Melanie (in the middle) lives with an autoimmune disease that at times leaves her body racked with pain. Even amidst her struggles and tears, she is one of the most positive, abundant, joyful women I’ve ever known.
There is something about deep suffering that can bring out the extraordinary in people. Maybe suffering forces people to make choices about what is really important, and in whom they will place their dependency and trust. Maybe it teaches them how to surrender.
While some people seem to be destroyed by suffering, others seem to somehow allow suffering to transform them, and in the process they become as strong and as beautiful as diamonds.
Melanie’s a diamond.
Melanie’s Story:
“I believe I walk in divine healing. Some people might question that statement on many levels, because they know that I live in a broken body, as so many of us do in many different ways. Despite my 14 year journey with pain, I believe I walk in divine healing, and no one can convince me otherwise.
“You can’t see my struggle outwardly, unless I’m having a rough time walking, sitting, or otherwise moving, and sometimes you can’t see that at all. But I feel the very real physical struggle daily with varying degrees of intensity. And at times chronic pain can lead to emotional and even mental struggle as I try to grapple with my circumstances.
“My earliest wrestling with the why’s and the why not’s of dealing with a disease began in the book of Job. I could not get past the first verse that said that Job was a righteous man in God’s eyes. God began to build on that verse during the next year which began a foundation of a new understanding of my own righteousness through the shed blood of Christ and the finished work on the cross.
“When a person’s ability to perform, and to perform well, is suddenly critically diminished, it’s a game changer. Stripped of my former physical stamina, I struggled with my worth and validity in the world, and in the body of Christ.
“Because God is so good, He has always given me opportunities to minister to others in spite of my challenges, and even because of them. One of the ministries I dearly love is mentoring young people.
Melanie’s Mentoring Experience:
“One precious young man who is dear to me and to my family moved to the Chicago area. My family and I were living in Oklahoma at the time. Justin began meeting with a man named Randy Guenther. I was eager to talk with Randy and learn more about what he was doing as a mentor. We set up a time to talk over the phone, and during the conversation it became very clear to both of us that it was God’s intention that not only would I learn how Randy mentors, but that I was to go through the process myself.
“Randy and I met, over the phone, for two years. They were two of the most transformative years I have ever experienced.
“God used Randy’s many gifts to break down barriers I carried in my heart between me and my Heavenly Father. Through Randy’s gentle leading and persistent care, I am thoroughly convinced that I am deeply loved and constantly pursued by the God of the universe. I am convinced that I am unconditionally loved regardless of my performance, and that I can rest in Him and trust Him in the midst of all of life’s circumstances. I am convinced that when Christ died on the cross, the work was FINISHED.
“So when I say I walk in divine healing, it’s healing of the heart, mind and soul, even when the body is barking. It’s accepting and receiving love from the great I AM even though I don’t deserve it. It’s learning to trust that His motives toward me are always, always love, even in difficult circumstances. It’s surrender, plain and simple.
“God has used Randy to lead me into deep and tender truths.
“Thank you, Randy, for helping usher me into the arms of an eternally, faithful Father. That, my friend, has been the best game changer of all.” – Melanie.
Melanie & Others Continue to Give It Away:
One hope of this ministry is that every recipient will give away what they’ve been given. It has been inspiring to watch these individuals give the gift away in their own unique styles, based on how they are divinely designed and impassioned, and to see them developing other similar souls along the way, leaving a legacy of love.
For some, it is in the form of meeting the tangible needs of people – pioneering an organization that provides aide and education to orphans in Haiti and Africa, leading a ministry that fixes up and maintains cars that are donated to single moms who can’t afford vehicles, establishing and running a care ministry at a local church to meet the needs of the neighboring community, or working with a food pantry that provides meals and daily necessities (as well as emotional support) to the under-resourced and to people down on their luck.
For others, it looks more like discipling or shepherding people – helping people grow and change from the inside out, one person at a time, to hopefully start a multiplying movement of restoration. This has taken the form of spiritually mentoring people who will hopefully then be equipped to pass it on, creating an organization that challenges and develops the character of men and fatherless boys, leading small groups, pastoring or being on staff at local churches, ministering to dying and grieving people at a hospice center, working for a prison ministry that provides free Bible studies and transformational suppport to prisoners, or being missionaries overseas in a Muslim country.
All the forms are vitally needed, and work powerfully together, to fully love, redeem, and restore the world, and reflect the image of Christ that is uniquely imbedded in each of us. It’s such a joy to help dynamic young leaders find their unique redemptive purposes in this world and live them out with unleashed abandon, to be the hands and feet and heart and whisper of God in their sphere of influence in our world.
Melanie’s style of living it out looks more similar to my own. She invests in people, specifically younger people. Most recently, she was investing in and mentoring single moms. Even when she’s not officially giving it away due to her physical struggles, she is always giving it away, by the very nature of who she is.
Melanie and I ended our mentoring season about a year and a half ago. In a recent conversation, Melanie said: “The impact of what I received through being mentored never stops. It is a living, continually growing thing. The fruit just keeps coming. Sometimes I picture what I received as a large cluster of grapes that are being held up to the light, and when the sun shines upon them, they reflect the glistening light outwardly and glow internally. Each time I look at them, often from different angles, I see the glistening, glowing fruit in a whole new, beautiful way.”
You Can Make A Difference:
Over the course of this year, I regularly met one-on-one with 31 people, most of whom are in their twenties or early thirties, with limitless potential just waiting to be unleashed. I can’t wait to see how they continue to give it away.
If you haven’t already, I’d love to have you partner with me in this life-changing ministry.
Contributions are tax deductible.
Merry Christmas!
In His Love,
Randy
You may contact me at randy@legacyshepherding.org.
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