November 2011 

Twenty Years Old!!

Many thanksgivings are appropriate for ICGS’s busy and eventful 20th anniversary year of 2011! No, Bill and Barbara are not 20 years old!  We left that personal birthday way back there, a long time ago. 

But, ICGS is 20 years old in 2011, and we celebrated with a cake made by Woody, our intrepid and faithful office manager.  And, looking back on this 20th year, we are grateful for blessings all round us. 

Let me enumerate a few.

A crop more important than pecans

1 Cor. 3:7—So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.

We didn’t have a pecan crop this year from the many trees on our lot, and of course that was a big disappointment. However, we are rejoicing as we consider a more important crop—fruit in the lives of God’s people. (we won’t take the liberty of sharing specific names and places, but here are some facts to encourage you in what God is doing to increase our planting and watering over the years.)

• Thanks for the pastors and teachers who are using the Five Aspects of Man curriculum around the country.
• Thanks for a good response to the new 2011 Edition of the Five Aspects of Woman, Vols. One and Two.

• Thanks for the April Facilitator Training Conference and for the 62 facilitators from 10 states and other disciples who have started new classes all over the country.

• Thanks for the key facilitators in the US who have received Aspects, who have taught, and continue to teach many others, particularly in Ohio, Michigan, Colorado, and California.

• Thanks to God for two of my oldest friends in ministry (who were ministering in Eastern Europe 28 years ago when I met them in Vienna). These women were among those to first receive theFive Aspects of Woman when it was only a lecture series in my living room. They helped plant this work in the US and have continued to share it abroad. Thanks for the on-going Aspects work in Austria and Romania, planted there 25 years ago.

There are pecans and then there are “pecan trees.”

Barbara's Report on 2011:

Every teacher works to feed the flock of God. I teach so that those who help will help, those who evangelize will evangelize, those who have mercy will have mercy. But then there is the work of teaching to raise up more teachers, the work of reproducing after one’s “own kind,” if you will. Wisdom House Institute is what I call my small mentoring program for women with teaching and writing gifts. The purpose of this program is to train other women in basic Bible survey and the thematic method of Bible study in order to multiply sound Bible teachers for women and children. This is what I consider cultivating new “pecan trees” and not simply a harvest of nuts.

• Thanks for teachers who have received the love of Bible themes and are teaching other great themes such as Rest, Seasons, Portraits of the Savior, and Dwellings.

• Thanks for students and co-laborers who are beginning work on Bible themes such as Trees, Mountains, Storms, and Bread.

Sixty women joined Barbara and long-time Aspects facilitator Phyllis Stanley for a training conference the last weekend in April.  At the left is the interior of the Francesca Chapel, which ICGS uses for conference meetings as well as renting the space to St. Athanasius Anglican Church on Sundays. Bill has more to say about the building further down the page.

At the right, all sixty facilitator trainees pose outside the Chapel between conference sessions.  These women received training on the latest revision of the Five Aspects of Woman course, now published in two volumes so that the curriculum more easily spans two 13-week sessions.

Five Aspects of Woman Sale Ends Dec. 31, 2011

You can still purchase FAW Volume One and Volume Two for $20 each until the end of this year. January 1, 2012, the individual volumes go up to $25 each. (If you buy both volumes together, you will still be able to get them for $40 together.)

Save the Date: May 4-5, 2012

A Bible Theme Conference with Barbara Mouser: CLOTHING BODY AND SPIRIT

Barbara extends this invitation: "For the past year, I have been studying the Bible theme of clothing, and what a rich Biblical language it is! For an in-depth look at this theme, join me May 4-5 in Waxahachie for teaching, training, and application on this topic. Or if you would like to simply drive over for a six-hour taste, come May 5, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Either way, you won’t see or wear clothing the same way again."

Bill's Report:

Twenty Years Calls for Maintenance

A few weeks before the Facilitators Conference at the end of April, the Francesca Chapel looked like the photo at the left. After painters had scaped all the loose paint off the entire building and replaced rotting wood here and there, the building was repainted.  The wood that was not replaced (most of it is still original) is 125 years old.  Now it is so hardened with age that even termites have a very difficult time making any headway in it!

The cost for painting the building came in just under $11,000. And that included the use of a new super-tough paint that wasn't even on the market the last time the building was scaped and painted, six years ago.  The contractor (a local fellow who specializes in the restoration and maintenance of antique buildings) tells me this new paint is guaranteed not to flake or peel for 15 years!  That was heartening news, for sure. 

It's just too bad we couldn't pay for the painting over 15 years!  But, along with painting the building, we have needed to replace the AC/heating system as well.  That was not a surprise, for the old system was 17 years old (the compressor locked up).  Another local contractor who makes special deals for churches found a phase-1 commercial system for us, saving us thousands in additional cost to bring phase-2 electricity to our campus.  And, with the improved efficiency over the past 17 years, our electrical costs will go down.

Still, the AC/heating unit was another $7,500 of expense.  We have made some dramatic reductions in expenses this year.  Nevertheless, because of these extra maintenance costs ($18,500) we are currently that much in the red for this year.

Can you help cover a portion of these extra expenses?  Several writing and revision projects are currently languishing on the drawing board until we have funds in the budget to take them up again. 

And, of course, if you are willing to give a very modest amount on a monthly basis, this would greatly improve our ability to plan for the coming year.

Barbara and I thank all of you who have prayed and supported us financially over these past 20 years.  The LORD has been faithful to us through your prayers and gifts.  We are immensely grateful for your enabling us to serve Christians with the truth of God's Word about the beauty and power of godly mahood and womanhood.

We pray God's richest blessings on you all as you approach Thanksgiving and Christmas this year.

Sincerely in Him,

Bill Mouser, for Barbara and Woody

© International Council for Gender Studies 2011, All Rights Reserved