priorities as they work diligently to prevent, reach, rescue, and restore victims of s*x trafficking and s*xual exploitation.  Please pray for constant strength and endurance and for the wisdom and discernment to run BFA the way the Lord desires.

DIRECTORS & ADVISORS:  Agree with us that all advisors and directors be of God's perfect will for 2013 and that all directors will fulfill their roles and responsibilities to the organization.  Pray for a spirit of motivation, unity, and harmony.  Continue to pray that God would pour out His blessings on each member of our executive and advisory boards.  Agree with us that their health, family, and resources be protected.

OTHER LIKE MINISTRIES/AGENCIES:  All glory belongs to the Lord for the ever-growing number of ministries devoted to bringing Love, Light, Hope and Truth to the lost and hopeless.  Please pray for unity within each ministry and within the Church as a whole, as we all serve the same King.  Pray for protection, provision and discernment for not only those involved in the ministries, but also the families and friends of everyone involved.  Please pray that everything we all do is based in honor, integrity and respect, and that partnerships continue to be formed as we all desire to see the Lord's Kingdom come, His will be done.  

WEEKLY GLOBAL PRAYER:  Please join us each Friday from 8-9am EST to intercede for victims of sexual exploitation, sex slavery, & sex trafficking, as well as the agencies servicing them.  CLICK HERE for Prayer Guide.  Locally, we meet in North Fort Myers at the Equine Facility.  Contact us for directions.

PRAYER REQUESTS:  Send us your prayer requests by CLICKING HERE

MONTHLY ePRAYER SIGN UP:  CLICK HERE

BFA eNEWSLETTER:  CLICK HERE to sign up to receive our monthly eNews.

Appreciate your pastoral leaders who gave you the Word of God. Take a good look at the way they live, and let their faithfulness instruct you, as well as their truthfulness. There should be a consistency that runs through us all. For Jesus doesn’t change—yesterday, today, tomorrow, he’s always totally himself.  Hebrews 13:7 MSG

On behalf of Julie Shematz, the Beauty From Ashes™ FREEdom™ Team, and clients, thank you for your continued prayers surrounding this ministry.

Beauty From Ashes™ Ministries  

Where Victims Become Over-Comers

"Survivors must be leaders in the development of services, shelter, and response protocols 

to s*x trafficking.” 
- National Report on Domestic Minor S*x Trafficking

AWARENESS & PREVENTION • REACH & RESCUE • TEACH & DEMONSTRATE
TRAIN & SEND

Whoever is Without Sin

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I simply adore this painting. 

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 I have many favorite stories in God's word but I reallly love and admire the way that Y'shua handled the "righteous" men who thought they were doing "a good thing" by dragging this adulteress before Y'shua Jesus.  I imagine the scene, a reverent quiet afternoon in the courtyard of the temple as men gathered to worship YHVH.  Perhaps it was on the sabbath.

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I can see the crowd of worshippers turn as a commotion ensues.  There, before them all, a woman is drug into their prescence. Her clothes rumpled and not proper.   Her face ashen white, frightened. 

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 Perhaps she kept her head down and eyes adverted as she tried in vain to cover her face to hide her shame.

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C A U G H T.

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I imagine how violated she must have felt.  Being grabbed by men unknown to her, right in the very act.  Something one does not expect when one is naked and in the throes of illicit passion, in the embrace of a man whom she had trusted enough to let her guard down.  I wonder what had gone through her head.  Total fear.

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From a dimly lit bedroom thrust onto the world's stage, drug through the midday sun, past the marketplace, and through the crowded streets, up the many steps of the Temple of the God of Israel.  Still smelling of sexual activity, she was manhandled.  Harlot.  Whore.  Prostitute.  Adulteress.

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I wonder if she was trying to support her family.  Perhaps her own husband had left her and she was doing the only job that would afford her a roof over her head.  Maybe this was her first time as an adulteress.  Maybe she was an old pro. 

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Maybe she once had a good reputation in small town, but something had happened in her life which led her down the slippery, spiralling path of sin and she moved to the big city of Jerusalem where it would be easier to hide among the shadows and forget the pain she had known.

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Regardless, she was covered with the sweat of a man who had willingly chose to commit adultery with her.

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The "religious" men of the day, the scribes and Pharisees brought her before Y'shua that day.

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"Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. 

Now Moses in the law commmanded us that such should be stoned, but what do you say?"

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I love how Y'shua Jesus responded to their inquiry.

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He acted  as if He had not  heard them.

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Instead of answering the mob, he simply stooped down to the ground and began writing in the sand.

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Writing.  Drawing.  Doodling.  Oblivious.

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I think of Him thinking about the circumstances of her life which had brought her to this very act and to His feet in the temple court.  I imagine Him scanning the hearts of everyone in the vicinity. 

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 Like a laser, reading their motives and intent.

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Y'shua Jesus knew the hearts of the scribes and pharisees.  He knew the heart of this woman standing before him, perhaps with snot and tears running down her face as she stifled the sobs welling up within her.

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He knew the heart of the adulterous man who had also been in the very act  as well,

for it takes two to tango, so-to-speak, and yet obviously he was not CAUGHT.

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I wonder why the guilty man was not caught also.

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Y'shua Jesus knew.  And so He ignored them.

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I love that when Moses brought the stone tablets to the mountaintop, that the very  finger of God wrote  His ten commandments upon them.  Writing is cool.  I dig that YHVH is into writing.

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And here, in the temple courtyard, He wrote  with His finger again.

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Tracing Hebrew letters upon the very same dirt from which He first formed the first man, Adam.  I imagine Him being right-handed being, pushing and moving the dust with His index finger, aware of the woman and her fear as her heart pounded in her chest.  Around her, the crowd murmuring about her.  In whistpers and taunts, scoffing at her.

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Turning their noses up at her.  Speaking ill of her and her kind.  Rumours about her multiplying.  A bit like the game of telephone, the story passed on from one hebrew to another, until it bore no resemblance to the truth anymore.

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I want to know what Y'shua Jesus wrote there.  For all to see.

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Unshaken.  Stoic.  With such purpose, He simply and merely wrote upon the earth.

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The lynch mob continued to assail Him, asking Him over and over about what  should bedone  to her.

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At last, He spoke...

"He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her."

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And then, saying His peace, He stooped down again, and wrote on the ground.

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The mob stood as His words echoed in their ears.  Most likely this was not what they expected Him to say.  I imagine their brains were temporarily short-circuited by this exchange.  Say what?

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Y'shua Jesus wrote.

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Perhaps He wrote His ten commandments which the group of scribes and pharisees read, and when convicted, dropped the stones that they had so greedily picked up, eager to kill this woman for breaking the law and sinning against the Most High God.

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Why were they so anxious to stone this particular woman? 

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Why were they not  so adamant in their desire to stone the other offender, the man who was also caught in the very same act of adultery but not drug before the temple court for all to see?

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Sin is sin.  Sin is death.  Deuteronomy 22:22-24

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Did the scribes and pharisees have it in for this woman?  Was the man who willingly knew  this woman in the biblical sense, albeit adulterous, an inside-man who set her up?   Perhaps, like they would one day pay Judas to betray the Messiah with a kiss, they had paid this very same adulterous man a good fee from the temple treasury.

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Hmmm.

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Things that make you go Hmmmm.

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The stones dropped, one by one, beginning with the eldest, until the mob was gone.

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Vanished.

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There own sin admitted to in their own hearts.

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Each one realizing that they were not  without sin.

That each of them had also broken the law,

for if one breaks the law in any way, he has broken all.

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What love, kindness, and compassion Y'shua Jesus has shown this woman and women like her.

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Rahab the well-known and prosperous harlot of Jericho obtained mercy from YHVH and was grafted into God's people.  Even marrying and conceiving a son named Boaz who later married the young Moabitess  woman who was the daughter-in-law of Naomi, saying, "Let your people be my people and your God my God."

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The mercies of YHVH are new every morning.  So vast is His love.

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So ready to forgive.

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So intimate is He with all our sin....

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for He felt and experienced them all to the Nth degree..

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as He died as a propitiation for our sin upon a tree.

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Cursed before God, his Father YHVH.

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Every sin laid upon Him.

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Washed in His atoning blood as the Lamb of God chosen before the foundation of the world.

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To the woman caught in adultery,

He said,

"Woman, where are your accusers?

Has no man condemned thee?"

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To which she responded, "No man, Lord."

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To which He said,

"Neither do I condemn thee.  Go and sin no more."

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I imagine her standing there, tear-stained face.  Still in shock.

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The crowd silenced by the display they just witnessed.

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I imagine her desire to return home quickly so that she may wash herself clean, removing the horrible reminder of that day from her body, the co-mingled sweat from the illicit union of which she has been a willing participant for whatever reason.

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I imagine the exhileration that she also might have felt, knowing that she was not going to be stoned to death and was given a new lease on life by this man some called the Messiah, and others a prophet.

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I also imagine that no one in the religious crowd wanted anything to do with her, and so this woman walked home alone.

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Alone.

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Pondering all that had transpired that day.

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Step by glorious step.

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ALIVE.

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FORGIVEN.

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Cristella Alexander is an artist originally from New Jersey and is a motorcycle instructor in South Florida.  She is also a volunteer for Beauty From Ashes™ Ministries and a thriving over-comer.