Encourage-[en-kur-ij] to inspire with courage, spirit, or confidence.
The enCourage Blog is weekly dose of encouragement in a world that is often filled with bad news. We offer life-giving entries each Monday and Thursday written by gifted women from across our denomination, the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). You can subscribe below to have them delivered to your inbox. With hundreds of blog pieces, you can search on a variety of topics in the search bar above to read and share with friends. Christina Fox, a gifted author, serves as our enCourage General Editor. If you are interested in submitting a piece, you can contact her at cfox@pcanet.org.
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View from the Second Row: Perspective of a Pastor’s Wife
BETHANY BELUE | CONTRIBUTOR When my husband and I started dating, he was not yet a pastor but was on staff with a college ministry praying through his vocational calling. A few months into dating, I began to question if I should marry a guy who was in the middle of a “vocational crisis.” Thankfully, some very close friends quickly talked me down off the ledge of my emotions and reminded me it was his character I was following, not his job. The more we got to know one another, I knew I could follow him anywhere. I didn’t know then that would mean, eight months into marriage, packing up our first apartment, leaving family, and moving to a city where I knew no one so he could go to seminary. Eight years later, I sit on the second row of our current church where he serves as the Assistant Pastor. We are still early in our ministry life, but over the years the Lord has begun to unfold this world of being a pastor's wife and teach me what it means to follow my husband as he serves in the local church. The Role of a Pastor’s Wife I love watching my husband be a pastor. The Lord has called him to it, and he loves and leads our church with care and wisdom. That is his job and his passion, but it is not mine. I am called to live the life the Lord has called me to. I am a wife to my husband, a mother to my children, and have my own ministry role within the PCA. I am a member of my church and serve as I am able, but there are times I need to say “no” to a ministry event to fulfill one of my other roles. I have often heard the joke that a pastor’s wife is unpaid staff of the church, but in reality, that is not the calling of many pastor’s wives, and that is okay. One of my favorite passages is 1 Corinthians 7:17, “Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. This is my rule in all the churches.” I am thankful to be a helper to my husband as he serves on staff with the local church as I also live out the calling the Lord has placed on my life. The Boundaries of a Pastor’s Wife...
World Down Syndrome Day: An Interview with Tim Hubach
STEPHANIE HUBACH | CONTRIBUTOR March is Down syndrome awareness month. As a parent of an adult with Down syndrome, I’ve written many different pieces about what it is like raising a child who has Down syndrome. This year, I decided to interview my son Tim instead. So, largely unedited and unfiltered. . .here’s Tim, in his own words! Tell us something about yourself and where you live? My name is Tim Hubach. I am 33 years old. And I live at 278 Stony Lane. I picture myself to be awesome. Who calls you Uncle Tim? Caroline, Everett, and Dietrich. The twins (Dietrich and Everett) are actually working on it. Because it sounds like “Unicorn Tim.” But they called me Tim first. When they call me on FaceTime, they say, “Teeem! Teeem! Teeem!” They are always happy to see me. Caroline calls me Uncle Tim. Me and Caroline are actually trouble. Sometimes we get caught when we sneak snacks. She is innocent because she always asks for snacks, but for me, as her uncle, Uncle Tim is guilty for sneaking them for both of us. What is the best thing about being an uncle? Having fun with Caroline, Everett and Dietrich. Sometimes they are a piece of work and make me crazy. But in a good way, I would say I am the only Down syndrome guy who is an uncle of those three. Also, those three are actually fun and darned entertaining. What types of things do you like to do with Caroline, Dietrich, and Everett? Coloring, going outside for walks including going to the park. Doing puzzles. Playing games. Sometimes the boys actually climb on me, like I am their jungle gym. A jungle wrestling gym! You’re fondly known by your nickname: “Cart Man.” Tell my friends the story about how you became known as “Cart Man.” Let me start off with my job at WellSpan first and how I started. On my senior year, when I was in high school, I started volunteering at WellSpan Health Center, the doctor’s office at Brownstown. What I did there when I was volunteering was greeting people. Then I said, “Hi! Welcome to WellSpan Health Center!” and they came in. So I added the greeting to my job as a cart person. The first time when I was a cart person was at Martin’s Country Market was in the year of 2013. “Welcome to Martin’s Country Market! May I help you?” Part of being a cart man is confidence, and being nice to people, and how to serve them. Customers need a cart and including feeling welcomed. The reason why the job is important is because the cart man is the first person and the last person everyone sees at the grocery store. If the cart man is happy people feel welcomed...
God’s Faithfulness in a Winter Season: The Gift of Wellness
MARISSA HENLEY|GUEST “Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.” (Habakkuk 3:17-18) In part one of this series, I shared my experience of battling a rare form of cancer as a young mom and how I saw God’s faithfulness on display. As we continue to consider Habakkuk 3 and God’s gifts of faithfulness in suffering, let’s focus on God’s gift of wellness in our winter seasons. When I talk about God’s gift of wellness, I don’t mean physical health or personal safety. We may not always have those things, but we can have a wellness in our souls because of the unshakeable promises and presence of our heavenly Father. Some of you may have read the first post in this series about the ways I witnessed God’s faithfulness and thought, “Well good for her, but that’s not my story.” Maybe today you can’t see how God is at work in your circumstances. Maybe you feel like God isn’t showing up or you don’t understand why He would allow this to happen. Maybe there can’t be a happy ending in your winter season as you grieve the loss of someone or something you’ll never get back. How is God faithful in those moments? Habakkuk was in a similar situation. He had no expectation that his circumstances were going to improve....
Sanctifying Relationships
KRISTI MCCOWN | GUEST My personal struggle is, most of the time, “between my ears,” as Susan Tyner would say. My mind is a battlefield—a place where intrusive thoughts, fears, and sinful desires battle for control. Relationships are at the top of the list of the daily battles that I struggle with. This is why I am grateful for gospel friends. “Friendship is born at the moment when one person says to another "What! You too? I thought that no one but myself…” This C.S. Lewis quote from the book The Four Loves came to mind when I listened to the podcast “Risky Obedience” by Karen Hodge and Susan Tyner. Their conversation has been a breath of fresh air for my soul. The vulnerability they share is life-giving to me. One of Karen's questions in the first episode that struck me was, “Why is it risky? What do we risk when we enter relationships with other people?” Relationships, for me, are equal parts messy and wonderful. Much of the pain throughout my life has come from the way I respond to conflicts with others. I have a strong desire to be liked. My love language is words of encouragement, but the flip side of that is that I fear criticism. I fear what others think of me. So, when someone criticizes me or points out an error, I tend to fall apart. My reaction is to cover, hide, or blame. I believe the childhood saying, "Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words can never hurt me," is incorrect because words do hurt. There is another childhood rhythm that says, "I'm rubber, and you're glue; what bounces off me sticks to you.” Both statements make it sound as though the words people say to us have no effect. But they do. In fact, they often have a lasting impact, leaving scars that last far longer than any schoolyard fight or tumble. Even more, if others hit us with hurtful words, our sinful desire will be to hurt them back. Karen Hodge reminded me so sweetly in this podcast that “we speak out of the overflow of our hearts.” We see this in our cutting and sarcastic jabs, in the ways we place blame on others, or in our defensive responses. Whatever is in our hearts will come out when we have a conflict with another person. I know that all too well. As I continue to think about how I respond to the messiness of interpersonal relationships, the podcast left me with two encouragements...
Our Daily Bread
SHARON ROCKWELL | CONTRIBUTOR I once had a Bible study leader whose husband waited desperately for a kidney transplant. This woman was raising three middle-school children. A neighbor recognized the family’s need for food and early each morning delivered a loaf of freshly baked bread. One day she came to the door and my study leader asked her son to answer it. The neighbor presented the bread, the son thanked her for it, and then yelled upstairs to his mother saying, “Mom, our daily bread is here!” Our leader told us all this was an “ah-ha” moment for her. She had realized that this was more than a neighbor’s kindness. The Lord had provided. She never ran out of bread to make toast in the morning, or lunches to take to school. She understood that this was her manna, and evidence that she could trust the Lord daily for provisions. She vowed that she would face the long road to her husband’s transplant and recovery, by trusting in the Lord for daily provisions. There would also be no more complaining, as had been her habit. A Grumbling Problem The book of Exodus records the Israelites’ long journey through the desert wilderness to the promised land. They too had a habit of complaining. Even after a series of miracles rescued them from the Egyptians; supernatural plagues, protection of their firstborn from the angel of death, and the parting of the Red Sea which engulfed Pharoah and his army, three days into their journey they complained there was no water to drink. They had a grumbling problem. But God provided yet another miracle. He told Moses to throw a branch into the water, which miraculously makes it clean. It was a test from God where He revealed himself as their merciful healer. “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer” (Ex. 15:26). About a month later came another complaint, this time for food. God responded by sending manna every morning, along with rules about how the manna was to be gathered, how long it could be kept, and how it could be stored for the Sabbath....
Cherish: A Safe Place for Growth
KIM BARNES | CONTRIBUTOR A few years ago, my husband, a pastor, and I experienced a significant crisis in our ministry life. We were crushed. I went from being a pastor’s wife who loved the church and could imagine no better life, to being a pastor’s wife who thought it would be great if her husband found a different line of work. I went from viewing gathered worship as a place of ministry, hospitality, and joy to a place that my head knew was necessary and good, but that my heart struggled to be present for. I couldn’t imagine ever being able to truly love and trust a local church again. I’m thankful that during that season, I had access to counseling for pastor’s wives through Cherish. Connecting with Cherish I have a vivid memory from the summer of 2019. My husband had gone ahead of me to his new pastoral call while I stayed behind to finish the packing, house-selling, and other necessities. As I sat amongst boxes, I took a break and scrolled on my phone and saw a post on social media about a new program from the PCA: Cherish. It offered free and discounted professional counseling for PCA pastor’s wives. I’d seen this promoted online before, but it didn’t seem like the right time for me to pursue counseling. We were in the middle of a big move that was stressful; adding something else to my life seemed like a bad idea. Yet, in that moment, nudged by the Holy Spirit, I thought I should check it out...
