February 22, 2009

• A Woman in Love by Wendy Jarrold

  We were blessed to have a guest speaker at our Women’s Luncheon yesterday, Wendy Jarrold who is Pastor Vaughn Jarrold’s wife and they minister at Kingston Vineyard Church. They have been there for 7 years, and are watching the area churches growing stronger, building the Kingdom of God.  Vineyard is seeking to be a multi-cultural, multi ethnic church. 

  From attending the Kingston Revival at their church I can see that there is a dynamic youth group there, they have wonderful members, and the church is on fire for the Lord.  God is definitely moving in their church and they are a blessing.

  We began by reading Titus 2:1-5 But as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine: that the older men be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience; the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things— that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed.

  Wendy told us that when she was 19 years old she was fed up with her life in England, her parents were divorced and her father was in South Africa.  He offered her the opportunity to join him in South Africa so she took a boat to join him.  During that cruise, Wendy met her husband, Vaughn.  She said that when you fall in love at first it is fluffy and bubbly, but then that fades away and then it is love or boring. They chose love. 

  Life with Jesus is NOT boring! And Jesus wants to restore us to our first love. 

  After she and Vaughn married, they traveled to many countries, and saw first hand: poverty and man’s inhumanity to man.  Wendy began to question her existence, asking, why am I here?  What is the purpose of it all?  Her husband was saved, and then after a time she was saved.

  It was at this point that they went to the United States and in the 70′s hitchhiked across the country – they did not have much money.  We cannot hitchhike like that today, but in the 70′s the atmosphere was different. God had given them the idea to do this, and when God gives us an idea we do not look at it circumstantially – i.e. we don’t have enough money, we don’t know what He wants us to do, we don’t have the exact plan.  We need to know that when God tells us to do something, He will provide a way, and we may not see how He is going to do it.

  People would give her and Vaughn lifts, put them up in their houses, and be kind to them.  this restored Wendy’s faith in fellowmen.  And it opened up her heart to see that God is real.  The culmination was when she was watching Jesus of Nazareth on TV, and the crucifixion hit her.  She told us that she wept her way into salvation.  Since then she has served the Lord together with her husband.  They have served wherever God sent them.  She told us that, since she was a child of divorce, she purposed to make her marriage the best, to be faithful and follow her husband.  She made her life like a blank slate and followed her husband, trusting the direction her husband was going. As time went by God gave her her own dreams and visions.

  A woman in love is a woman who is loved.  To love like that you have to feel the love from Jesus. Ruth told Naomi Ruth 1:16b Entreat me not to leave you, or to turn back from following after you; for wherever you go, I will go; and wherever you lodge, I will lodge;  your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.

  God is faithful if you stand believing.  Pray for your husband.  At times Wendy told us that she had to back off and not state her opinion, but wait.  She learned to serve her husband the food he likes, and show him acts of love.  Often, it is not what you say but what you do.  More can be done with loving acts than lectures.

  After she was saved she and Vaughn were called to go to Israel, to Jerusalem to Mount Zion Fellowship.  There under one of the Sisters, they attended Bible school and learned the things of the Spirit.  They developed in the areas of ministry and hospitality, for they would take visitors around and house them when they came through the school.  Wendy told us that it was like a boot camp, and that when you get saved you need structure and discipline to develop.

  Acts 9:3-6 As he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”  And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” Then the Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.^jassmine