ChristianMilitaryWives

Here's a note from our very own, Mrs. Jocelyn Green of  Faith Deployed  and who is also a Christian Military Wives Ministry Leader and the editor of our new magazine, Wives in Bloom:

Christian Military Wives, a branch of Christian Military Fellowship, is announcing a new online magazine: Wives in Bloom will launch on September 1!

I am serving as the editor of this new publication, but the success and value of Wives in Bloom depends on you. We want this to be the premier magazine for military wives who put their trust in Jesus(and for those who are seeking Jesus, too), and we need your help- your wit, wisdom and writing. Please consider writing for Wives in Bloom. Everything you need to know about writing and submitting is right here in these Writers Guidelines.

Two things I want to point out about the month of September:

1) I want to hear your 9-11 stories. Where were you on 9-11-01, and how has it affected your life since then?

2) On a MUCH lighter note, September is National Couponing Month! Please send in some articles about how to become a coupon queen! (Or something related to family budgets, frugal living, etc.)

Remember, the rules for submitting writing for the above two items are the same as for everything else. So please don’t just leave a comment here- follow the guidelines to submit. Thanks!

-Jocelyn Green
Jocelyn@christianmilitarywives.com

We have had quite a few wonderful military wives write to CMW asking how they can become a volunteer.

Teresa Henning, being the fabulous woman she is - helped to create an application process for our CMW volunteers.

CMW is in need of the following volunteers:

Small Group Ministry Leader - The small group leader for CMW needs to have a strong Christian background, she needs to be organized, goal oriented and self motivating.  The CMW small group leader has a very important job of "teaching our teachers" how to reach out to women in their community.  Small group leaders offer local/physical support in their cities and towns.  The Small Group Ministry Leader will encourage, uplift, and guide our small group leaders so that they may lead successful groups.  The Small Group Ministry Leader should have experience in Christian teaching... perhaps Sunday School teacher, small group leader at their home church, etc.

Forum Moderators - Forum moderators are needed, this is an online only position.  Moderators help make sure conversation is flowing between our members.  Must be a member of CMW for at least 6 months to apply.  No experience necessary. 

Welcoming Committee - Our CMW welcoming committee welcomes new members on our website by sending uplifting messages to their CMW profile page.  Must be a member of CMW for at least 6 months to apply. No experience necessary.

Praying For Your Husband Group Leader - An online group leader is needed for the Praying For Your Husband Group.  This group focuses on prayer, and how you as a wife can better pray for your husband.  The group leader should be willing to encourage wives to pray for their husbands, and should be involved in praying for (and encouraging others to pray for) the prayer requests posted in this group.  Group leader for this group can post Bible verses and words of wisdom to the women in this group. 

Prayer Warrior Group Leader - We are looking for someone who would like to host weekly prayer sessions on our talk radio program.  During the prayer sessions, we would like the host to pray for the prayer requests in our Prayer Warrior Group on CMW and our Facebook prayer requests.  You are encouraged to check out http://www.talkshoe.com to see how the talk radio programs work, as this is what CMW uses for our talk radio broadcasts.  During the weekly prayer time, we have volunteers who would join you on the show to pray.  Its such a blessing to actually HEAR someone praying for your prayer request out loud!

Fundraising - We are looking for one or more women to head up fundraising efforts for  Christian Military Wives.  All of our ministry leaders are 100% volunteers.  Fundraising efforts will allow us to continue our Operation Holiday Embrace program and as well as send free books and study materials to military wives world wide.  Experience in fundraising helpful, but not necessary.

If you are interested in filling out an application to volunteer with CMW, please email info@christianmilitarywives.com

Step Up For Soldiers will be assisting Ivan Castro, a US Army Captain still  on Active Duty. At the end of this letter I will list a few web locations for you to read more about this amazing young man.  The short version is he started out as an enlisted man, later in his career he attended Officers Candidate School.  While he was a First Lieutenant serving in Iraq in 2006 he was wounded.  He received numerous injuries to include the loss of his right eye and the permanent loss of vision in his left eye from shrapnel from a motor attack.  Captain Castro works full time as a recruiter for the US Army Special Forces. You can also google Ivan Castro, Lieutenant Ivan Castro, Captain Ivan Castro for more information.

Ivan’s wish is to have a training facility built on his property. This will be a 2 car garage with a loft.   With all the young military service members I get to meet they always include other wounded members into their wish. This loft will be an apartment to house trainers of the blind when they are in the Ft Brag area training our injured military. Ivan is now training for the IRON MAN competition. 

I hope that you feel that this is a worthy project to complete for Captain Ivan Castro.  I realize that we are in a tight economy and many organizations are struggling with other projects. I have three ways that we are raising money for this project.

Here's an example of some of the things needed for the project, along with costs:

For more information on how you can help this great cause, email Mr. Tom Russel at: stepup4soldiers@aol.com

Today, I had the pleasure of talking with my good friend - and Gold Star Mom.... Lorie.  Lorie told me that the Gold Star Moms are going to take a class on how to write in their journals, so they can get some of their feelings out on paper.

The Gold Star Moms have about 20-25 who will be in the class.  Gold Star Moms are those who have lost a son or daughter who were serving while in the military.

Please email: patti@christianmilitarywives.com if you would like to donate a journal or journals to our Gold Star Moms who live in North Carolina.  We are looking for 25 journals to give away.

Being a member of Christian Military Wives is very rewarding.  I've made so many great friends.  I've prayed for many women, and I have had many women pray for me... I have witnessed women who have been saved because of the testimony of others here on the site and at our local meet up groups.  I have never met a better group of Christian women in my entire life.  Military wives are strong, but with Christ - we are the STRONGEST.  We are powerful, because we have the Lord. 

There are many ways you can become more deeply involved in helping military wives.  We have our small groups, we have mentorship opportunities, and we have online opportunities for you to help other military wives.  One of the online opportunities is to become a writer for our online magazine. 

We are an all volunteer organization.  We do not make one cent in doing what we do.  We do what we do because the Lord has laid on each of our hearts the willingness to serve and help military wives, plain and simple. 

 If you like to write - why not start submitting your blogs to become magazine articles? This is a wonderful way to tesify, uplift and support US military wives from around the globe. 

This morning, I had a wonderful email from a new CMW member, I'd like to share it:

To Whom This may Concern,

I really enjoyed reading your magazine online! It was so encouraging and helpful. Thankyou so much for the great articles and Scripture! It was wonderful to read articles that gave Biblical principles on how to strengthen marriages. It was good to find support from other military wives and Christian ones at that! I believe it was no accident God led me to your website tonight! Thankyou!

Sincerely, Debbie

We have received other emails of encouragement from military wives... but this one in particular was such a blessing.  It's so wonderful and fulfilling to know that you can help make a difference in someones life, just by taking a few minutes of your time to write an encouraging article.

So, if the Lord has given you an itch to write - you are more than welcome to use your skills here!

To submit an article to the website, all you need to do is click BLOG on the left hand side of your page.  After writing a blog, you will go down the page and see the option "submit to public magazine?" Hit YES.

When submitting articles, please remember this is not a place to advertise your personal website or merchandise you may be selling.  We do have a Spam-A-Lam-A-Ding-Dong thread for that in our main forum section.

God bless you and all you do.

Sincerely,
Patti Katter

The mission of the Tampa Area Marine Parents Association is to give support to our Marine family members in whatever areas are needed and whenever possible while continuing to be an active and visible presence to all branches of the military in our communities, the state of Florida and wherever we are led. Continually reaching out to any Marine, their parents, spouse, siblings, extended family and friends in order to give them the opportunity to become an active part of our support group, and in doing so always following our strong values of God, Family, our Nation and the United States Marine Corps.

This morning upon checking my email I read a great letter from Sergeant Ricci and wanted to share it with you all.  In her email, Sergeant Ricci talks about a great organization and I thought it would be great to share the information.

Hello, My name is Sergeant Stephanie Ricci, and I have been in the Marine Corps 5 years now, and this year I will be participating in the 2009 Marine Corps Marathon, 10k event October 25th and am reaching out to military supporters like yourself and your group to continue the goal to help our veterans and their families by donating to the Tampa Area Marine Parents Association, please spread the word to your Organization, as I will about yours, all donations are tax deductable and can be made at www.usmcfamilysupport.org - please check out the site and see that you aren't alone in the great effort to support our troops! I was deployed 14 months to Iraq I just got back in March and know it's not always easy to send a thank you letter back, so on behalf of all those who haven't I THANK YOU for what you all do! God Bless!

Stephanie Ricci SGT USMC

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Stephanie, on behalf of Christian Military Wives - thank you so much for your sevice and commitment to our country!

Heart of God International is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping missionaries.  They also have a wonderful ministry called Soldiers Bible Ministry.

Heart of God International is seeking articles for their fabulous online ezine.  If you have a story you would like to share with Heart of God, please send it to: JEANICE@JOURNEZINE.COM

Subjects to write about:

October 09
Persecuted Church, Missions, Evangelism, Witnessing

November 09
American History, First Thanksgiving, Family Traditions

December 09
Isaiah 6:9, Luke 2, Peace, Joy, Mercy