Has it been that long????

How humiliating, it was really Thanksgiving when I last wrote? OK, well, here we go, back again, not that anyone is reading this or anything! But just in case someone other than my mother is chiming in...
We begin "Breaking Free" soon! It is coming faster than I am admitting. Not to worry, though, we are feverishly refining all the details and we will be ready for the 9th! We have 30 coming and a lot of new faces, some of our usual suspects will be "snowbirds" for this time around.
I am at a point in my life right now where I am overwhelmed and I believe that "Breaking Free" is coming at the exact perfect time for me, how about you? I can tell you this, God's Word always comes at the right time in your life. He never fails never! We are on the verge, I believe of something BIG... He is preparing us, refining us and He will see us through!
I am convinced that this year will see big changes, in our hearts and minds....so, buckle up and get ready!
See you soon girls!
Lisa

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I am thankful to our LORD for the many blessings in my life, but I want to hightlight this one....YOU! Mom and I are very thankful that He has given us the opportunity to serve Him by serving you. It has been our joy to see so much growth in many lives, including ours. We are thankful that you come Monday nights, do your homework, let us check it, and are enthusiastic about what God is doing in your life!

Breaking Free....ok, now listen, we have begun the process of getting things prepared, and can I just say WOW!!!! This Bible study is going to be POWERFUL! Please make sure you are not committed to anything else before you commit to this! This is not a Bible study that you can just come in and out of...it will require you to participate in all aspects of it. I suggest that you really pray about your commitment to coming to Monday night meetings, doing your homework and praying! As Beth says, this is gonna be good!

DEADLINE IS DECEMBER 20TH NO EXCEPTIONS!!!

Love you all, and Have a great Thanksgiving.
Lisa and Pam

Movie Night!!!!

OK girls, start spreading the word! We have a date for movie night, "One Night With The King", Saturday,  Dec. 5th at 7:00. Invite your girlfriends, daughters, neices, neighbors! We will have a lot of fun and give away a door prize! Of course there will be snacks there! This is a great way to celebrate the completion of our study of Esther. Girls movie night! We will have a blast. Go to the link to see what the movie is all about!
http://www.8x.com/onenight/main.html

Almost done!

Amazing how time flies! We have 2 Mondays to go! Pam and I are going to Nashville this Wednesday thru Sat. for a National Women's Leadership Conference. We are so excited, we haven't said a whole lot about it so far because we weren't sure if we would be able to go with Mom's recent surgery and bouts of infection, but Dr. said good to go! I also entered to win tickets to the CMA awards for Wed. evening and get backstage passes, however, I have not heard about that as of yet. I think in fact that the hope of that happening is over at this point! Please pray for us while we are there, we want to learn more about effective leadership and learn how to do a better job for all of you.
This has indeed been an exciting amazing journey in God's Word these last several weeks, this book is full of DRAMA! As we approach the end of this journey, we look forwad to a new one with Breaking Free in January. Make sure you sign up before the registration deadline!
Don't forget your food item, and your food bank donations for the last night together. And we still need volunteers to make those cookies!
Watch for the date for movie night....and invite a girlfriend along!
To His Glory,
Lisa And Pam

Feeling Down

As you can see from my title, I am feeling a little overwhelmed and defeated. Our family has been under attack so to speak. I am using that wonderful verse a lot lately that goes something like this..."I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." In fact right now, I am relying soley on His strength right now. I pray that when we get on the other side of all this mess we are in right now, that I will be stronger in the Lord, repentant, and more like Christ. I have a long way to go, but times like these will surely speed up the process. So, ladies, if we seem a little off or we are not measuring up to your expectations, we do apologize for that, but we also know that everything happens for a reason, so we will not be defeated. This study is going to be so powerful in all our lives, don't be surprised if the enemy decides to mess with you! You just mess right back with the Sword of the Spirit and don't give up!!!! Do not let him win. "He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world"! Let's pray for each other daily for strength, wisdom, discernment and perserverence.
Love to you all, Lisa

Kick off letter

Greetings Girlfriend!

Are you ready for an adventure in God's Word? I know you are, so keep your hands and feet inside the car, buckle up and prepare for a "wild ride" in the Word of God. The book of Esther is filled with mystery, suspense, romance, intrigue and, a lot of parties! Whew! Be prepared, we will also be bobbing and weaving our way around this thought: "It's tough being a woman".
The Kick-off is a very important part of the study, this is the part where we will get to know one another a little better, have some fun, watch us make fools of ourselves (on an even deeper level than usual) and watch the first DVD lesson. So, you don't want to miss it. September 12, from 8:30- Noon. Please tell us if you will not be there!

What you need to know for the kick-off:

• Call or email us if you cannot attend the kick-off
• We will be serving breakfast
• Wear fancy, girly clothes...do it up!
• We need donations of fruit (cut, if it s cantaloupe, etc.), muffins and pastries, so if you can donate we need you to bring it to the church Friday night before 5:00, please call us and tellus  what you are donating.

What you need to bring:

• Your Bible
• Index cards and small journal
• Colored pencils or pens
• Some recipes, typed or written on 8 1/2 x 11 paper (one or two or more if you like!)

One more bit of information: we want to let youknow before the 12th, in case you don't already know, that Pam has been diagnosed with DCIS which is non-invasive breast cancer. At the writing of this letter, we are unsure of dates and times of surgeries etc. So, we are planning everything as usual right now. We may be forced to make changes to the schedule, but we will make every effort to keep things as "normal" as possible. We would greatly appreciate your prayers at this time for healing, of course, and wisdom to the physicians and  us as we help each other through this crisis, and of course for my Mom  personally as she deals with this circumstance. We trust our LORD to see us through. We do not want our kick-off to be a sad, bummer of a day, but a celebration of what we will learn in God's Word! See you there!

Pam and Lisa

I am not going to publish our phone # or email address on the blog. You may comment back or look up our numbers or call the church and Pat will let you know how to get a hold of us.

Beth and Texas Cake

I have to say that this weekend was amazing at the LPL Simulcast! God had us there for a very specific reason and I just couldn't wait to let you know that we are so praising Him right now! I am not going to go into details right now, but I will on a later post. I am also not going to go into detail about the event and the message we heard yet either! Something Beth said struck a chord in me! She suggested that instead of twittering or blogging or texting what you heard right away to allow yourself to receive it before you share it. Well, that just hit me like a ton of bricks. I always think of my WOW girls and want you to know what is going on and what we are learning. So, I will meditate on the Word that I received this weekend, and post the summary later. Just wanted you to know God was all over us! Amen and Hallelujah!
ps...about the cake, Beth told us this hilarious story about her chocolate cake and her grandson, which will be in the post later, but she decided to post the recipe for everyone on her blog. Check it out and enjoy! www.livingproofministries.blogspot.com

Whew!

Well girls, we did it. We finished the summer session of WOW! We started out with 35 eager, enthusiastic women and ended our session with about 20 still eager and enthusiastic women. Summer has been a killer to say the least, it had its share of ups and downs, surgeries, family health crisis', family crisis' in general, vacations and many more events. I am encouraging everyone who could not continue coming on Mondays to finish the study. It is well worth your time. A few women voiced their praises of the material and how it truly has changed the way they relate to our Holy Father God. It really was a blessing to study the names of God. Wow, I learned so much about Him and have a closer relationship with Him now that I understand more of who He really is. This book will be great to reference for a long time to come.
No resting on our laurels girls, fall is quickly approaching and there is still a lot to learn about our God and our walk with Him. Esther by Beth Moore will prove to be timely and relevant to your life today. We are just filled with anticipation. Our kick-off is Sept. 12 from 8:30 to noon. Many cool things are planned for this jump start to our study on Esther. Get ready to enter the ring and duke it out with all those things that make it "tough being a woman"!
WOW! is hosting the after church fellowship time this Sunday, so I hope to see all our WOW! girls and their families there. Come enjoy a hot dog while we fellowship and encourage each other this Sunday!
Love to all, Lisa and Pam

August News

Hi ladies! Well, I did it again! I missed the deadline for Centre News. I just cannot seem to get it together! So, I am going to post it on the blog, I hope it works! Now, I just have to get you to look at it!

It just cannot be August already! Summer is quickly fading and soon it will be time to get that back-to-school gear, say good-bye to those college-bound kids, and all the parents to have their huge big party! Isn’t that what we thought happened when we went back to school (of course, maybe some of you parents are planning a party; I’ll never tell )?
We only have a few weeks left to finish “Knowing God by Name”by Mary Kassian. I must say, It has been so revitalizing and challenging to really dig into who God really is through knowing some of His names. We have learned things like: “Richon Va-Acharon” which means, God is “The First and The Last”, and “Rachum Ve-Chanun” which means He is “Merciful and Gracious”. Whew, pronouncing all those words, has been a bit of a struggle, but it has been well worth our effort. Learning who He truly is has drawn us closer to our Adonai Yahweh. (Quiz a WOW! participant on that one).
It has been such a great session of WOW! We have gotten to know so many women we may not have ever connected with otherwise. Even though summer has its challenges, we continue to press on, doing our homework and coming to class to discuss with each other what we are learning in God’s Holy, Living Word!
We would love it if you would join us in the fall. Women ages 18 & over are welcome.

Blessings,
Lisa and Pam

"LIFE DELIVERS ITS SHARE OF KNOCKOUT PUNCHES.

You bob. You weave. You try to keep moving.
But what do you do when you inevitably find yourself
on the ropes?
Go into training with Beth Moore’s newest study—Esther: It’s Tough Being a Woman. Facing heavyweights bent on her destruction, Esther trusted God and landed a blow that saved her people. Her destiny can be yours as you know more deeply the God who is in your corner."
Join us on this journey in God’s Word. All Women age 18+ are welcome.

Kick-off is Saturday September 12, 8:30-Noon,
Study continues Monday evenings September 21 - November 16
6:30 – 8:30
Sign-up in Taylor Hall, or contact
Pam Shuler: pjs1235@verizon.net or 327-8337 or
Lisa Shuler: lcsb32@aol.com or 337-3121
SIGN-UP DEADLINE is AUGUST 23RD
www.wowwomenministry.blogspot.com

NOTE: If you would like to join us at WOW! it is important that you come to the kick-off. If you absolutely cannot make it to the kick-off and especially if you have never come to WOW! before, then we need to make an appointment with you for orientation. This is a 10 week commitment. With a possible fellowship at the end.

Well, It isn't the same as I had it , but it will do! So, give us a call if you want to sign up!
Lisa and Pam

Hallelu-Yah!

Praise God indeed! You have no idea how excited we are! God called 34 plus one more today to this Bible study! Oh He must have something HUGE in store for us! It is overwhelming, frightening, and exciting all balled up into one! What a great night we had together; meeting new people, learning who we think we are in the name game then realizing what our name might mean in a spiritual way, or a better way to say it, who we are in Christ, going over the guidelines-what fun that was (not), reminding ourselves and you what WOW is all about, singing spiritual songs together, well only one, but listening to others while fellowshipping (is that a word?). I do believe that was a horrible run-on sentence that makes no sense, however I am too tired to change it, so it will stay as is.
I certainly expect that the week ahead will be a blessing for you in your homework, getting to know God's names and all they mean. Don't get frustrated, if you need help call us!

Praise God - Hallelujah!
Lisa and Pam

The Perfect Storm

What a weekend! I don't know where to begin! I know you all feel the same! It was not a weekend without its little glitches, but then, what would life be with out them? Our morning started off with a startle as one of our dear ones realized she forgot her ticket and had to go back home for it. God knew what he was doing when He told us to meet at 8 am instead of 9 am. And then there was the too cold/too hot moments on the bus. They really need to redesign their ventilation system! Then there was the infamous Wendy's run Friday night. I will never complain about service around here again; that was unbelievable! I did not sleep...only a couple of moments did I doze. But....the wonderful outweighed the little annoyances. The music, the worship, the teaching, the fellowship, the surprises, a proposal! what more could we ask for? Our God was faithful again. He gave us a beautiful mountaintop experience on the hills of Pittsburgh. I pray that Beth's teaching on the Perfect Storm will continue to roll around in our heads and hearts and continue to minister to us. Here is a wrap up of what we learned from Acts 27.

1. Sometimes we're in the exact spot where several storms collide.

2. The question of fault always arises in a furious storm.

3. The titanic temptation in a storm is to give way to it.

(give way to to the force of God who is in control of the storm)

4. To make it through the storm, sometimes we've got to cut some ropes.

5. Our one life can invite the favor of God to many in the storm.

6. On the other side of a perfect storm , the serpant is all bite and no venom!

7. The point of every perfect storm is to see the work of God through us: unhindered.

Some other points I jotted down...without being able to press the back button on my DVD remote it was hard to write as fast as she spoke.

"Be blown by the spirit, not by the storm

Let the winds and the waves do their very worst, but I will still make it to Malta.

We behave how we truly believe

God used this storm to have one that brings life not wrath, favor for all, instead of one person incurring the wrath of God. (ie Joah)

Be the one in the storm to be used for faith and favor, not a fit!

Take care of your physical body during a storm, tend to your spirit and your body.

God can sometimes require the expertise of pagans for His own people to be delivered.

When you are in constant suspense, you need to hold on to some truth! Find 10 truths in Scripture and jot them down on index cards to remind yourself of what is absolute truth. Memorize them, say them out loud! 2 Tim. 1:12

Spiritual warfare is 2 powerful forces coming together, the heavenly and the evil (cosmic collision)

He is a God of restraint.

We have a problem with thinking too small, not thinking too big.

Don't settle for a pond when He wants us on the sea.

Who am I without my stuff?

Keep up your courage, do not be afraid, take on the voice of God's Word personally!"

Mom and I want to thank all of you for your patience and love to us. You were a great group of women to spend this weekend with! I look forward to more.

Have a WOW summer!
Lisa

Fellowship Fun

What a great evening we had at our fellowship time. Missed all those who could not attend, especially Mom! Great food, great conversation, and beautiful table setting by Carol and Betty! Thank you so much girls! God is so good, isn't He? I was a bit panicked when I knew I would be flying "solo" for the evening, plus a tad concerned about what was going on with my brother! But, as always, God was there before me and so were Carol and Betty! I couldn't have done it without them. He always provides. LORD, you are so wonderful! Not only that, but everyone was so gracious and helpful. Thanks so much for the help in cleaning up! I hope you all continue to stay fresh in the Word, and continue to take your Daniel test to keep all that knowledge in your head! It would be a shame if we went through all that and then forget it all! We will never be the same, we never are when we submerse ourselves in His Word. This next study is going to be amazing! We have been working on it, and it really will help you know who God is, so that we can be closer to Him! Keep praying and stay in His Word!
Bless you all!
Lisa

Daniel's Done, now didn't we have fun?

Well girlfriends, it has been a long 12 weeks! Just as Beth proclaimed at the very beginning, we are not dumber! No indeed, we are not dumber, we are not only smarter, but we know our God even better! Isn't that our goal? I hope so! I look back and wonder how my brain can hold all this information. I think if my brain were on a computer screen (the horror of that thought!) it would say "virtual memory low". It causes me to think about spring cleaning out my brain of all the useless clutter of information I am holding on to. What can I clean out so that I can renew my mind with what the will of God is? Something to ponder.
Don't forget, we have our fellowship on June 1 at 6:30, place to be determined as of this writing. Also, we will be doing a summer Bible study, and we are working on Measureless Love for the fall, likely in October. Plus, we are seeing Beth in June!
Thank you all you wonderful women of the Word for your love and support. I pray that this ministry has given you the opportunity to study God's Word with understanding and love.
See you Monday sisters!
Lisa

Almost over!

I can't believe we are nearing the end of Daniel! Are you as thrilled as I am that we now know so much more about "eschatology"? Billy has been so great about broadening our education along with what we have been learning in our daily study. It makes me want to learn more!

For all those going on the Beth Trip in June, I did go to the T-shirt place and got the ball rolling. I will be going back next Friday to check out our choices. In the meantime, write down your "Bethisms" for us!

The ticket sales are at 48% so far, so if anyone you know wants to go, they can still go, they will just have to get a group and go! Even if it is just 2 of them. I hope some of you are brainstorming on the finer details of the trip, that will be such a help!

Please pray for us as we seek God's will for the summer, we haven't been enlightened as of yet, and it is almost here! June is the trip, so we are just talking about July and August. Keep lifting up "Mearsureless Love" too!



Lisa

Movin on in Babylon

It seems that, as Beth pointed out, we are half way through our first half of Daniel! What a first half! We have been hit with a lot! Memorizing, learning hard names, being introduced to some prophecy, learning about our own indoctrination into "Babylon", and this week a new extra assignment. I do hope you will have fun with it! You won't have to look very hard or long for those Babylonian sayings, they are all around us, in the paper, magazines, tv, on our food packages, stores etc.....Don't forget also, you have a prayer partner out there somewhere! Keep connected to them! We will be making an announcement next week, we just plain ran out of time this Monday! We had great discussion in our groups this week, so it is hard to stop!
Love ya WOW!

Daniel Kick-off

WOW! That about sums it up! What a great experience we had together on Saturday. While Pam and I felt unprepared for this day, God still welcomed and blessed us. What a privilege to pray, worship and fellowship with all of you. After reading your prayer request and your answer to "What I took away from this retreat", I must say, we are blown away by the way God spoke to all of us. There were a couple of common themes and a few very personal, individual ones. It will be an honor to pray for all of you for these 12 weeks. Don't give up girls, it will be worth the sacrifice. Are you ready for the challenge? Of course you are, your excitment and enthusiasm is evident! Thank you Women of the Word! We love you all!

Daniel

Great news! Daniel is starting SOON! Our prayer is that God would prepare all our hearts and minds for this study; will you join us in that prayer? If you participated in “Lord, Teach Me to Pray”, you will be glad to know that God has already been preparing you with what you have just learned! If you are new to WOW, do not worry, this a great place to start, in fact, there is really no “bad” place to start when you are studying God’s Word! Rest assured we are in for an exciting ride in God’s Word! Here are some details for you to note.

Kick-off for the Daniel study is February 28th from 9:00 – 1:00. Please eat breakfast before you come. We will have a snack and drinks available for you; however, we will not have lunch together. Hopefully, you can fuel up enough in the morning and then have a few snacks to get you through until you get home! Daniel will then continue on Monday evenings, March 9-May 18 from 6:30 – 8:30. Fellowship starts at 6:00 and we start promptly at 6:30.

Just to prepare you ahead of time, this study is “session-driven” which means that the DVD is important in your homework for the week. It will not be a “wrap up” of what you learned in your daily homework, it will be the catalyst for your week of homework. The first DVD session will be shown at the kick-off on February 28th. It goes without saying, but we will say it anyway, IT’S GRRRREAT! (shamelessly quoting a famous tiger (it was as close as I could get to a lion)) We do realize there may be things which will prevent you from attending various sessions, so we offer a make-up night, or you may borrow a CD to listen to. We are going to try to be more organized this time with the CD’s as we sometimes lose track of them.

What will you need for the study?

1) Bible, of course
2) Index cards
3) Your white 3 ring binder from previous studies, or a folder to keep extra papers, guidelines, mission/vision, names and addresses etc. (if you did not ever receive , a white binder from us before, ask us for one!)

Things that you might want to have….
1) Colored pencils or highlighters
2) Journal or small notebook

Well, that’s all for now, get ready for an adventure! If you have any questions or concerns just give us a call.

Love, Pam and Lisa

PRAY!

OK precious women of the word...we are finished with our first study of the year, and wow! We learned a lot in 5 weeks. Please be sure to go through your book and review what you have learned, or you can go through your journal if you kept one, and there is always the index cards you put all those wonderful scriptures on! May I suggest that while we are waiting for our next study to begin you put all those great index sentences to work? Pray, pray, pray. Pray for God to solidify the lessons He wants to apply to your life from this study, pray that God would reveal to you any unpure, sinful area in your heart so that you may worship Him in Truth and Spirit, pray that He will begin preparing you for what He will teach you in Daniel, pray that He will do the same for your fellow sisters in WOW, pray that your facilitators will have clear understanding of the direction of this study, now and for as long as He desires. WE NEED YOUR PRAYERS, wonderful WOW girls! Oh how we pray that we are in God's will all the time. Please pray for the summer and what direction God is taking us, we have a couple of pans in the fire, but not sure which one he wants us to cook with! You will hear from us soon by letter about the Daniel study, until then, stay in the Word. We love you!
Lisa And Pam

I can't believe it! We only have one week left for our "Prayer" study. Some of you have voiced that it is a challenging study, and not quite what you are used to! GREAT! We never want to get stagnant, or stop being challenged. We certainly don't want to worship man or should I say "woman" over God! We need to remember, God has been pointing us to the next study every time! He is in control. Believe, me, when we are done with this, and go into Daniel...you will be glad to have had the tools you just received from the study on prayer! Hang in there, ask God to reveal His Truth and apply it to your life, and especially your prayer life! See you Monday night, and do your homework!
Luv, Lisa

We are off to a great start! "Lord Teach Me To Pray" started Monday night and we are so blessed to have about 4 new Women join us, and thank you to the wonderful answer to prayer for a babysitter for Lori to be able to come! You girls rock! I hope you are doing your homework! Kay is really off to a great start teaching us some great insight into prayer. We serve an awesome, holy and mighty God who loves us and cares about us. He wants us to come to Him and have a relationship with Him! Oh how I pray that we will all become closer to Him! Hopefully, next week, all technical difficulties will go away and you will be reading this!
Love to all!
Lisa

New Year

Happy New Year!

You know how it goes, new year,new resolutions, new promises, new beginnings. We start out so hopeful, full of excited anticipation and hoping that this year will be better than last year! Then, what happens? We get disappointed, disillusioned, frustrated and sometimes even depressed about how the "new year" is panning out. I usually don't make a "resolution" for the new year because I already know that I won't stick with it, and hey, why put that kind of pressure on myself???:) Well ladies, this year, I am resolved to do some things to change my life, and this time they have nothing to do with losing weight, getting organized, or whatever, this year, I am resolved to have a "Jesus Year". I was on Beth Moore's blog the other day and she posted a challenge to all of us "siestas" for the new year. She is inviting women to memorize 2 scriptures a month. But hold on....that's not all! If you are not good at memorizing, the other option is to find the scripture of your choice and meditate on it. That's not so bad is it? Filling our minds with scripture,whether we are able to completely memorize it or not is never a bad thing. God will honor that effort. However, if you do memorize it, you will have 24 Scriptures dancing in your head and heart. Ready for any challenge that comes your way this year. She stated she wants a Jesus year and at the date of this writing, over 3,000 women agreed with her! Mom and I both signed up on her blog and posted our first scripture. On the 1rst and 15th of every month, you are to post your scripture, name city and the version you chose on her site when indicated. It is amazing to see all that scripture in one place. Are you up to the challenge? If you cannot sign up on Beth's blog, why not get a bunch of your friends or your family, or , husband to join in with you. Beth always encourages index cards and accountability, so don't do it alone. Let me know if you need help or need me or Mom to be your accountability partners. As you see in the blog, I have managed to post the picture of Dee's beautiful artwork. This prayer can be continued as we not only study the Bible, but as we meditate on our scriptures. Mom also adds to not only give her understanding but that the Word would get into her heart. Don't forget to pray before you read your scripture! We would be glad to help you ring in the new year with Jesus. God bless you sisters in Christ, and Happy Jesus Year!

Lisa