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Elizabeth Ministry is not a new ministry, it is just a fresh format for woman to woman mentoring. Women have been sharing their experiences about childbearing throughout the generations. In the distant and not so distant past women had many informal opportunities to be with each other which we don't have today. Women would gather at the well when getting their family's daily water supply; today we stand alone at the sink and open the facet. Women gathered at quilting bees to make blankets; today we shop alone for them in department stores. Women would interact daily across the fence as they hung up the wash; today we put clothes in our dryers. With so many women needing to work outside the home, few are left for the neighborhood conversations around coffee cups. Details of childbearing and childrearing were not sought after in books or in classes, but observed firsthand by watching and sharing with one another in these informal settings. Such casual support systems are too few, and are even lost completely in many neighborhoods. Many of us live in neighborhoods with strangers. Our extended families and childhood friends may live across the country instead of across the street. Our time commitments keep us from gathering informally as women to nurture one another. This change in society has taken away the forum for our visiting, but it has not taken away the need. Elizabeth Ministry is a way to enable women to reach out to one another in a spirit of inclusiveness and sisterhood. Elizabeth Ministry is based on the premise that if we reverence every child as sacred, we will cherish that child into adulthood and old age. As women share their stories and experiences, they engender confidence, overcome fears, and help each other to become open to the wonder of new life with trust. They unite their joys and trials gaining strength from a mutually shared faith in which their stories mingle with and are linked to the story of Jesus. Their sharing empowers them to become instruments of celebration and healing for other women.