S.H.A.P.E. Assessment Results

Thank you Jennifer Morr for taking the SHAPE Assessment. We encourage you to meet with a Church Leader that you respect, to go over your results, so that they can help you discover a place to serve in the church and/or community, and also to help you fine-tune your 5 Main Focuses/Priorities listed at the bottom of this email under the ‘Wrapping it up’ section. May God Bless You!

[S]piritual Gifts

Here is how your spiritual gifts scored (in alphabetical order):

71%

78%

78%

84%

84%

59%

59%

81%

75%

To see descriptions on the Spiritual Gifts and how you can use them to further Christ’s Kingdom on earth, visit this link.

This gift’s evident in my life in the following ways:
I work hard to ensure my time, treasures and talents are directed to God.

This gift’s evident in my life in the following ways:
My heart is very compassionate to those who are suffering.

This gift’s evident in my life in the following ways:
Bringing glory to God through serving is what I feel called to do.

[H]eart

1. Serving others through giving of my time, talents and treasures

2. Loving others by giving sacrificially to show then that they are loved.

3. Sharing with the children how service and loving God are connected, and guiding/serving alongside them.

Love working with little children and elderly and youth (middle and high school).

My heart is wired to be a missionary, so serving is always something I am praying about. A church leadership team that is on fire for God is such a gift. Being a part of a ministry where we walk alongside the children and teach them to serve is something I feel God has equipped me for.

Homelessness
Poverty/hunger
At-risk children

[A]bilities

Home schooling, stay at home Missionary Mom. Have been volunteering with Lola Children’s Home (orphanage in Ethiopia) for the last 8 years as the Sponsorship Coordinator)

Helped to begin, and then coordinated for several years, the Children’s Mission Team at our previous church. Also, served on the Staff Parish Relationship Committee for 4 years. Was a Girl Scout Co-Lead for 5 years. Taught in a Kindergarten Sunday School class for 2 years. Before retiring to chase Jesus, I was a Project Manager for 10+ years managing pharmaceutical and dietary supplement projects.

Humbly serving.

Taught a Kindergarten Sunday School class for 2 years.

My servant heart that allows me to serve others.

[P]ersonality

Reserved

High Risk

Peace Maker

50-50 People/Project Driven

50-50 Follower/Leader

50-50 Routine/Variety

Your Primary was ‘The Retriever’, with your Secondary coming in as ‘The Otter’, and here are the descriptions of your Personalities, and how they can be used for God

Golden Retriever- Good at making friends. Very loyal. Retriever personalities do not like big changes. They look for security. Can be very sensitive. Very caring. Has deep relationships, but usually only a couple of close friends. Wants to be loved by everyone. Looks for appreciation. Works best in a limited situation with a steady work pattern.

Strength: Accommodating, calm, affirming
Weakness: Indecisive, indifferent, unable to express emotional, too soft on other people
Limitation: Seeing the need to be more assertive, holding others accountable

Otter- Otters are very social creature. Otter personalities love people. They enjoys being popular and influencing and motivating others. Otter can sometimes be hurt when people do not like them. Otter personalities usually have lots of friends, but not deep relationships. They love to goof-off. (They are notorious for messy rooms.) Otters like to hurry and finish jobs. (Jobs are not often done well.) The otter personality is like Tigger in Winnie The Pooh.

Strength: People person, open, positive
Weakness: Talks too much, too permissive
Limitation: Remembering past commitments, follow through with discipline

[E]xperience

I had been going to church intermittently with my parents through elementary school and attended a Catholic school. In college I stopped attending church all together, and when Craig and I got married we started looking for a church. We were attending a church for a couple of years, but were regular “couch Christians” (our term for just going to church on Sunday and that is the extent of my faith). While we were on a family vacation the summer of 2009, we got the news that my Dad had been diagnosed with Huntington’s Disease. With him being diagnosed, it means that I have a 50% chance of getting Huntington’s Disease. I was out walking on at the ocean with Craig and the the kids (Gabe, Nat and Audrey who was a baby), and I remember clearly calling out to Jesus that I wanted to give my life to Him from that point on. What a gift though, to be able to know and feel His love fully leading, guiding and encouraging me.

Children’s Mission Ministry Coordinator – helped to pilot the program and then was the coordinator for 5+ years. Chelsea First United Methodist Church, Chelsea, MI

Staff Parish Relations Committee – 2+ years at Chelsea First UMC

A God Led short term mission trip to Ethiopia in May 2011 where I spent 2 weeks serving at Lola Children’s Home in Mekele, as well as serving at an orphanage in Addis Ababa. This trip gave my life a more defined purpose and passion for living for Christ.

Adopting Elijah from Ethiopia in January 2013. It was impossible for me to come home from the mission trip and to not want to DO something. We prayed together for a few months, and felt the Lord giving our hearts a united peace on adopting. It was the scariest, most fulfilling thing we have ever had the honor of doing.

After adopting Eli, we were praying about adopting another child from Ethiopia. However, as we were speaking with the adoption coordinator she shared with us that the Ethiopian government was slowing down adoptions and if we started the process it may shut down and we would end up without a child. She said that they have a solid, reputable China special needs program, and that we could transfer to that program if we wanted. We prayed for discernment, and felt that the Lord’s hand was in this process too. We brought home Zeke in October 2015, praise God!

My dad’s diagnosis with Huntington’s Disease. HD is a neurodegenerative disease that shuts down all of your body over time (however, most people with HD still comprehend language and family and friends) He is still alive, but has been declining steadily over the years. He is now at a nursing home under hospice care. He did not want to live with this disease, and has tried to take his life 3 times. His mental health is very unstable, so when I speak to him it has to come from a place of love and compassion. I have been able to walk with him through this dreaded disease, while praying for him. We have seen our kids become more compassionate and loving through the years, and to truly understand what it means to love someone who cannot love you back because of their illness. There is great beauty and love in that lesson from the Lord.

Audrey was diagnosed with chronic Lyme disease in 2016. My beautiful, vibrant, 2nd grader when from normal to out of her mind in what felt like overnight. She started having such high anxiety, sensory issues, stomach issues, and severe headaches that she couldn’t got to school. This begin in October of 2016. A friend called and to ask if I could watch one of her girls, and I shared with her all that we were going through. She said, that she had experienced pretty much the same symptoms with on of her girls a few years earlier, and that it ended up being Chronic Lyme Disease. So thankful for her words and truth that helped us avoid a lot of unnecessary paths. We prayed constantly throughout this period. It was surreal to be holding down your precious child who was having such severe panic/rage/anxiety that we had to hold her arms down to protect all of us. She missed over 40 days of school, and we prayerfully decided to pull her out and homeschool her. Despite this hard time, we are so very thankful for our community of friends and prayer warriors that walked along beside us through this dark time. The beauty is now I am feeling so blessed by homeschooling and our walk of faith through this incredibly tough time.

Gabe was bullied in middle school, and we thought it would get better my high school. Unfortunately, it didn’t, and we ended up praying about having him switch to a new school. This was all happening around the same time as Audrey’s Lyme Disease diagnosis, so we had so many things going on and I felt almost paralyzed with what the next steps should be. Gabe visited LCS and we really felt it would be a great place for him, but how could we make it work? The only way was to move to Adrian. Ugh! I did NOT want to move. My friends and community for the last 12 years were there and I did not want to start over. We spoke with our friends David and Darlene. They are in their 70s and also went to Chelsea First. They had been missionaries in Africa for years as well. We shared what was going on, and they encouraged us to go. To be “On Mission” with our lives. We did end up moving and what a delight to see the Lord’s hand it that story as well. We have found a life giving church and loves others so well, and Gabe loves his school and friends! Thank you Jesus!

Wrapping It Up

The Challenge: Based upon your S.H.A.P.E. Assessment above (the way God wired you), If you knew you couldn’t fail … and ‘lack of money, or time’ was not an obstacle… list your Top 3 Things you would ‘Focus’ your Life on, next to #1 Loving God & #2 Loving Your Neighbor (these would be your ‘3 God-Sized Dreams’ for your life)?

1. My Relationship with GOD

2. My Relationship with Others

• Putting Your Spouse First
• Your Kids Second
• Everyone Else After those

3. Become a missionary and start an ophanange/family help center (to keep families together, as we know adoption is very broken and not God’s design for families) in Africa or wherever we felt called

4. Work with the homeless population and show them dignity and love

5. Work with women and families of the incarcerated. Ensure they are remembered, encouraged and loved