LeadershipConnexion 1st QRT 2021

eDESIGN
PENNDEL WOMEN | LIZ DEFRAIN | 484.686.4554 | liz@penndelwomen.com | penndelwomen.com
I
love to design! Creating spaces and places to encourage
community and connection has always been a passion.
Choosing color palettes and shopping to find the perfect
accessories and decorations to fit the desired style is
invigorating. Over the years, I’ve helped friends redo bedrooms,
living rooms, and other spaces by changing the decorations
while the main pieces of furniture remained intact. A new look
was accomplished while spending minimal money.
When I began my journey as the Women’s Director in 2019,
nothing significant needed to be changed. Ruth Puleo invested
years building a beautiful home for me to inhabit! Our signature
events, Spring Tour and Fall Conference, continued in 2019,
and all was well. Then in March 2020, COVID-19 rocked our
world, and everything changed. Out of this trauma, a redesign
became necessary. I think we could agree that this past year
was traumatic for our lives, churches and ministries.
Personally, toward the end of 2020, we experienced an
unrelated trauma when a property we own was robbed of
EVERY SINGLE ITEM in it, including the kitchen sink, leaving
us with only the floor and bare walls. Once a beautiful home, it
was now empty.
Walking through this trauma taught me a few things about
redesign that I am applying to PennDel Women and my
personal life.
FIRST, letting go of the past is necessary to get to the future.
Isaiah 43:19 “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs
up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the
wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” (NIV)
When things in our lives change suddenly, and we feel out of
our control, it is easy to give up. After experiencing a robbery,
the first thing I considered was selling the property. Memories
were attached to the way it was, and I knew it would never be
the same. Letting go of the past was necessary to get to the
future.
SECOND, embracing the process is necessary to complete
a redesign.
James 1:2, 4 “Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any
kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. So,
let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will
be perfect and complete, needing nothing.” (NLT)
Once we accepted the situation, the process was both arduous
and invigorating at the same time. Arduous as we plowed
our way through spreadsheets, listing every item in the home
that needed replacing, pricing out each item to submit to our
insurance carrier. After enduring the process, we were able to
begin the redesign, which was invigorating! The trauma invited
an opportunity for a new beginning.
Similarly, I now look at Women’s Ministry’s future in PennDel as
an opportunity for a redesign. What was normal before March
2020 may never be normal again. God is doing some new
things, and I want to listen well and perceive them. We each
want that for our ministries and churches.
By the way, over the Christmas holiday, we completed the
redesign, and the property looks better than ever. Everything is
different for sure, but with God’s help and commitment to the
process, we made it!
WHAT IS GOD reDESIGNING IN YOUR LIFE?
YOU MAY NOT LIKE THE PROCESS, BUT YOU CAN TRUST HIS HAND.
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Pastor, would you consider gifting this to your Women’s Ministry leader and/or team? PennDel Women would love the
opportunity to minister to the one(s) who ministers to the women of your church. We are planning a weekend of receiving
and learning, designed to REPLENISH the heart of our womens leaders across the Network. Space is LIMITED for this
special event! Find out more at www.penndelwomen.com/replenish