It's our birthday: Still Souled Out!
Back in 2017, during her first year out of university, our Founder, Amanda, launched Femelle Soul. It’s fair to say a lot has changed in our 3 years of existence. Today we’re a christian blog and platform, run by a team of 11 women, who are dedicated to sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Back then, we were a travel, lifestyle and faith blog, run by a team of 2! We’ve come a long way from our early days.
To mark our 3 year milestone, Amanda joins us to discuss Femelle Soul’s journey so far, and how God calls all of us for good works.
God calls you where you are
As I write this, I literally cannot believe how far God has taken this blog and platform. I’d love to write about how this blog was birthed from a place of prayer and fasting, but I’d be lying. Instead, this blog is a testament of how God meets us where we are, and invites us to a new place.
There’s no better story to illustrate how God calls the unqualified like the call of the disciples in (Luke 5:1-11).
The disciples had beenfishing all night, unsuccessfully, when Jesus turned up. Jesus had journeyed from Nazareth to Capernaum, the town where some of the disciples lived and worked, a distance of 40 miles. Quite literally, Jesus had come to meet them where they were: by the shore of the Sea of Galilee.
So He turns up, tells them to take the boat out again “into the deep” and cast their nets. They do, and they find their nets are bursting with fish. Seeing such a huge catch, Peter falls to his knees and says, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” Face to face with Jesus, Peter, like all of us, is made painfully aware of his own limitations. Then Jesus says, “Do not be afraid, from now on you will be catching people.”
Don’t get it twisted, Jesus is well aware of Peter’s limitations. Even at this point, He knows Peter will later on deny Him, He knows his sinfulness (plus Peter just told Him). He has every reason to turn Peter away, but He doesn’t. Rather, Jesus meets Peter where he is and through the journey of walking with Jesus, Peter is converted. But first, Jesus calls and accepts the man just as he is.
God calls sinners
How does this link with Femelle Soul? Quite well actually. Like Peter, Jesus met me exactly where I was when Femelle Soul was launched. Initially, this blog was a place where I wrote about my journey in Christ, lifestyle topics and travel. I wasn’t bold enough yet to use the site as a place solely for the gospel. I was scared of what people would say and think if they were to find out that someone like me was now professing Christianity. I’d spent a long time questioning religion and had previously been quite outspoken about where I stood concerning all of that. But that didn’t stop God from pursuing me.
God gave me the desire to write...So I did.
My initial hopes were just that this would be a nice blog where someone may read it and consider taking their walk with Christ more seriously. God had something bigger in mind. He had a team, writers, a whole community, waiting to be formed.
During the early days, God didn’t give me that ‘vision’ for the blog and in hindsight I think I probably would’ve been overwhelmed and jumped ship. He just met me where I was, with the faith I had and took it from there. Little by little, through prayer, God began to grow my desires for the platform. I took every idea to prayer and really lent on God for strategic direction. Whenever I felt overwhelmed, tired, like I couldn’t do it, I had my man who basically played the role of Femelle Soul editor, counsellor, advisor and everything in-between, to encourage me and tell me to keep on going.
When the workload started increasing, God provided a team. At every single step, He’s made everything work out. One of the biggest things leading Femelle Soul has taught me is to trust God. My faith has been stretched time and time again.
God calls you for good works
When God called the disciples, He said they would become fishers of men. He called them for a job. And that’s what he does for all of us, calls us to glorify Him through our work.
"For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago." (Ephesians 2:5)
So, here we are, 3 years later, we’ve:
Grown to a team of 11 women who are using their gifts for His Kingdom.
Held 2 events, both where over 50 women attended.
Given over 30 women an opportunity for women to minister at our events
Welcomed over 20 contributors onboard, giving them a platform to share their own story and encourage others.
Held 2 Insta-live sessions with over 50 e-attendees
Placed 2 women in mentoring !
Received testimonies from women (and men!) who have been impacted by our ministry countless testimonies.
Prayed, laughed, cried and everything in between as sisters.
Souled out for Christ
As a team, we’re now looking forward to another year of living our lives souled out to Christ. We want to do more to reach people with the gospel. We want to reach women from around the world, grow our readership and audience, educate Christians on core doctrines of salvation, host more events, hold trips and everything in between. We believe we’re just getting started.
I want to thank God for everything He has done through Femelle Soul. I’m amazed that He uses feeble vessels to accomplish His will on earth. I also want to thank the amazing team of women who work hard and pray harder. I want to thank you all for early mornings and late nights working on FS content, for meetings, prayer, encouragement, laughs, fun and games, for sisterhood and friendship. Serving with you guys is a blast.
I also want to give a big thank you to everyone whose ever supported the blog in any way shape or form. Every RT, share, comment. We appreciate it all.
Here’s to 3 years & more souled out for Christ!
