You’ll be encouraged as Brenda shares the hope and victory that came in her own life and that of her family as she learned to put into practice the principals found in Titus 2.
AUTHOR BIO
Brenda Lancaster is a wife, mother, grandmother and beloved mentor intent on bringing Hope, Help and Harmony to Women’s Hearts and Homes. An acclaimed Bible teacher and the founder of Zookeepers Ministries (2002), Brenda is the author of Living in a Zoo? (WinePress, 2007) as well as a Bible study A Portrait of Ruth (1999), and a family history book (1994). She is currently working on a companion series of children’s books for Living in a Zoo? and a novel drawn from family experiences. A new arm of ZooKeepers, entitled R.E.S.C.U.E., will begin soon. R.E.S.C.U.E. will reach out and minister to teenage girls struggling in the cultural quagmire of the 21st Century.
Living in a Zoo? was translated into Portuguese and introduced in Brazil in the spring of 2008 when Brenda visited the country for a three-week mission trip. While working with twenty-four churches around the country the Lord led many to a new life in Christ. Work continues there with many churches and home groups using the Zoo as an outreach to their communities. The Spanish version of Living in a Zoo? was introduced into Nicaragua in the summer of 2009.
A longtime member of Life Community Church (formerly Hunter Hills Baptist Church) in Greensboro, North Carolina, Brenda served for many years in children’s ministry. Since 1998, she has served with enthusiasm as Ladies Bible Study Coordinator, Sunday School teacher and on the Ladies Ministry steering team.
Since 1999 she has been a speaker at various ladies events, conferences and retreats around the southeast. When God called her to minister to young wives and mothers, Brenda says she responded with eagerness but struggled with the question, “Why me? I’m not worthy or qualified to serve you in this capacity.” Within a month, God confirmed her call and gave her the explanation she sought from I Corinthians 1:26-30, “I am not wise as the world thinks, not highborn …but that all will know it is God who does the work within me.” Armed with the Word of God, filled with the Holy Spirit, and consumed with a passion to serve her Lord, Brenda is ecstatic about the doors that are opening to help equip women in finding peace and joy in the midst of the chaos of the twenty-first century.
Brenda has been married to her high school sweetheart for over 40 years. Her husband Tom, who serves as a deacon and works with the Upward Sports programs for their church, will be working alongside Brenda with R.E.S.C.U.E.T.O.O., a ministry to parents of wayward teens. (a division of ZooKeepers Ministries)
They have three married sons and six grandchildren who call the pair, Nana and PapaTom. Brenda says life never gets better than when she and PapaTom head out to the beach with those six incredible kids and their Golden Retriever, Sandy. When the whole crew gets together for family vacations at Kure Beach, NC, they become one more rowdy Zoo! They make their home in Greensboro, NC.
Email: brenda@zookeepersministries.com
More Info on Brenda
As a little girl, I had a deep hunger for God, but had absolutely no idea how to find Him. I would walk to church alone hoping to find what I was looking for, but everyone automatically assumed that a child who would make the effort to do that must already know and understand about God and His plan for her life. Because of that, everyone neglected to show me what I desperately needed to know.
As a teenager I was one of the lucky ones to find a hunk of a guy who loved and lived for God, but I was afraid if I told him I did not know how to become a Christian, he would be ashamed of me. So I simply went forward in the church we were attending, and I was told I needed to “join” the church. I was blessed enough to marry that fellow, but I still hungered inside to really “know” God. Finally, as a 21-year old young wife and mother of two kids at that time (three now and Nana to six more!), I cried out to the Lord to send someone into my life that would show me how to know Him. At a Billy Graham crusade, He sent that person who showed me the Way to know Him personally, and as a young wife and mom, I received Him as my Lord and Savior. Nothing has ever been the same since. He changed my life and gave me all the meaning and fulfillment I had ever hoped to find. Today, over 35 years later and still married to that same hunk, I can honestly say God has never let me down. He has always been faithful — even when I was not.
After finally finding what I had been looking for all my life, I had a burning desire to know how to be the woman, wife and mother God would have me to be. In those days there was little teaching specifically for women on these subjects, and what was out there was vague and offered little help in practical application.
The description of the model woman in Proverbs 31 and the Titus 2:3-5 teaching for women soon became my goal in life, but I remained frustrated in how to put those teachings into practice. For example, I knew I was to love my husband, and I did very much, but found it awfully hard to live out that love on those days when I would rather choke him like a chicken! And love my children — oh, did I! I knew my purpose in life was to teach and train them to serve our Lord, but that knowledge only made me feel like a failure on those days (and there were many for a mother of three boys!) when total chaos seemed to rule the roost. I knew I needed help, and there seemed no where to turn for it.
On one of those days when I had about all I could take, a scene erupted in our little kitchen in Florence, SC. I stood there totally frustrated, watching as my three young sons sat around my feet. They were wailing at the tops of their voices! I do not remember what caused all the racket, but I do remember doing the only other thing I knew to do at the time: I joined right in there with them, wailing and crying out to my Daddy, God. As they soon quieted in wide-eyed wonder, I cried out, “Lord, I want to be the right kind of mom. I want to raise them right. I want to be a good and godly wife. I just do not know how! I need a teacher, a mentor to show me. I need you, Lord, and I need a human who cares and knows what I don’t. Why will you not send someone Lord?” And taking this little tantrum up a notch, I stomped my foot in frustration and shouted, “And when I am an old woman, do not let me forget this! Help me be willing to help young moms learn what no one seems willing to teach me now!”
I was still a very young Christian and did not know any better than to pitch a tantrum with my Lord. In His mercy and grace, he did send some humans to help along the way, but mostly He Himself was my help — through His Word — teaching and training me through each season of life as each new struggle presented itself.
I forgot all about that tantrum, never thinking about it again until September 2001. I was having my devotions and prayer time while attending our church ladies retreat when the Lord spoke to my heart and said, “It is time!” I did not get it at first, but then that scene in the kitchen flashed across my mind seemingly in slow motion as each and every word I spoke came back to me. He then spoke again to my heart: “You promised. You asked me to not let you forget. Now it’s time to do for other young moms what no one was willing to do for you that day – teach them.” I looked up to see all the young moms sitting around me in the meeting room that day. The Lord continued: “Teach them what I have taught you. They need to know, and I am calling you to be the one to teach them.” That is when Living in A Zoo? classes & books were born.
Over the next few years, I taught these classes at my home church, Hunter Hills Baptist Church (which is now Life Community Church in Jamestown, NC.) Little did I know that His plan was for more than just the ladies of my church.
Now some eight years later, God has seen this teaching published in a Bible study book not only in English, but Portuguese and Spanish as well. I have had the opportunity to speak to thousands of ladies in many different areas in the US and in Central and South America.
To be honest, I never dreamed of it going into other countries because I thought the frustrations I felt as that young mom were more of an American cultural thing – not something young moms in other countries and cultures would relate to. That just shows how narrow minded we can all be sometimes – but thankfully God knows what every woman needs no matter where they live, and His Word ministers to all cultures, languages and nations!
I have been amazed to learn that all women and young mothers especially, are so much alike no matter where we come from! I cannot wait to see how “my story” changes throughout this next year! To Him be the glory!