How it started

I met Megan briefly a few years ago when she attended a class with her son that I was teaching. We then became Facebook friends.

I started seeing her faith based posts of encouragement and had been feeling called to host a bible study. I messaged her and asked if she wanted to start a bible study and she immediately said yes (I thought that she would think I was crazy since we didn’t really know each other) but thankfully she didn’t.

We exchanged a few ideas and decided to meet for breakfast to discuss things further. We pretty much talked about anything but the bible study at breakfast lol. So we decided to simply post about it on social media to gain other members and let God handle the rest.

Boy did he…Everything seemed to come together so easily and within a short time we were meeting weekly at Megan’s house. We had agreed that she would host it if I would lead it.

Very early on, I started sensing that Megan needed encouragement as much as she gave it. I started sending her texts and letters in the mail to encourage her. I would just do it when she crossed my mind and she would always ask…how did you know I needed that and I would say, I didn’t. I also started saying it’s not me it’s God. At first she would roll her eyes and laugh and the more I replied that way the more she started to lean in and believe it.

It never failed that my “random” messages, verses, etc. were always exactly what she needed. Little did I know she was going through a lot personally…I honestly had no idea. I was just trying to do what I felt God wanted.  Many people actually thought that we were really close friends or even related but in reality we barely knew one another. We were just two sisters in Christ willing to be obedient by encouraging one another and the others in our bible study/“support group of women who loved Jesus” LOL.

Our support group I mean bible study broke for the summer and I sent everyone snail mail cards/verses randomly throughout the break. Megan eventually posted on social media about how the little notes came at exactly the right time and were the messages she needed to hear; she tagged me and added the hashtag #FromGodNotHer. This had lovingly become our typical response to one another by then. A few other women from the bible study posted photos of their notes and also seemed encouraged.

After seeing this it dawned on me that other women outside of our study might also benefit from receiving encouragement in the mail. I started praying about it and felt as though it was something I was supposed to cultivate/grow/make tangible.  I felt as though the mail should be prayed over so that God was leading the messages. I also felt that He wanted me to contact certain people and so I did. It is amazing to see how each person involved has perfect talents and gifts for this ministry. Especially Jennifer and her writing.  

I asked Megan first. I basically messaged her and said hey I have another crazy idea and she said lay it on me sister! LOL

I said I think that we should start a ministry and call it From God Not her and provide a place for women to sign up to receive encouragement for themselves or they could sign up others.

And so it began.