Oh friends,

We are so excited to start our new study, Growing Through Prayer, with you this coming January 11th! As we continue to prepare for our next study, I wanted to share with you a new feature we are adding to our site…..YOUR LGG STORIES!

God is doing some pretty amazing things through our ministry and we want to provide an opportunity for YOU to share and give Him all the glory!!!

If you have a story you’d like to share with us, please comment below and we will be in touch with you!

Here’s to the start of a GREAT 2016!

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I was a single mother with two sons.

He a single father with three daughters. We married, blended our families and embarked on our new life together. It wasn’t easy. We were two people who were broken and trying to go into this new marriage, but we were clueless.

It was messy and hard.

We were both headstrong. We struggled financially and relationally. My husband was not working due to a work related injury that had required surgery. I was only working 20 hours per week. We pressed hard into God. I spent time on my knees daily crying out for His guidance as we struggled financially.

We shut off our cable, cell phones and sold most of our large items that had value.

Doors opened for us to make money. God made a way for us to use our hands and feet to work through this rough financial time. We began collecting junk and hauling it in to our local salvage yard. We would see junk in people’s yards and stop and ask if we could haul it away for them. This was such a hard time. It was winter and it was so cold being outside salvaging scrap just to make ends meet. One day in particular, me, my husband and my sons were working hard tearing apart a trailer and cleaning the metal. My husband built us a fire as we worked and I remember standing there around the fire with scrap metal in my hand crying, thinking,

“Our pastor teaches that you love me Lord, how is any of this love?”

Oh how my heart ached in this moment because I wouldn’t come to understand until later that God was in it all and through this obedience He was preparing us for what He had next.

Pride was being broken in us.

During this time, God taught us about tithing. Each time we hauled a load to the salvage that next Sunday we would tithe on the money we made and give it in the offering at church. This was the most we had ever given. We were now making more money with me working 20 hours a week and my husband off work completely.

My husband saw a job in the newspaper but knew he wasn’t qualified for it. He felt compelled to call even though he would likely face rejection. As he prepared for this interview I hit my knees and didn’t stop praying until I felt inside it was settled.

The employer turned out to be a Christian and told my husband that he was not what they would normally choose but thought it was “time for a change.” Within a few days we received the call that he got the job. We now are owners of our own small business and we are tithers and passionate givers.

When my husband recommitted his life to Jesus, I surrendered my life anew. I was excited about my relationship with God and jumped in with both feet. My enthusiasm has not changed and I am as excited to be walking with Jesus now as I was when my journey first began.

I had been crying out to God and looking for a way to grow closer to Him.

Two years ago I found the Love God Greatly Bible study online and I got involved! God used the study to change me and I began to see myself differently.

I saw myself as one having value.

I spent most of my life being who everyone else thought I should be and spent all my time trying to please others. When I came to Christ He began the process of peeling away all the layers of who I was only to reveal the real me. For the first time I began discovering who I really was and that I had my own likes and dislikes. My life expanded in ways I never thought possible and the life I lived so small became so large, and possibilities…endless, because I finally found out who I was. As I led studies God used this experience to deepen the knowledge that He loved me and fearfully and wonderfully made me unique in every way.

This newfound knowledge not only impacted me personally but it helped my marriage as well.

I began volunteering with LGG and assisting behind the scenes with the prayer ministry and served on various other teams. God moved in my heart to facilitate a group of women that has now grown to about 32. The Lord has given me a compassion for those who are hurting. So many women still hurt even though they are walking with the Lord. I prayed that God would allow me to use my experiences to help others and He has been faithful.

It’s crazy what women are willing to share when they find an intimate connection.

God is expanding ministry opportunities and taken what Satan meant for evil and turned it into a beautiful situation. In January, my husband and I will be starting a life group study on marriage in our home. Even though the thought of being involved with others on this level is a little frightening, we believe God is using what we have been through to help others who are struggling in their marriage. Hurting couples seem to find us and we are privileged to guide them to the hope and healing that Jesus brings to a yielded heart. Our marital struggles were redeemed for God’s glory!

God has done such a transformation in my life and made my crazy mess so beautiful that I cannot fathom what He has in store for the future.

Ecclesiastes 3:11, “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” (NIV)

Sheila Millinder, West Decatur, PA.

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If you haven’t done so already, grab a copy of our NEW Growing Through Prayer– Study Journal now available on Amazon for less than $11! Our new 8 week journal also includes for the 1st time, memory verse coloring pages!!!
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Here is what women are already saying about our new journal:

“Mine just arrived! It’s gorgeous and contains way more than I expected!”

Angela Perritt

Angela Perritt is the founder and director of LoveGodGreatly.com, a nonprofit online Bible study ministry reaching thousands of women in over two hundred countries around the world with God’s Word through their translated Bible studies. She and her husband live in Dallas, Texas with their three daughters. Angela is passionate about God’s Word and believes one woman in God’s Word can change a family, community and ultimately a nation. Her greatest joy is to encourage her children and others to love God greatly with their lives one day at a time. You can connect with her on Instagram.