{"id":10856,"date":"2025-03-12T13:14:30","date_gmt":"2025-03-12T17:14:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nccumc.org\/leadership\/?p=10856"},"modified":"2025-03-12T13:19:23","modified_gmt":"2025-03-12T17:19:23","slug":"an-encourgament-for-march","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nccumc.org\/leadership\/2025\/03\/an-encourgament-for-march\/","title":{"rendered":"An Encouragement for March"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Th<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em>e\u00a0Center for Leadership Excellence, in partnership with COSROW, is pleased to lift up the voices of women in ministry encouraging fellow women in ministry. Please enjoy this month’s Encouragement from LaNella Smith, laywoman at New Creation UMC in Durham and a passionate member of United Women in Faith.<\/em>

Anyone can sign up to receive Encouragement emails\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read: Thessalonians 5:11<\/strong>\u00a0(ESV)<\/strong>
Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2003, 75,000 Verizon employees threatened to strike. In preparation, management employees, like me, were to be trained to fill the positions that would be impacted by the strike. I was assigned to \u201cworking aloft\u201d or to be a repairperson who climbed telephone poles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a woman who is afraid of heights, I was sure I would flunk the training and be reassigned. I planned to intentionally fail, but my plans were not to be. The training class was 19 women and 1 man. On the first day, the women made a pact that everyone would successfully climb the pole. I agreed with a nod of my head, but still had no plans to succeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The day that I was to climb the pole, there were 18 women standing below cheering loudly with love and conviction. I decided that I would go about 8 feet of the 30 feet and stop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the more that I climbed, the louder they cheered. Hearing those women cheer and knowing their hearts, I climbed the 30 feet to the top. Once at the top, you are to connect your safety belt to the pole and swing around to reach the telephone box. I was crippled with fear of swinging around 30 feet in the air, depending on a safety belt to hold me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I whispered a silent prayer, and I heard the words, \u201cLet go and let God.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I experienced freedom like I have never experienced before when I let go of my fear and truly trusted God. I swung from left to right and from right to left, 30 feet in the air atop a telephone pole. My success was due to the powerful encouragement of 18 women with whom I had been in training for three weeks. Had I not climbed the pole, I would never have experienced the powerful freedom in trusting God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thank God for women and men who encourage one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In partnership,
Center for Leadership Excellence and the Commission on the Status and Role of Women<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2003, 75,000 Verizon employees threatened to strike. In preparation, management employees, like me, were to be trained to fill the positions that would be impacted by the strike. 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