South East Region Update

regional review
Apr 192011

Submitted by Julie McCammon, President, Fort Campbell, Kentucky

It’s that time again…time for the world to turn upside down.  Time to install a new board, time to farewell old friends and hail new ones, time to find a new home, time for change.  Transition is tricky, even when you’re not making major life-changes.  Every year we switch out our local PWOC boards and maybe hold our breath a little, wondering what the new year holds.  There’s that sense of being “lost” or maybe even “out of control” that tends to partner with any type of change.

A season of transition is an opportunity for a divine encounter.  When what is familiar and known to us is stripped away, it is a chance to know and be known by God Himself in a pure, uncluttered way.  Our comforts are gone, maybe our friends are gone, but our God who never leaves us meets us at the point of our need and restores our soul.

At Fort Campbell, our new Executive Board has been chosen.  We are in the messy business of transferring authority.  The new board members have new ideas, the old board members are trying to see their original ideas through and finish well.  Many of us are welcoming husbands home after a year-long deployment.  Half of us are moving.  It’s all very wonderful, uncomfortable, exciting, and messy.  Fort Campbell is in God’s hands.  It’s up to Him to carry on the work that He started.

In my personal life, I have a move coming up.  As a family, we are facing the inevitable upheaval of closing out life in one place and establishing our home in a new place.   We’re looking forward to our new adventures and dreading the awful goodbyes.  It’s wonderful, uncomfortable, exciting, and messy.  God has to be big.  He has to be near.  He has to be the One to give me peace and direction.  My life is in His hands; He will finish the work He started in me.  It’s my chance to know Him and to be known by Him in a fresh way.

As you navigate this season of change in your personal life and in your local PWOC, I encourage you to set your gaze a little bit higher.  Trust God to be big.  Take note of where you feel lost or insecure and lay those areas at His feet.  Allow Him to meet you, to comfort you, to direct you and to restore you.  Cherish the gift of knowing and being known by the Prince of Peace.

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Busy

Real life stories, Testimonies
Jan 272010

Submitted by Tracie Warren, PWOCI Assistant Curriculum Development

Life can be busy.  I currently find myself in a season where busy is an understatement.  There have been nights I would lie in bed mentally going through the coming day’s to-do list trying to determine which tasks could be pushed off to another day, because I knew, before the day even began, that I would not get through it all.  Ever been there?  It is exhausting – physically, emotionally, and spiritually.  Tired of being tired, I went to the One I knew could help.  I cried out to God, “I’m doing many things but I’m doing none of them well.  Please, show me what I need to release, what I need to lay aside.”  I felt that I had surely stepped beyond God’s will for my life and had taken on things He had not called me to.  Isn’t that what we so often do…assume that because things are uncomfortable or difficult we must have made a mistake somewhere?  Imagine my surprise when God’s response was simply, “some seasons are busy.”  Some seasons are busy?  “But God, isn’t busy bad?  Isn’t busy Satan’s ploy to keep us ineffective?”  I felt God speak to my heart, “Sometimes, Tracie.  Sometimes busy is bad, but other times, busy is exactly where I’ve placed you.”  As those words fell on me, this thought came to mind – sometimes we battle busy and sometimes we are busy in battle.

God showed me that right now, He has placed me in a busy season and my problem is not in what I am doing, but in how I have been doing it.  I have been trying to do my to-dos without Him.  I’ve not been relying on Him and His guidance.  God taught me that, as with Martha (Luke 10:41-42), there is only one thing I need to do, and that is seek Him first.  When I look to Him first and foremost, He will guide me through, not only my to-do list, but every aspect of my life.  When I focus on Him, He will strengthen me and lead me in accomplishing all that He has called me to do.

I have learned afresh that if we will seek God first, He will equip us for every good work.  We really can do all things through Christ, and sisters, we can do them well, but only when we determine to rely on Him, to follow Him, and to allow Him to guide us and lead us and walk beside us.

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Peace

President's Pen
Dec 312009

Precious PWOC Women,

What an amazing holiday season I have been celebrating with my family and friends this year.  This has been a season filled with a flurry of activities, even snow flurries (and blizzards).  To my amazement, I even got out a few Christmas cards. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to my whole list because of family photo issues.  Seems that of the family group photos we took this year, one of my two young men were missing…either my son, or my son-in-law.  I couldn’t bear to leave one of them out of our family photo, so I opted to send a photo of myself bending down in prayer at a beautiful waterfront to the few, until I could get a full family photo taken for everyone else.

You couldn’t tell the photo was me, so I thought it would be a good one to send to people who didn’t necessarily know my family.  I felt lead to write in gold on the photo a part of the following verse:  ”I will extend peace to her like a river…” Isaiah 66:12.  Because of what our nation is going through, I thought the Scripture spoke hope.  In the midst of all the craziness surrounding us, the Lord gives us His peace.  We need not be fearful of the uncertainty of 2010, but we need to seek Him and know Him in deeper ways than ever before.  God loves each of us deeply and wants to show us this love.

PeaceImage

I have seen His love released in this ministry in beautiful ways this year.  There was evidence of this at our regional conferences and at my own local PWOC.  God knows what we have to endure in the military.  His sweet presence and love has been quite evident.

I know that some of you are in the midst of deployments, which is difficult to endure.  I want to encourage each of you, no matter what season of life you are in to seek the Lord and trust Him.   God is with you and wants to show you His deep love in the midst of your trials and suffering.  You can trust Him.  Allow His peace, which surpasses all understanding, to guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.  Praying for an incredible increase in your awareness of God’s love for you in 2010.

Captivated by His Love, Brenda, President, PWOC International

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The Reason for the Season

Friday Fruit, Seasonal teaching
Dec 112009

Submitted by Barbara Boykin, PWOCI Leadership Selection

Jesus is the reason for the season!!!  This is my favorite time of the year, considering my birthday is only two days away and Christmas is right around the corner.  When I was growing up I never got birthday parties because my birthday was so close to Christmas.  My first birthday party was given to me by my husband the December before we got married.  It was a joyous occasion and one I will never forget.  I have always loved Christmas from the time I was a little girl and it continues to be time for family gatherings, food and so much love.  I think about the love of God shed abroad in our hearts and in this season we can give abundantly just as God gave to us.

The abundant life is knowing the best that God has to give.  It is higher than your highest dreams, deeper than your deepest desires, greater than your greatest hopes. You can be content because you know your life in Him means you are not missing out on something better.  Your heart can rest because when you have found Him to be your life; your search for meaning is over.  When you have heard His call, your need for purpose has ended.  When you have followed His way, your longing for direction has been fulfilled, so you can rest in quiet trust.  Quietness is a state of peace at heart and personal well-being that does the will of God with an attitude of praise, a disposition of gratitude and a makeup of joy.  It is the assurance that you are doing what God wants, in God’s way, at God’s time, for God’s glory.

So as this season manifests itself in your home and in your life, may you find the peace of God that passes all understanding, the love of God that transcends all things beautiful and the power of God that gives you the strength to run the race in VICTORY.

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Prayer points for October 11-17

Prayer Points
Oct 162009

Fear Not!!  Our VBS song this summer declared, “I will not, be afraid, though trouble’s out there, night and day.  No I will not, be swamped with fear, because God is always, always, always….yeah… He’s always here.

In a season where cute pumpkins and happy hayrides sometimes get overshadowed by death, gore, and fear, God gives us a clear message of hope. He is with us, He loves us and He is personally involved in the details of our lives!!

Isaiah 43: 1-7

 1 But now, this is what the LORD says—
       he who created you, O Jacob,
       he who formed you, O Israel:
       “Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
       I have summoned you by name; you are mine.

 2 When you pass through the waters,
       I will be with you;
       and when you pass through the rivers,
       they will not sweep over you.
       When you walk through the fire,
       you will not be burned;
       the flames will not set you ablaze.

 3 For I am the LORD, your God,
       the Holy One of Israel, your Savior;
       I give Egypt for your ransom,
       Cush and Seba in your stead.

 4 Since you are precious and honored in my sight,
       and because I love you,
       I will give men in exchange for you,
       and people in exchange for your life.

 5 Do not be afraid, for I am with you;
       I will bring your children from the east
       and gather you from the west.

 6 I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’
       and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’
       Bring my sons from afar
       and my daughters from the ends of the earth-

 7 everyone who is called by my name,
       whom I created for my glory,
       whom I formed and made.”

Dear God, I praise you because you know my name. You not only formed me, but you called  me by my name, and you even came looking for me and brought me back to you.  You protect me in ways I don’t even know. When I go through hard times you not only know about it ahead of time, but you even walk through the difficulties with me. You don’t allow me to be destroyed.  You restore my children.  I am called by Your Name!  You wanted me in your family.  Help me to remember that you made, formed, and created me for your glory!  Let my strengths bring you glory.  Shine your light through the cracks in my life. God, my neighbor, my husband, my child, my friend needs to know your Name.  Draw _______(insert name) to Yourself.   You are good and kind.   I love you.  In Jesus Name, Amen.

To reach Dawn Kennedy please click here.

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