Finding My Place in My Community

Dear friends,

My name is Kristen Ellis, and I am so excited to be invited to write for Reflections magazine. The topic for this issue, “Finding My Place,” is dear to my heart. I am a pastor’s wife and mother of three fiercely fabulous teenage girls. I decided to write this article as a letter to a friend. I may not know you, but I believe in you!

One of my passions is studying women in Scripture. Throughout the Bible, God calls and uses women in profound ways. This proves that all God needs is our availability. He has never been held back by “a lack of ability” from those He calls. He can do more than “we ask or think, according to the power that works in us” (Ephesians 3:20, NKJV).

In conversations with women and girls over the years, one thing we seem to have in common, no matter our age, is a struggle to find spiritual identity. While the reasons for this are as unique as we are, I believe there is one obvious reason for this struggle for women in the church: We have an enemy who has more faith in us than we have in ourselves.

Satan understands that women are made in God’s image. We are uniquely equipped with God’s character to make a difference everywhere we go. Satan tries to take our sensitivity and use it to discourage us. He uses our care and love for others to make us feel overburdened and worn down. He is a master of deception; he has been doing it for a long time.

It is no coincidence that his first victim was a woman named Eve. God told Eve, “You and Satan are now enemies.” Yet God promised victory to Eve that day. While she helped to bring sin into the world, it would also be through a woman the answer would come into the world. I believe with all my heart that God is still using women to introduce Himself to the world around them. Like Mary did in a physical sense, we, as Spirit-filled believers, carry Christ wherever we go.

I, like you, struggle from time to time with what that looks like in 2025. As a young girl, I would weep in a missions service, seeing the pictures and videos of lost people. I have always had a heart for my community, but I must confess it was not until the last seven years that I started actively serving my community. It all began with a sincere prayer about ten years ago.

I told the Lord I wanted to serve people outside of the church. The problem for me was I didn’t know where or how. Like you, I feel like there is always something I need to do, so how could I find the time to add something else to my schedule? I prayed: “Lord, you know my heart and my lifestyle. Please open a door for me to shine your light in my community.” It was a few years, but He answered beyond what I could have asked or thought.

I now serve three law enforcement agencies as a chaplain—what a privilege! This is something I would never have thought of pursuing on my own, but God opened a door for me. All I had to do was walk through it. I also teach part-time at a Christian school affiliated with our church. Every week, I interact with children and families I may not have met otherwise. God has answered my prayer after years of praying in conviction and frustration.

I share my experience to encourage you today: God has a place for you! It is a place of service. It is a place of impact. While I believe in serving our families and local churches, I do not think that is all God would ask of us as women. If the enemy cannot keep you from saying yes to serving God, he will try to limit your willingness to serve Him outside your comfort zone. My experience these past seven years has taught me two important things: God is raising up women in this hour of the end-time harvest, and the enemy knows how important you are to God’s plan for your community.

Any question we have about who we are and what we should do with the time the Lord has given us should be a matter of consistent prayer. I challenge you to make “Finding Your Place In Your Community” at the top of your weekly prayer list. If your heart is to point people to Jesus, then God has a way for you to do it. It is His Word and His will for you to be a witness in every environment. It is why you have the power of the Holy Spirit within you.

Finally, when you pray, pray with expectation. My friend, you should expect God to answer you. His heart is in the harvest. Jesus knew the problem wouldn’t be the harvest but a lack of laborers. You, my friend, are the handmaiden of the Lord. You were filled with the Spirit of the living God to take your place outside the church to bring people into the church.

He believes in you! He will show you how, where, and when. Pray boldly and say yes!

Your friend,

Kristen Ellis