Imagine being able to glean wisdom, conviction and courage that strengthens you to live your life more victoriously, just when you need it most. Picture yourself being able to listen to your sisters of all ages from around the world share their faith-filled life stories, to help you to live your life more victoriously as a woman today. Young or old, you are also able to gain new friends who can assist you on your journey to heaven as well as help you take loved ones with you.

This area of Disciples Today was born to help you do just that. Women today throughout the world have so much to learn and gain from each other. Throughout our lives we have opportunities to be both learners and teachers. As sisters in Christ, we share a common spirit and similar needs. Some of us have the privilege of being able to connect with many sisters in larger churches filled with mature, spiritual women. However, many sisters around the world don’t have this same opportunity because the churches are younger or smaller. Whatever our situation, we can and need to learn from one another.

Our desire with this web site is to connect sisters to sisters, to share stories of women that can call us higher, to provide Biblical lessons and other materials that help us grow, and to offer Biblical and thoughtful instruction for life issues. We look forward to sharing with you and hearing from you. Women Today will feature the following sections:

• Profiles in Courage: highlighting women throughout the world who are modern day examples of faith as in Hebrews 11.
• Articles, lessons, studies, and quiet times: covering numerous subjects, such as spiritual growth, family life as wives and mothers, and various Bible topics of special relevance to women
• Dear Lydia: This advice column will give you the opportunity to ask questions of wise, experienced sisters.
• Inside Out: featuring articles and columns dealing spiritually with various types of life issues relevant to our lives as women today. This section will also help us to expand our hearts as we remember the poor.
• Lessons for Leaders: This special section will particularly minister to those who are leading groups large and small within the church.
• Good News: Encouraging, faith building accounts of God at work in our daily lives as well as in special events will be highlighted in this section.
• Reviews: reviewing books and websites that are further helpful references.

We look forward to your feedback and contributions in all of these areas.

Respectfully yours,

The Women Today Team

Nadine Templer (Editor, Profiles in Courage; Good News): Nadine has been involved in mission work for the last 25 years, most of those years spent in India, working for the ministry and helping the poor. As a child Nadine was always inspired to do something meaningful with her life after listening to the life stories of people like Mother Theresa, Gandhi, Florence Nightingale, and many others who devoted their lives to the service of others. She believes our fellowship of churches is full of such heroes who can inspire us all to have more courage and more faith so God can use our lives to their full potential. As we share those stories with one another on the website we will be inspired by the great example of our sisters around the world. Nadine has been married to Mark for 22 years and has four children.

Jeanie Shaw (Editor, Articles, lessons, studies and quiet times): Jeanie had the privilege of growing up in a Christian family and became a Christian as a teenager 41 years ago. Her dad was an elder in Gainesville, Florida, where she saw God work in amazing ways as the campus ministry came alive! From that time forward she longed to wholeheartedly serve God anywhere where she could make a difference for Him in touching the lives of other women. She’s had the opportunity to serve in the ministry for 34 years (21 of those in Boston) as a women’s ministry leader, in HOPE worldwide NE/Europe, and as an elder’s wife. Over the years she has been able to sit and learn at the feet of many spiritual women, as well as from life experiences. She loves being able to teach from God’s word everywhere she goes. She has been married to Wyndham for 34 years and has 4 children (3 of whom are married and serve the campus and teens in the Boston Church) and 3 grandchildren.

Patricia Tynes (Editor, Dear Lydia): Pat was raised by Christian parents and baptized in Gainesville, Florida. On June 2, 1972 she married JP Tynes. That same month they moved to Maryland where JP served as Campus Evangelist at the University of Maryland. Their two children, Joel and Adriene, were both born in Washington, DC. Since that time they have served congregations in Lawrence (Kansas), Orlando, Boston, and South Florida. In 1993, JP and Pat made the difficult decision to get out of the full-time ministry. They moved to the Atlanta area and were very involved in the ministry of the Atlanta Church of Christ for just over 10 years. Pat worked in the Hospice Industry as a Program Director and later in the Assisted Living Field as an Executive Director. In July of 2004, with personal resolve and the encouragement of many others, JP and Pat decided to return to the full-time ministry in Columbia, SC, where JP is the evangelist and Pat serves as the Women’s Ministry leader. She has also served on the Board of HOPE worldwide South Carolina for 4 years.

Pat’s 55 years of life and 38 years of discipleship have brought many joys, trials, grief, jobs, and life experiences to Pat. The wisdom of the Bible, training by other Christians, and maturity have created in her the desire to serve younger women in the faith as an advisor and mentor.

Tammy Fleming (Editor, Lessons for Leaders): Tammy Fleming is the Women’s Minister for the Midlands Churches of Christ, located in the cities of Birmingham and Leicester in central England. She left a music career to go—she would say, “kicking and screaming”—into the full time ministry on the mission field of Stockholm, Sweden, in 1987. She soon fell in love with women’s ministry and proceeded to invest 22 years in learning how to lead (serve) women and train women leaders in the Lord’s church in Scandinavia, the UK, Moscow and Eurasia, the Middle East, and in her native USA. She and her Evangelist husband Andy have two children, a daughter, Britain, who is 19, a member of the London Church of Christ and a student at University College London, and Justin, who is 10.

Lin Beaty (Co-editor, Inside Out): Lin Beaty was born into a family of second generation missionaries whose lives exemplified a passion for God and people. Being a prisoner of war at a young age engraved on her heart a sense of destiny and a determination to fight for those who could not fight for themselves. God gave her that chance as she served alongside her husband in the full-time ministry in the US and Caribbean for 21 years. Since her husband’s death in 2001, she has worked as a pediatric nurse and served in the women’s ministry. Her passion is teaching and training women and children to walk close to God throughout the challenges life may send. She currently leads the single women at the North River Church of Christ in Atlanta. Lin has three children: Brandon (22) and Morgan (19) both serve in the UGA campus ministry in Athens, GA. Jordyn (almost 14) will be starting high school in the fall.

Erica Kim (Co-editor, Inside Out): Erica Kim is presently serving as a women’s ministry leader for missions and as an elder’s wife for the Denver Church of Christ. She has served in the ministry since 1984 and has spent 17 of those years on the mission field in both Europe and Asia. She is actively involved as a board member of the Goldstone School for HOPE in Cambodia. Her husband, Frank, is the CEO for Pactimo, a high-end custom sports apparel company. They have three children: Miyoko (22), Manami (20) and Mimi (11).

Kay McKean (Editor, Reviews): Kay Summers McKean serves as a women's ministry leader in the Northern Virginia Church of Christ, just outside of Washington D.C. She was raised in Miami, Florida, and became a Christian while she was a student at the University of Florida. She and her husband Randy have been involved in missionary work in Japan and throughout Europe. They have also worked in congregations in Florida and South Carolina, and for many years Kay led the women's ministry of the Boston Church of Christ. Kay has written two books, Our Beginning (a woman's view of the book of Genesis) and Love Your Husband (co-authored by Gloria Baird). She has also contributed to several other publications. Kay and Randy have been married for 32 years and have two grown children and four grandchildren.

For feedback and information, please contact our very talented assistant editors for each section. They are:

Profiles in Courage/News:

Meghna Lal (Delhi, India)

Esther Templer (Delhi, India)

Articles, lessons, studies and quiet times:

Sharon Metzger (Boston, MA)

Reviews:

Sharon Metzger (Boston, MA)

Dear Lydia:

Sharon Metzger (Boston, MA)

Inside Out:

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Lessons for Leaders:

Deanne de Vries (Kuwait City, Kuwait)