Tag: hope

Leaning into Promise
Faith · Speaker

Leaning into Promise

Tammy PerlmutterLeave a comment

It’s still cold here in Chicago. The promise of Spring is slow in coming, and teases us with random days of warmth, going from 65 degrees one day to 35 the next. The upcoming week predicts rain every day, making it difficult to imagine that new growth and brighter days are ahead.

How many of us have been there in our lives? Wondering when the clouds would part and the sun would break through?

As women of faith we cling to the hope that the Lord is our shield and our deliverer. We trust that he will rescue us when the storms threaten to overwhelm us.

We rely on the promises of God given to us through the living Word.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 8:38-39

At Deeply Rooted in May we will be focusing on God’s unconditional, trustworthy promises to us, his daughters. So many of us need more truth poured into us. All of us have experienced the desert, wandering around needy in the wilderness, fashioning gods with our own hands like the Israelites. God’s promises to them are the same promises for us:

Psalm 81:6–10

“I relieved your shoulder of the burden;
your hands were freed from the basket.
In distress you called, and I delivered you;
I answered you in the secret place of thunder;
I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah
Hear, O my people, while I admonish you!
O Israel, if you would but listen to me!
There shall be no strange god among you;
you shall not bow down to a foreign god.
I am the LORD your God,
who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it. (ESV)

All we have to do is open our mouths wide and he will fill them with deliverance, healing, wisdom, and comfort. Open your mouth with us on May 18th!!!

Our May gathering features spoken-word poetry, worship, a speaker, and homemade desserts:)

Meet our Speakers

We want to gather talent locally, diligently searching for women who are furthering the kingdom with their words, their art, their very presence.

Ciera Smith was so good in November 2017 that we invited her back!!

Ciera Smith at Deeply Rooted in Chicago

Ciera, a Chicago transplant from Philadelphia, has lived on the West Side for the last 5 years. She is currently working as an Academic Coordinator at Breakthrough Urban Ministries in the East Garfield Park neighborhood where she facilitates the literacy curriculum for the K-3rd grade classes and trains teachers on best teaching practices. It is there at Breakthrough where she fell in love with working with youth and investing deeply in the lives of the students.
Having received her first masters in Urban Studies and Youth Development at Eastern University in Mary 2018, Ciera is now pursuing her second masters at DePaul University in Education and School Counseling. Ciera has a firm belief that students whose mental and social emotional health is not taken care of, students will not be able to thrive in the classroom in academics. Ciera finds joy in writing, cooking, checking out new coffee shops and restaurants in the city, and spending time with friends.

Aubrey Sampson had a previous engagement she was not aware of and had to cancel, BUT we now have Catherine McNiel joining us!

Catherine Carlson McNeil

 

Catherine is a writer and speaker who seeks to open eyes to God’s creative, redemptive work in each day. Catherine is the author of All Shall Be Well: Awakening to God’s Presence in His Messy, Abundant World coming out in August and Long Days of Small Things: Motherhood as a Spiritual Discipline, which was an ECPA finalist for New Author. She’s on the lookout for wisdom, beauty, and iced coffee.
If you subscribe to her blog at Everyday Epiphanies, she will send you a free gift: a booklet called Be Still: An At-Home Meditation Guide, guided meditations and reflections ranging from 10 minutes to 30 minutes, or 90 minutes if you use them all back to back. You can even use it to do a simple at-home retreat!
Lina Abujmara, Deeply Rooted speaker From the Archives: Lina Abujamra, May 2017
Faith · Speaker · Video

From the Archives: Lina Abujamra, May 2017

Tammy PerlmutterLeave a comment

Lina Abujmara, Deeply Rooted speaker

Lina is a straight-up powerhouse. She prowls on the stage, never stays still, and launches one truth bomb after another. She has a seemingly endless store of energy and her passion is contagious.

Lina is the founder of Living with Power Ministries. Her vision is to bring hope to the world by connecting Biblical answers to everyday life. She offers podcasts, books, articles, and other resources. One of her podcasts is called Morning Minutes, a journey through a book of the Bible in 5 minutes a day!! At the moment she is going through Esther.

 

Suzanne Stewart: Deeply Rooted Artist in Residence
Art & Design · Design Team · Faith · Photos

Suzanne Stewart: Deeply Rooted Artist in Residence

Tammy PerlmutterLeave a comment

Suzanne Stewart has been a part of Deeply Rooted from the beginning. She was part of the women’s small group Bible study that became the core team, and because of her creativity and skill, became one of the major players on our design team.

The theme for our last gathering in May was HOPE. When our team was brainstorming visual elements to incorporate, one idea was succulents. We all jumped on the idea and came up with a color scheme based on colors in nature. We wanted to have a striking image that would encompass hope and what better one than a succulent? Hanging on for year after parched year sending roots down deep seeking water.

How long have our own dry hearts held on through enduring drought? How many times have we been tempted to pull up our roots and look for water elsewhere, fearing the streams of living water were for everyone but us?

We are all that woman at the well looking for the world’s water when Jesus is telling us that water will not satisfy, “but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

Hold out for that water. Don’t pull up your roots yet. If you need a taste of living water, let us know. We will pray for you and walk alongside you.

“When she first started painting succulents Suzanne was surprised and amazed by the drama and beauty produced by such a hardy plant. ‘It’s a survivor. They don’t give up easily. I’ve found so much inspiration working on this project.’ ”

When the manager of Everybody’s Coffee saw Suzanne’s paintings he offered her a show in the coffee shop. You can come see them for yourself and get a little hope infusion. The title of her show? HOPE Anyways. 935 W. Wilson Ave., Uptown, Chicago.

Looking for the Light
Community · Faith

Looking for the Light

Tammy Perlmutter2 Comments

 

may20-date

2016 was a brutal year for the country and the whole world. There was so much death, destruction, and hatred that many of us struggled to wake to a sense of purpose in the mornings. Our nation is grieving the loss of  a historically invaluable leader, and fearing for the future of our most vulnerable citizens and refuges. We are tired. We are struggling with disbelief. We are fighting for the tiniest sliver of light we can find.

We chose our Spring theme in December and it resonated deeply within us and knew it would with you as well. What we need most right now is hope—hope for the hurting, hope for justice, hope for peace, hope for that promised hour when Jesus returns triumphant to defeat death for good.

We are called to be purveyors of hope, bringers of Good News, liberators of the poor and oppressed. When our hope is ebbing, we need to put ourselves in the way of it. Maybe we should be reading good news after each article that discourages, reaching out to those we know have been hit the hardest by hopelessness.

We’ll be gathering on May 20, 2017 to feed off one another’s hope, to be strengthened and built up by our sisters, to bring light to each other’s darkness. Please join us. Invite your family and friends. Let’s kick hate and fear to the curb together.

Like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and Instagram to stay in the loop!

Rev. Dr. Velda Love: May 2016
Poetry · Speaker · Video

Rev. Dr. Velda Love: May 2016

Tammy PerlmutterLeave a comment

“Black feminist discourse of power in Ntozake Shange’s For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf  depicts the struggle of black women through a rainbow of experiences.  The chorepoem focuses on how the patriarchal discourse leads to their suffering and how they were able to claim back their identities as black females who only need to be loved and appreciated. Shange’s poetry expresses the many struggles and obstacles that African- American women face throughout their lives.”

Many of us white women can relate on a smaller, safer scale. We are experiencing and recovering from similar traumas; assault, depression, abuse, diminishment, voicelessness, loss of identity. Velda widens the scope to one that includes us all and suggests we title our own stories and offers suggestions:

WRITE YOUR OWN PLAY . . . THESE TITLES MAY OR MAY NOT FIT

  1. For Women Who Consider Asphyxiation When Trauma Overwhelms Your Soul
  2. For Women Who Want to Run Away from Home When the Covenant Binds You
  3. For Women Who Trust Other Women Only to Get Used and Broken
  4. For Women Who Live in Community But Find Themselves Isolated and Lonely
  5. For Women Who Give and Give and Give and Give and Find Themselves Empty
  6. For Women Who Want to Re-Write the Rules When Men Are Clueless and God is Silent
  7. For Women Who Smile and Smile and Smile, But Are Weeping and Crying, Sobbing, and Wailing on the Inside
  8. For Women Who Ask Permission to Speak But Never Get to Speak
  9. For Women Who are Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired
  10. For Women Who Never Get to Hear The Bible From a Woman’s Perspective
  11. For Women Who Are Know What Freedom Is And Are Willing to Empower and Free Others
  12. Velda offers us encouragement and hope and commissions us to find our truest, deepest selves.