Mission Statement
To invite and welcome women from all generations and cultures to celebrate their uniqueness, promote inner healing, to encourage, and to empower. The sharing of testimonies by women who have faced and overcome emotional challenges. To build confidence, self-worth, self-value and promote self-care. To go out into the community and “be the need you needed when you were in need”.
About The Founder
Stephanie Edwards
I have always had a desire to help and encourage others. To extend compassion to those who are misunderstood, by letting them know that they have a purpose. What a better way by showing them that they are chosen and invited to come together to be celebrated, to share, to receive encouragement and to be empowered. To know that someone is aware and sees them. We as women connect on so many levels. Some of us may share similar stories with different responses.
Whether it is depression, rejection, insecurities or low self-esteem, someone has traveled through that path and can be a guide or give advice as to how they made it through. There is strength and power in numbers.
Throughout the years there have been some very special women who came by my side to lift me up, help guide and make this vision a reality.
We may not reach all but if we just reach one and that one, reaches one and so forth we will make a difference in our community. We need each other. This is one of our important goals as we come together.
Stephanie Edwards
Founder of Chosen & Invited
1 Thessalonians 5:11
“Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.”
Inspirational Quote
“You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right.”
- Rosa Parks
“In a world with so many unmet needs, be the need you needed when you were in need.”
—Stephanie Edwards
About The Co-Founder
Lorra Bailey
It has always been a lifelong dream of mine to be able to help and serve others in my community. Through many years of volunteerism, whether volunteering with children in afterschool programs, sports and in church activities, my need to help and serve has never wavered. We are to be a help and not a hindrance to those that God allows to cross our paths. With love and compassion, we can reach the lost, lonely and forgotten, just by saying hello and starting a casual conversation, that can lead to positive reactions and friendships that last a lifetime.
We were created to love and care for each other. Chosen & Invited has become the instrument that God has chosen to give me to spread his love. All of us have times in our lives that are uncomfortable and painful to talk about or even think of. But, if there is someone there that will listen, layers of sadness can slowly be removed, by knowing that you are not alone. Our lives may seem so very different until you start a conversation and realize that others have been right where you are. Having a safe place to share and grow friendships/sisterhoods is necessary, Chosen & Invited is that safe place. I believe God chose me to be the encouraging light that someone is looking for.
Phillipians 4:13 -I can do all things through him who gives me strength.
“There is always light. If only we’re brave enough to see it. If only we’re brave enough to be it.” - Amanda Gorman
“Behind every great woman, there is another great woman.”
— Kate Hodges
S |
SHARING of testimonies by women who have faced challenges in their lives. Providing knowledge and wisdom learned in overcoming their difficulties. |
E |
ENCOURAGING through spoken word, experience, positivity and helping to identify your true potential by finding your voice. |
E |
EMPOWERING one another in unity with real life tools from women who are eager to help other women by networking and building relationships. |
Woman In The Mirror
Whether you glance or stare,
Who is the woman standing there?
Is she the woman who you thought she would be?
Or is it the woman that society and everyone else wants her to be?
When you look into her eyes which are the windows of her soul, what do you uncover?
The new or the old? Or the struggle between living in fear or being confident and bold.
Do you see her flaws and imperfections?
Do you recognize her uniqueness, beauty, and blessing?
Do you see the struggles she has overcome?
Can you hear the knowledge she has gained and her wealth of wisdom?
Do you notice the scars that have now healed from being wounded and broken?
Can you hear the strength in her voice after she has spoken?
She is no longer hiding behind the glass.
She has persevered and stepped out of her past.
So now tell me what do you see?
It looks like a woman who is no longer bound but free!
Written by: Stephanie Edwards