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Fort Greely, Alaska

Apr 062012

Hi Ladies:

I am so exited of what God is doing in Fort Greely…We became official! After two years of praying and waiting. God is good!!

I have to thank the Lord and our Chaplain Earl Vanderhof for his support, encouragement and prayers during all this time and to my sister Treva for having such a tender heart for the Lord and a strong faith to believe that this was possible, I love u girl!
I also want to thank my other sister Paulette for seeking the Lord and being obedient to get in this boat with us to spread the good news that God is the same today, yesterday and tomorrow, love u girl!

I know in my heart that He has called us this season to begin this group here at Ft. Greely and I believe that we are walking in His will, as one, to reach all the women who need Jesus in their life. Halleluiah! We are going to conquer anything that we believe in the name of Jesus, there’s nothing impossible to those who believe, so don’t be afraid, ladies, to believe and stand in faith for what God has promised you because in His time it’s going to happen. I encourage you all to seek the Lord more than ever through fasting and prayer, he has called us, but are we willing to pay the price to see his glory in everything that we do?

Let’s commit ourselves as living sacrifices to The One who is the Head of PWOC, Jesus Christ, and to love our neighbor as our self.

Many Blessings, in the love of Christ Vanessa Hernández

President, Fort Greely

Alaska Region Update

regional review

Nov 032011

Submitted by Treva Slaughter, Alaska Regional President

I love Jesus, not just for dying on the cross for my sins, but also for loving me the way He does and chasing after me the way He does. When I got here, God showed me that His desire for me and the women of this Region, was to be Caleb’s and Joshua’s and to possess the land that He had promised us (Deuteronomy 1:8). He was waiting for us to stand up and be the women of God, He had called us to be, and continues to call us each day. God desires us to trust Him, obey and follow Him TOTALLY and not to be just hearers but also doers of the word (James 1:22). Despite what we see from others in this world, or in our churches, His desire for us is to be true followers so that when people see us, our Father in Heaven can be glorified.

As we kicked off the conference season, I was honored to see God’s promise fulfilled through His women in the Alaska Region. I witnessed firsthand true followers of Christ. Women who took a stand and said, “No more will we be conformed to the pattern of this world but we will be transformed by the renewing of our mind (Romans 12:2).” I saw women that were totally focused on God’s will for His Kingdom. Women that put their own selfish desires, thoughts, religious customs and traditions away and went to God in prayer, supplication and true worship, proclaiming “Here I am Lord send me, I’ll go to the Nations so the whole world will know your love and compassion and WE together will possess the land you promised us. Powerful, Right? Now, imagine how we felt as we got to witness this first hand.

I believe God is speaking the same message to us all over the world. As you all approach your conference, Alaska wants to be the first to encourage you to continue to seek God’s face in prayer, forgive others and ask for forgiveness when needed so that your prayers will not be hindered. Trust God at His word, and then obey exactly what He speaks to you to do.

WE promise you sisters (and I know many of you know this) but for the slight chance some don’t. Our Father promised us in 2 Chronicles 7:14, if those of us who are called by his name will pray and turn from our wicked ways then He will hear from heaven, forgive and heal our land.

I know we are ready for our land to be healed Sisters, so let’s take God at His word and watch him fulfill His promise to the Nations. Know that Alaska is praying for you all and we can’t wait to hear the great reports of how God moved at ALL the conferences!

Time to Get out of the Way

Leadership Development, Local Limelight

Jun 022011

After completing the W.I.L.D. training last year I sat in a Chapel classroom with two other board members and cried. I felt so overwhelmed and unprepared for the position I had been selected for as President of the Eielson PWOC. The weight of every woman on Eielson suddenly sat on my shoulders. I was very new to PWOC. I had been a part of our Women’s Ministry at our home church in San Antonio TX, so I was not sure where this overwhelmed feeling was coming from. I even met with our Chaplain to explain why I did not feel I was the gal for the job, leading other women in their walk when my walk was littered with junk and so many flaws. Who am I? How would I be used? Why would I be used?

We are daughters of the Lord, shortcomings, junk and flaws. We try and wear our “big girl” panties and do it our own way. Then we are surprised when we fall short. We need Christ every step of the way. I know this, I believe this, and yet time and time again I try and do it my way and consult with Him from time to time. I wonder…hum why do I feel overwhelmed? He did not intend for me to just check in, He wants to be leading the way and wants my complete submission as His plans have been laid out for each of us. Yet I compare our local installation with others and we need only 2 bible studies, we have monthly fellowship and we fit in a service project. Never feeling as though it was enough.

We need to get back to basics. God did not give His Son to save us from our sins for us to continue to do life on our own. Eielson PWOC is a small group because that is exactly what His intentions were for us this year. There is no shame or failure in being small. So, I do I feel those things…well because living in the flesh and not the Spirit messes with our life. Satan loves to do the dance when we are beating ourselves up. Because then he thinks he has a small or even a large victory! Well, I say get behind me Satan because I am a daughter of Christ and you have no place in this body! GET OUT!!

God is so patient with each of us. He waits patiently for us to get out of the way. I believe there is a reason we were so small. I believe He has been very intentional and His timing is perfect. There is a reason we do not have a selected board for next year because HE is still setting it into place. His timing is perfect and ours is not. There is a reason square pegs do not fit into round holes. I believe that it is easy for us to get caught up in meeting the expectation of others and we miss seeking His expectation for our lives and our ministry. We get caught up in the guidelines and rules and we don’t hear Him. We are….I am so worried about letting others down that I miss that I am not shining in the light of HIS glory.

As I stated earlier we do not have a board for next year. He breaks the pot, turns it back into clay and He shapes the clay. This is not an easy process but know HE is bigger. So big that He shows up at a small soccer field in Fairbanks AK to remind me that He has a plan for my life, for your life and for PWOC. There are seasons of brokenness that we go through so that He can rebuild us. It is uncomfortable and painful, however the reward is an amazing gift. He CAN make a square peg into a round peg when it is time. Are you willing? I am and He is patiently waiting for each of us.

Peace

Kim, Alaska Region

“And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. An the Father who knows all hearts knows that the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will. And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. For God knew his people in advance and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory. What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since he did not spare even his won Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one – for God himself has given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us? No one -for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.”

Romans 8: 26 – 34

Alaska Regional Update

regional review

May 052011

Submitted by Elise Tobin

Dear Sisters in Christ,

I’m writing this with love and yearning that all of us will remember that Christ should be first in our lives. I was searching for a closer and more personal relationship with God and wanting to hear from Him on a daily basis. I began to ask God, “What was my spiritual gifting and calling.” God actually kept me up all night and told me to look inside my vessel. My gift and calling has already been placed inside of me by Him and in order to recognize my gifts and calling He required a closer relationship with Him. God has a call on your life also! Do you want to know what that calling is? I pray that you do and pray that you seek His face in your everyday lives.

If you are unsure about your personal relationship with God, I encourage you to please stop, pray, and ask for God to come into your life which is the salvation prayer. After salvation is when we become Gods vessels, for His purpose! Once we receive God we can’t run from God or hide our hearts from Him. He sees all, knows all, and understands all. Others can’t see our heart, but God can. Our bodies are Gods vessels which He’ll use if our hearts are clean. God has shown me that some of our hearts have a layer of fog, some have spots, and others are turning black. God wants to wipe our hearts clean by letting the Holy Spirit cleanse within. I believe God wants us to see that once our hearts are fully cleaned our region will be able to experience unity, love and total worship for God, Jesus Christ, The Alpha and Omega, Beginning and The End.

What might need cleaning? What’s your commitment? Look inside your vessel! Ask God for all your answers (Matthew 7:7-8). Pray and open your Bible. God’s not gone anywhere. He’s real, alive, and working but is your heart real, alive and working for God? Don’t go along as usual God is asking us to make changes now and put Him on the pedestal that only He deserves in our hearts, lives, families, and marriages!

Please don’t think my experience with God can only happen to me. God wants you to receive this same type of clarity in your own life, so now is the time to renew the passion you had at salvation. Proverbs 3:5-6. Remembering to always give God the glory only He deserves and exalting Him daily by surrounding yourself with Godly men and women, learning, rejoicing, encouraging, and joining to serve our wonderful maker Jesus Christ, for whoever, or wherever He sends us!

Ready, set, go to never be the same again and experience a joy that surpasses all understanding!! Are you ready??

Hope

Devotions, regional review

Mar 312011

Submitted by Katie Treesh

“Tie your life, bind it together tightly like the threads of a rope onto the anchor of Jesus Christ crucified, buried, and risen! He is safe and secure and goes through the curtain of the heavenly temple into the inner sanctuary. On our behalf Jesus has gone in there before us and has become a high priest forever…The King of Righteousness and King of Peace. If you do, one day you will be raised with Him and see Him face to face when He establishes His heavenly Kingdom forever more!”

Hebrews 6:19-20 (My translation)

Hope. The Hebrew word is qavah which means to bind together like the cords of a rope.

…picture in your mind the process of making a rope (cord) by twisting or weaving (binding) thin threads together to form the rope. The more strands that are twisted or woven together in a rope, the greater is its strength…Ecclesiastes 4:12 says “… a cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” The literal definition of “qavah” implies strength through numbers. Just as a rope’s strength comes from being made of many strands, so our strength comes through being united with Christ. The “rope” of our lives gains strength by being twisted or woven or bound together with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

Think about it, if you are on a ship, you need a rope and an anchor to hold the ship in place – you cannot have one without the other. Otherwise, your ship will just be blown and tossed around by the waves of the sea.

In our spiritual lives, we must make sure that our rope – I mean, hope – is attached to the RIGHT anchor that will keep the ship of our lives from being tossed and torn by the storms of this life. This anchor is the good news of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ the perfect Son of God took upon our sins and nailed them to the cross, was buried in the baptism of death, and raised again to life by the Spirit of God. Therefore, we have a living hope that we too will be partakers of His resurrection when He returns again to receive His Bride.

So I ask you: Where is your hope? Have you placed it in the things of this world: your husband, children, money, job, ministry, approval of others which are imperfect, temporary and will fail you? Or have you tied your “rope” to the only anchor that is sure and steadfast, the living Hope, the perfect One who never fails and is coming again soon to receive His Bride?

Shalom Shalom!

Image from: zazzle; Information source: spwickstrom

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The Alaska Region Review in published on the last thursday of every month. Please sent comments to alaskapresident@pwoc.org

Is God Intentionally in your Marriage?

regional review

Mar 032011

Submitted by Crystal Calloway

The word intentional is a word that I keep hearing over and over again and one that I have begun to mediate on. According to Webster’s Dictionary, Intentional means to be done by intention or design. In Alaska we are focusing on marriages at many of our installations, how we can have hope, become Proverb 31 women, how we can summit to our husband’s, and basically how we can intentionally place God as the head of our marriage and become the wives God designed us to be in the mist of our military life. We all know that deployments are part of our military lives. At one time or another through-out your military career you will either experience a deployment or know someone who has. Many of our wives here are either coming off a deployment or preparing for one. We realize that anytime there is a deployment the transition can be challenging. As a wife whose husband just returned back from a deployment, after not being deployed for the last four years. I myself have been faced with some deployment challenges in my own marriage. Knowing this was not God’s intention or design I have been seeking him for answers. In my prayer time, what God has been showing me is that I must be more intentional where I place him in my marriage through MY actions and words. I have not been intentional where I placed God in my marriage and to be honest I have begun to replace God with other things like food, shopping, and friends. Knowing God’s original intention for my marriage is for him to be the head, then my husband and then me; I quickly knew in my spirit I had to make some changes.

My encouragement for my sisters coming off a deployment or preparing for one is that YOU intentionally place God as the head of your marriage. Prayerfully seek God now before the deployment, continue to seek him during the deployment, and continue to seek him after the deployment. Be INTENTIONAL on where you place God in your marriage. In Alaska, we are becoming mindful of the charge God has given us for our marriages and INTENIONALLY placing Him first. We pray you join us in INTENTIONALLY placing God as the head of your marriage regardless if your husband is deployed, just returning from a deployment, or never been deployed before. I challenge you to make God the third strand and God promises that when he is the third strand it will not be quickly broken. This is God’s original intent!

Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

Ecclesiastes 4:12

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Alaska’s regional review is posted the first Thursday of every month. Email comments and questions to alaskapresident@pwoc.org

I Know The Plans I Have For You

regional review

Feb 032011

Submitted by Marci Everson, Alaska Region Titus 2

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the LORD”

Jeremiah 29:11- 14a

God really does want each one of us to seek Him and find Him. God wants to be found by each one of us. I am reminded of an experience with God about a year ago. A couple of months after we had to put our 9 year old dog, Chulitna, to sleep due to bone cancer. It happened just after Christmas and right before our son was going back to college. Chulitna had been my walking partner, the one who was home when no one else was; she and I were a team. What I didn’t realize until she was gone was how much she had insulated me from the full onset of the empty nest. When our son went back to school and my husband went back to work it hit full force. I was depressed. It took me two months before I was determined to talk to God about the depression, sadness and deep loneliness that I was experiencing. I was at home and planned to ignore any phone calls or the door bell. There would be no distraction from this meeting with my Lord. So I sat down and told God about Chulitna, how she was always there, how she loved me so completely even if I forgot about her or was late getting home or stepped on her paw. God almost interrupted me to tell me, I love you like that. I love you with unconditional love. I gasped and thought, I know that! I promptly told God that was a great answer but that I had one more problem. My husband had told me the house was quiet, not empty, but the house still felt empty to me. I told Him that when I came into the house from the garage, Chulitna wasn’t there to greet me – I was all alone. God spoke again and reminded me, Didn’t you just say you walked into the house? Don’t you know that I am with you always and I will never leave you or forsake you? I can hardly describe the feeling of Joy that overcame me because I could agree with Him and see that the house really was just quiet. I don’t know why it took me 2 months to have a heart to heart with God. What I do know is that God had been waiting for me to come to Him, to seek Him out. And just as He promises in Jeremiah When I sought him He let me find Him! So seek Him with all of your heart and listen for his voice. The Lord wants to meet with you.

His Light in the Darkness

Seasonal teaching

Dec 302010

Greetings from the Alaska Region,

Tomorrow marks four years that my family and I have lived in Alaska and we all are really enjoying our time here. One of the things I find absolutely amazing here is the dramatic difference between summer and winter. This time of year is the darkest – the least amount of daylight in the northern hemisphere, and here in the Anchorage area that equates to about four hours of daylight. To some this actually causes a physical issue and I can see why. When you can’t see where you are going it is hard to go anywhere, it is easy to focus on how dark it is. The reverse side of this is we are actually gaining sunlight daily now, as much as 5-10 minutes a day. Living in this environment has forced me to have a tangible meaning to what God being the Light of the world really looks like. Psalm 119:105 states “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path (NIV).”

We just celebrated Advent; a time of Hope, Love, Joy and Peace. A time of preparation for Christ. We spend many hours getting ready for Christmas, telling the story to children, watching the plays, really immersing in what this time of year means, and then it is over. The time after Christmas can be such a let down after the amazing build up it is. The tree is still up and the smells are still in the air but the day has come and gone. Is this actually a dark time for you?

God’s word is the light and the more time we spend in it the more Light we have in our lives. If I turn towards the Son I will not look so much at the darkness. As this season draws to a close we can continue to be immersed in His Light if we choose to be and let the true Light of Christmas continue to shine all year long.

Submitted by Alicia Mayer, Alaska Region President

What's going on in the Alaska Region?

regional review

Dec 022010

Submitted by Alicia Mayer, Alaska Region, President

There are so many great things happening in and around the Alaska Region it will be hard to maintain ‘blog length’ so I will pick one to share!

The most exciting thing happening here in Alaska is growth in Jesus! Our sisters from Ft Greely are becoming active in this ministry and were able, with a lot of support from the Chapel community, to attend the PWOC International Conference for the first time ever! Why is this such a big deal? Aside from having the opportunity to lift up our sisters and for them to be a part of the PWOC ministry, let me tell you a little about Ft Greely, AK. Ft Greely is located in the interior of Alaska, in the winter time they have close to 24 hours of time that the sun barely comes above the horizon. The closest town to them is Delta Junction with a population of about 1000 people…total! To put that in perspective, the 6 ladies that attended the International Conference got to worship our Lord with more ladies than the population of the town they shop in! Can you imagine? They were able to fill their cup to overflowing before returning to Alaska so much so that I received this note from them when they returned,

“Praise God Alicia! After all He did in, through and to us this weekend we were given the most awesome gift of leading a young soldier that was on our last flight to Christ right there in Fairbanks International at the midnight hour!” EXCITING!

We ask for continued prayer for these ladies and their chaplain as they continue to seek God’s guidance to spread the Gospel to a community in our region that could really benefit from the work and heart of PWOC.

Our Testimony is our Authority

regional review, Testimonies

Nov 042010

Submitted by Nicole Snider, Alaska Region, Administrative Coordinator

I recently heard the statement “Our testimony is our authority.” It caused me to think about what exactly that meant? First I considered what is my testimony? For some people this is a really easy question to answer, as God has dramatically brought them out of a very dark pit (i.e. abuse, addiction, etc.). For me, it has never been anything that dramatic; so more thought was required. For a long time, I questioned the “validity” of my Christian walk, because I didn’t have a dramatic testimony to share, and then I was gently reminded that God made us all different and our experience(s) with him were meant to be as individual as we are. So, although my testimony may not be as dramatic as others, I can definitely point to specific times in my life when God’s work has been more than evident and that is what I share as my testimony.

Next, I considered what is authority? Dictionary.com gives the following as options for the definition of authority: “a power or right delegated or given; authorization”; “a person or body of persons in whom authority is vested”; “an accepted source of information, advice”; or “an expert on a subject”. Interestingly, there are numerous times throughout the Bible when Jesus instructs individuals to go and tell what He has done for them. Throughout the Psalms there are exhortations encouraging one to tell of the Lord’s good works. These sound like a delegation or vesting of authority to me; and who is more of an expert on what God has done in your life than you. So, our authority is to share God’s good works and to shine the light into the world that the Lord has shined into our lives. Therefore my sweet sisters, I challenge you today to consider what work in your life He wants you to share with others and then I want you to stand in the authority that He has given you and share it so that we can all “Shine in the Light of His Glory”.

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PWOC International Blog

Fort Greely, Alaska

Alaska Region Update

Time to Get out of the Way

Alaska Regional Update

Hope

Is God Intentionally in your Marriage?

I Know The Plans I Have For You

His Light in the Darkness

What's going on in the Alaska Region?

Our Testimony is our Authority

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