I need YOUR help!

Hello readers!!

I would love to do something new on JOJ...but in order to do it, I need your help! :)

I'd like to interview different Christian young ladies + older women, asking them questions and formulating them into different posts for this blog! 

Here's where you come in - what are some questions you've wanted to ask a godly woman, younger or older? would it be about life, the future, the past, God, the Bible, relationships...what would you ask? :) Please post YOUR questions (any and all!) in the comments below, and I will use some of them in my interviews! 

Thank you so much! Looking forward to what you come up with. :)

{ Rachel }

Come out, come out, wherever you are!

Hello readers!

Here's a shout out to all you "secret readers"...maybe you read our blog, but have never commented. Or maybe you are a regular reader, and have commented before, for which we're grateful! I'm now inviting all of you who read our blog, to please comment, even if you never have before. Tell us how you heard about JOJ, a little about yourself, and whatever! We love hearing from our readers. 

Would you mind completing our short survey HERE? It's just 4 questions long, so will only take a minute. Your input is greatly appreciated!

If you can't get to the form, feel free to answer the questions below in a comment:

                                -Your name 

                                -What do you want to see more of on JOJ?

                                -Would you be willing to write for us sometime?

Looking forward to hearing from you!! 

Changes (part 1)

This last week has been full of challenges, tears, and thanksgiving. Among other things, there have been some changes to the Jewels of Jesus team. On Sunday, Tiffany sent an email to Rachel and me, telling us of her decision to leave the JOJ team. For me, it is heart-wrenching to see her go. She’s been an incredible encouragement to me, as well as a faithful writer for the JOJ Magazine and an ‘old faithful’—she’s been an editor ever since the magazine was born back in July 2011!

While it is sad to see her leave, I can understand where she’s coming from and why she decided to go. We’ll miss her as an editor (although she said that she is still willing to read over our articles and check for any problems!), supporter, and also as a pillar of the group. Even though she’ll be gone from this end of things for the most part, I’m still thankful for our friendship. Over the past few years, we’ve become good friends, and although our friendship has had some rough points (at least, from my perspective!) we’re still good friends and I’m really thankful to God for bringing us together.

After I got the email from her, and talked on the phone for an hour, I spent a lot of time in prayer, trying to decide what to do and where to go from here. We basically had two choices: Keep the magazine and blog going, or drop the magazine and just keep the blog. From the stats I heard from Tiffany, not many girls we know are reading the magazine when we give it to them. That was discouraging! I began to wonder if it’s really worth all the effort that goes into writing the articles, designing the magazine, editing it, and finally printing it?

Part 2 will be in the next issue which should come out in about 3 weeks.

What are your thoughts—do you read the magazine enough to make it worth keeping going? Or do you not bother, and just read the blog itself?

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We’d like it if you could fill out the following form—reader support is very important in what we decide.

Thanks for your input!

- Esther

Announcing...

THE JEWELS OF JESUS MAGAZINE, ISSUE #4!!!

Yes, it's finally here!

All the people who get a print copy received theirs last Tuesday, but I haven't had time to post until now on here. I hope you will forgive me. :)

Read/download your free copy here!

Lord willing, I will be starting to put the next issue (#5) together this week, even though it won't be finished until February or March. Several things we will be needing yet:

1. a short story from the Bible, retold (it can be first- or third-person. Doesn't matter either way.)
2. a couple poems for the Encouragement Page
3. several quotes for the Encouragement Page
4. a recipe (or two!)--just make sure that they are fairly easy to make. Preferably ones you've made before.
5. a short thought, something God's shown you, an answered prayer--doesn't have to be longer than one paragraph. We'd use them to fill up the gaps at the bottom of pages.

NOTE: If you send in any of the above that you haven't written, please give us the source--we'd like to see where you got it! ;)

Stay true to Him,

Esther

Will YOU Write For Us?

Well, I’ve just had a sudden inspiration. Tiffany and I would like to have more things from other people in our magazine (and I’m sure that anyone who has ever written a magazine, blog, or other such-like stuff could identify!). So, I was thinking…what about an article-writing day? Both Tiffany and I would write an article, and if you would like to participate (which I REALLY hope you want to!☺) that would be great. So, here’s what we would do:

You can write/send in anything.
Yup, anything—you could write:

Photo Courtesy

1. a story 
2. a poem 
3. a recipe 
4. a craft or sewing idea 
5. a bibliography biography of someone in the past that has been an inspiration to you
6. an answered prayer 
7. something God has taught/shown you 
8. an encouraging quote, and why it’s encouraging to you. 
9. an embarrassing moment, and something God showed you through that 
10. something you learned from a book of the Bible (such as Job) 
11. an exceptionally frustrating situation, and how God helped you conquer your frustration 
12. a devotional 
13. a question (yes, we do have a question corner, but no-one’s ever asked anything!) 
14. a book review 
15. about a treasure from the Scriptures that you found 
16. …let your imagination go wild! There are many other subjects I haven’t included! 

There are a few rules:

1. You can write anything. If you have something you wrote another time, that’s okay. Just send it in. 
2. The length doesn’t really matter. We can use whatever you send in. If it’s longer than 1 ½ – 2 pages, though, we’d have to break it up and put it in two magazines (which ISN’T a problem, believe me!☺) 
3. When you submit your story (I’ll have a form for you to submit it with), please include a short “About Me”—there’ll be a space for it!☺It would also be nice to have a picture to put at the bottom, but that’s optional. Your “About Me” could include anything (a few ideas below). I prefer at the minimum three sentences, but if you really can’t think of anything to write about yourself, it’s okay to just give your name (age and location would be great, too, but that’s optional). Your “About Me” could include:
       ○ age
       ○ location
       ○ where they can find you on the internet (your blog, etc)
       ○ some of your interests (crafting, baking, reading, writing, etc)
       ○ how to contact you
       ○ …all of the above are optional, but the “About Me” is designed to make the reader get to know you as an individual a little better—you aren’t just an anonymous writer that way. 
4. You’re supposed to enjoy yourself while you’re writing—it won’t be just another “chore”. 
5. If at all possible, what you write should be written in one day. But if you can’t manage, then I understand if it takes several days. The longest time I’ve ever taken to write something for JOJ has been about six months! 
6. Remember this quote: “You must write for yourself, above all. That is [your] only hope of creating something beautiful.” ~Gustave Flaubert. It’s very true. 
7. We may not put all of the submissions into one magazine, depending on how many there are. We will be sure, though, to put it in somewhere.
8. Any questions? Comment below! 

So, what do you think? Do you think you’d like doing this with Tiffany and me? If you think you would, please fill out this short survey:
NOTE: We will write on one particular day, depending on what day you all select. I was originally thinking of Monday, but if you think another day of the week would be better, we'd be glad to hear which day you think is best.

Thank you for all your support; we really appreciate it!

Blessings,

Esther

Recipes Wanted

Hello, all you dear readers!

I'm slowly working on putting together the next JOJ magazine (fourth edition), and thought for this issue we'd like some recipes!

And, of course, your help is needed...do you have any fairly simple and easy recipes to share with us today? If you prefer, you can comment, or feel free to contact us. And please, either way you send it to us, include a little "about me" at the end. It doesn't have to be fancy, but it's nice to know the people behind the recipes--not just the recipes themselves! It helps build sisterhood.

Here's a recipe for you to try today:

Oh, yum, yum! I'll have to make those again!

Looking forward to your submissions!

For now, 

Your loving sister,

Esther