Singer Laura Story, others to perform at Fresh Grounded Faith

A TRAVELING EVENT

Story will be part of a traveling team led by speaker Jennifer Rothchild, who is also well-known in such circles and has been blind since she was 15 years old.

“We’ll have women in attendance who have a deep and rich faith, but we also have women who have a small cup of faith or no faith experience at all,” she said in a prepared statement. “Everyone is welcome — we want to meet women where they are. We’re just real women wanting a refreshing experience that’s packed with relevant truth for everyday living.”

Organizers noted that since 2008, Jennifer Rothschild and her FGF Event Team have traveled across the United States offering a “venti-sized” weekend of encouragement to over 129,000 women in 137 different locations.

Some of those on the platform are raising families, so traveling across the south, sharing good news, comes at a cost for them.

“I have a husband and four young children, so leaving for the weekend always means missing a basketball game or playing Go Fish over pizza on a Friday night,” Story said. “That’s one of the reasons I travel a lot less than I did before having a family. But, I truly believe God has given me a story to tell about his faithfulness in my life. I believe that God has called all of us to tell our stories and live on mission. My family makes sacrifices for that mission, but we also believe that God is a God worth sacrificing for.”

FGF is co-sponsored by a number of local churches: Friendswood’s Baybrook Baptist and the First Baptist Churches in Friendswood and Texas City, and Friendswood’s Good Shepherd Episcopal.

LIFE FROM VERSE

Fans of such music, will likely know Story and her intimate approach to facing challenges with faith. The medical challenges her family have endured are too extended to recount here, but they inform much of her songs and writing.

She’s best known for her album, “Blessings,” and her book, “When God doesn’t fix it.”

She summed up her varied ministries citing a Bible verse.

“One of my favorites is Ephesians 2:10,” she said. “Paul is writing to the church in Ephesus, sharing how special they are to God, how uniquely each of them has been created and how he has a special, unique plan for each of their lives. It’s a great reminder for those days that I struggle to see the purpose in all of it, because living by faith means that we keep stepping forward and keep believing, even when we can’t see the purpose. We simply trust in the plan of a trustworthy God.”

THE MOST COMMON CONCERN

As a result of her travels, she believes that the most serious and most common challenge contemporary Christian women face comes from within.

“The greatest need I encounter when I meet with women these days is them feeling as if they are simply not enough,” Story said. “They have been comparing themselves to others, believing that their worth is simply the sum of all their mistakes, and many women walk around feeling insecure and incompetent for the task before them, whether that’s as a worker, a mom, a wife or just a person.”

THE LAST WORD

We’ll yield the last word this week to a short snippet from Story’s best-loved song, “Blessings.”

“’Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops? What if your healing comes through tears? What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know you’re near? And, what if the trials of this life are your mercies in disguise?”

Focus: The next congregational blood drive will be held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Jan. 29 at The Watershed, 1751 E. League City Parkway in League City. The church phone is 281-332-1070.

To register or for details, visit giveblood.org.

Next week in Our Faith: A local Christian school celebrates its first half century.