Jean Pasqualone, Weekend Lay Director
Mark 11:22-25
Have faith in God, Jesus answered. I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, Go, throw yourself into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins..
When God placed this theme on my heart, I knew He wanted me to use all of the mountains that I have encountered in my life on this weekend. Each mountain in our life has a purpose, and sometimes we don't completely understand the purpose for a very long time. Most of our mountains can be very lonely and frightening whether or not we caused them. Frequently, our sinful nature causes mountains; however, there are some physical mountains of sickness that are completely out of our control. If it is God's will, He can move any of them.
Being on the mountaintop is a wonderful destination, but sometimes getting to the mountaintop is a painful journey. Some of my mountains include divorce, disease, death of a child, and addiction. Though these were each painful mountains, they resulted in unbelievable blessings.
If you read the scripture verse, you will notice that our trials can lead to mountain moving faith, which leads to prayer, which leads to forgiveness. The mountains over which you have power can be moved by your faith, your prayers, and your forgiveness. As I climbed my very lonely and frightening mountains, when I reached the top, that was when I realized God not only was at the top, but He had been with me the entire time I was struggling to climb that mountain. My prayer for this weekend is that both team and pilgrims will come to an understanding that they are never alone in their journey and that He Can Move Mountains.
Based on my own life and the vision God has given me, I believe there will be a lot of wounded women coming to New Windsor on May 19. May we pray for them to climb their mountains with faith, with prayer, and with forgiveness so that they can bask in the love of our Heavenly Father. His goal is not to hurt us, but rather to love us and to make us more like Him.
DeColores!!
Jean Pasqualone