The Narrow Gate Invites: Until Next Time

Announcement: On Friday, November 14 I'll be a guest blogger over at Slurping Life. This is a huge honor for me as I share my nature pictures and words, something Melody is so gifted at in her own blog. I'd love for you to check her blog out!

It was nearly a year ago God gave me a vision for a new blog, a team blog. He showed me immediately what the theme would be (deeper things of Christian faith) and who the other bloggers would be (Kim and Maria, of course!) It took a few months of prayer for the right timing and for all of us to feel the same way, but here you have it, The Narrow Gate Invites.

It's exciting to see us evolve as much as the blog has. Kim felt such a strong desire to return to Romania, and she did, with so many awesome testimonies and a refined vision. Maria is surrendering fears and stepping out of her comfort zone, sometimes on national TV (see Joel Osteen sidebar on right)!

Me, well next week I feel God is going to do a new thing with me. Physically I'll have surgery that I'm believing will put me in a new season of life. It's been a long road and I wonder if a lot of it was His preparation for the next step in the journey. I'll have a good amount of bedrest and I really look forward to that quiet time with the Lord and just reading.

With that, I'm going to be taking a break from blogging here. I want to use the time of rest to seek perspective and wisdom and have fresh, anointed ideas. Besides here, I blog at my personal blog, Sundays at the Christian Writers Forum and I have two monthly columns at Take Root and Write. The Take Root ministry is so much of my calling, and with that comes groups with the social network, Christian Women Take Root. I facilitate the groups associated with the columns, so it's a fair amount of upkeep. Women are hungry for God's love through marriage and surrender. I'm willing to be a vessel for that as long as He calls me.

So pray for the Narrow Gate Girls. My hope is that Kim and Maria will continue to blog in my absence and that I'll be back in December sometime with renewed vision and a refreshed spirit.

If you have any ideas, suggestions or comments about what you'd like to see here, please leave a comment or e mail us at jarduini@faithwriters.net. We're so thankful for you!

Julie Arduini is a surrendered writer with her own blog, The Surrendered Scribe. A graduate of the Christian Writers Guild, she also blogs for the Christian Writers Forum Sundays as the mommy blogger. She is active with FaithWriters and has several writings ready to publish in different books and anthologies in 2008-09. One of the books will be a quote in Kathy Vick's Simon and Schuster/Howard's gift book, "Run Like a Girl." Julie's surrender story is featured in the Run Like a Girl website launch.

You can also find Julie the third Wednesday of each month over at Take Root and Write with her columns, Finding Freedom through Surrender and Marriage: Striving for Oneness. She facilitates groups by the same name at the sister social networking site, Christian Women Take Root.