By Shannon Baker, BCM/D National Correspondent
Tammy Lashey, a member of Calling Levi, shared a time of worship at the Ministers’ Wives Brunch that preceded the annual meeting of the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware in Dover, Del., on Nov. 10.
DOVER, Del.—Tammy Lashey remembers the time when she said, “If tomorrow is anything like today, then I can’t do it.” She hadn’t signed up for pain. She just wanted to do ministry, she said.
Lashey is a member of Calling Levi, a group of four gifted vocalists who have a full-time traveling music ministry. In a solo performance, she shared a time of worship and testimony at the Ministers’ Wives Appreciation Brunch that preceded the annual meeting of the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware in Dover, Del., on Nov. 10.
Though it hasn’t been easy, Lashey says she is thankful for the experiences that God has given her since becoming a minister’s wife.
Sharing her testimony, Lashey explained how she and her sister, Stephanie, met their husbands at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va. Nearly seven years ago, at a time she was enjoying her life as a stay-at-home mom, they felt called into a music ministry.
“My husband was making six figures,” she said, explaining their risky decision to say yes to a 85-95 percent pay cut and an unknown future. “How can we do this?” she said they asked, marveling that they had no sound system, no CD. It was a huge step of faith.
And yet, God has blessed their efforts and taught them many things along the way.
Lashey pointed to the biblical story of the woman who gave a year’s earnings to give her alabaster box to Jesus, to pour her perfume over his feet.
“She had been touched by the Lord Jesus Christ,” Lashey stressed, commenting on the similarities in her life. “I know who I am and I know who God is in my life. This woman wanted to give her all to Him because He gave His all to her.”
Lashey related a difficult time when God ministered to her in spite of almost losing her one-year old son to a serious metabolic disease during one of their concert tours. Just when she needed reassurance in the unfamiliar city, the Lord showed her the street sign in which the hospital was located. The street’s name was Hudson, the same as her son’s.
“It was as if God was saying, ‘This is all part of my plan. This is where Hudson needs to be,’” she related.
Since that time, the Lasheys have decided that they will not let their son’s disease set them back. They recognize God’s calling on their lives and that they don’t have to control the situation. God does.
“With these uncertain days and economic times, we tend to make it all about us,” she elaborated. “We forget that God holds the world in His hands.”
Explaining how God had invited her to join in the fellowship of His suffering, she shared, “I never knew that pain and peace would go together.”
She said she has learned that the pain in her life has opened the door to some of the sweetest moments with her Lord.
“The sweetest, most precious gifts have been wrapped up in pain. Those experiences have become so special to me,” she said. “God has shown me that He won’t waste my pain.”
Relating how the Lord confirmed that it was her brokenness, not her perfection, that He sought, she encouraged the ministers’ wives, “Because you are willing to be a servant of His, He will do great things in your lives.”
Upcoming BCM/D women’s events include Treasure, the 2009 Ministers’ Wives Retreat, to be held April 17-18 at the Double Tree Hotel in Annapolis, Md., featuring Sandy Maddox, minister’s wife and conference speaker from First Church, Orlando, Fla.; and Breathless: A Gathering for Women on Sept. 25-26 at Faith Church in Glen Burnie, Md. The retreat will feature special speaker, Carrie McDonnall, the lone survivor of a March 15, 2004 terrorist attack in Mosul, Iraq.
Stay tuned for more information on www.mybcmd.org.