After her husband died in 1997, Janice Chesser of Trussville prayed for God to show her a new direction for her life. Though she tried to put on a happy face at church, Chesser often felt a bit out of place in situations where she had always been part of a couple.
She found herself joining other widows at church functions, and as they fellowshipped, the women often talked about starting a ministry of their own.
In June 2001, the women took action, and The Widow’s Might ministry at Liberty Baptist Church, Chelsea, was born.
Since then, what began as a support group has turned into an active ministry. Pastor Tim Cox said it has given these women both a sense of purpose and a place to serve. “‘God can use us’ is their attitude, and He has done just that,” Cox said. “Jesus is exalted by their every act.”
From the beginning, members of The Widow’s Might ministry at Liberty Baptist have been involved in many projects that serve both their church and community.
Their work has included volunteering with Meals on Wheels, making fruit baskets for residents of a veteran’s nursing home and homebound church members, providing snacks for children at a local elementary school and buying school clothes and Christmas presents for children in area foster homes.
Chesser said the women take every opportunity they can to plant seeds of the gospel as they give. They have distributed more than 600 Christian books and numerous tracts with their baskets and gifts.
The most recent work of The Widow’s Might has spread their ministry beyond the borders of Alabama to soldiers serving all over the world.
In 2003, one of the members of The Widow’s Might met a woman whose son was serving in the military in Iraq.
The soldier’s mother said according to her son, many of the soldiers in his unit were not getting packages from home.
As a result of this conversation, members of The Widow’s Might decided to put together some care packages to send to military personnel serving overseas.
Since then, countless boxes have been sent to soldiers far from home — soldiers from Alabama and other states including Mississippi, Indiana and even Hawaii.
The names come from church and community members and some even come from what might be considered chance encounters. Chesser does not believe any part of The Widow’s Might ministry is “chance,” however.
“Without the Lord, we couldn’t do anything. We stand in amazement of the things He has done,” she said.
One example of God’s work in the care package ministry involved a soldier serving in Iraq. Though they had the soldier’s name and address in Iraq, they did not have a stateside contact for the soldier.
“With most of our names, we have a contact person to check on them, but with this one, we didn’t,” Chesser said. “One day, one of our deacons told us about a soldier he was e-mailing, and out of the thousands of people in Iraq, the man the deacon was e-mailing was in the same unit as this soldier we had been sending boxes to.”
Some members of The Widow’s Might say the efforts have special meaning to them, as they were in New York City on a trip during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
“One of the reasons this ministry is so dear to our hearts is that we have insight into what they are going through,” Chesser said.
“It was madness and evil on that day, but these boxes are done with an awful lot of love,” Chesser said. “We know that God gave us our freedom to begin with. These boxes say to the soldiers that we love you, our Lord and Savior loves you and we are praying for you and your family back home.”
The Widow’s Might members were encouraged again during the church’s July 3 patriotic evening worship. Service members present emphasized the importance of mail call and how much it means for them to get letters and boxes from home.
The testimonies were sweet words to the members of The Widow’s Might, though they are reluctant to take any credit for the work they do. They know that God is the one who is working and answering prayers.
Chesser said that as each box is packed, the women pray for the soldier who will receive the box, his safety as he serves and his family at home. The boxes contain necessities like toiletries and food items, but the women also put copies of devotional books and tracts into each box.
“Those snacks will be eaten and gone, and the toiletry items will be used and gone,” Chesser said. “But in those books are the seeds of the gospel.
“The Bible tells us that God’s Word will not come back void, and we are trying to spread those seeds in everything we do.”
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