Hand UP for Women has a new board president – Christina Lindberg. Her term begins June 1, and she has been involved with the nonprofit for about seven years. What started out as a simple introduction at a women’s breakfast in Knoxville has since become a relationship of trust, education, ministry and thinking ahead to generational healing.
“They asked me to join the board a few years ago, and I’ve been seeing that side of the ministry, and now I’m going to be its president,” Christina said with almost a tone of disbelief. “I’m a little amazed… when I look back at life and see all God has orchestrated, it’s such a privilege to be part of this team, and I look at this as an opportunity of ministry to help women heal, generationally. I love these ladies, I’m the ‘happy hugger’ of the group.”
Christina, who teaches the technology class (and the sewing class) in the program, sees the work with Hand UP For Women as a ministry, as the group offers classes to women who have been through hard times and are trying to better their lives.
“When women heal, they don’t just heal themselves, they heal the generations before and after them. Hand UP For Women is that, and it has to survive us,” she said. “Thirty years ago, if I had had a program like Hand UP For Women, I don’t think I would have been one of the walking wounded for as long as I was.”
Christina knows what it is to be in the trenches of life’s hard lessons. She suffered an abusive first marriage, and it took a lot of courage and strength to leave, but to look at her now, one wouldn’t see those scars and hardships.
“Recovery is hard, I’ve been through it and I’m thirty years down the road from the hot mess I was, and I see a lot of my younger self in these ladies,” Christina said. “I know what I look like to them – a successful, professional computer geek – but when I’m able to share with them that I know what they’re going through to a certain extent, to be able to share that journey of mine, and teach, I have learned over the years, that you either believe God is good, or you don’t. But it’s not easy when you’re recovering.”
As Christina looks to her upcoming term as board president, she says she wasn’t sure she wanted it at first, but now she is confident in where the Lord has placed her, for the time being. It all started with teaching.
“I love to teach, especially computer stuff,” Christina said. “My goal with the class has been to make it approachable. There really is a digital divide, and I hadn’t realized how fortunate and blessed I was, as I’ve been in the technology field for 25 years. To be able to bridge that gap, and we’ve had great success with our technology class, even have had some ladies go on to college and they’ll come back and tell me, ‘we would have been so lost if you hadn’t shown us this,’ which is very cool.”
Christina also shared that she likes to tell her classes about understanding God’s timing, and how taking the bitter with the sweet can lead to unexpected, great things.
“I like to say that God is the ultimate recycler, how Scripture talks about how He takes all the good things mixed together for those who love and serve Him,” she said. “It doesn’t mean that all of those things are sweet.”
She related it to a time when she had several children at her house while their parents were taking care of some business, and she didn’t have a television. So, to keep the children entertained, she showed them her kitchen spice collection.
“We started going through all of my spices, the kids didn’t know what cream of tartar tasted like, or what cloves were, or Allspice, and if you taste them all separately – I mean, I like cinnamon but I wouldn’t want a spoonful of it – and cloves are great in pumpkin pie,” Christina said. “So it was this process of tasting the spices individually, and going, ‘yuck,’ but when it’s in pie, it’s delicious. So, God takes all of these experiences, bitter, sharp, vinegary things that we have survived that either were done to us or we did to ourselves, He takes all of those things and He makes something beautiful out of it.”
Christina said she feels God has brought her full circle to where she can be the support for women like her as they try to find the best ingredients within themselves.
For her new role as board president, Christina says she’s continuing to approach it with a mindset of ministry and functionality.
“We’re a functioning team, a working board, tasked with support, upkeep, managing the finances, fundraising, staffing and of course – thinking ahead to the future,” she said. “This ministry would not be able to function without the board doing its job. We have to be thinking ahead, thinking generationally, and healing generationally.”
Christina says she has seen so many changes in the ladies in her work over the years, and seeing God move with the participants, if they’re willing to do the work.
“It’s been my experience in life that you have to pursue healing,” Christina said. “There were many times in the Scripture that Jesus just healed somebody, in that one moment, and sometimes, healing is a journey. It’s a hard road because you have to face things you don’t necessarily want to face. What I like to ask my classes, or people wanting to get involved with Hand UP For Women, is this: How is God calling you to be a partner with us?”
Inspired by Christina’s words of wisdom? Learn how you can help with the healing, and more, in the Donations page.
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