The Light / Mrs Jennie Walter

Mrs Jennie Walter

Servant of the Lord!

Paparazzi Consultant

Maine

The Light

For several years in the Fall my family would take a vacation to a Christian campground about an hour from our home. We looked forward to our annual time together in the middle of the woods on a beautiful lake. Because we waited until after Labor Day we usually had the entire campground to ourselves. The director would close down the camp for the year after our vacation was done. Usually my parents and other family members would join us, too.

Our cabins were usually next door to each other, but the last time we went our cabin was a bit of a walk from where my parents were staying. This was no problem during the day. We quickly realized though that after dark this was a bit of a struggle. The middle of the Maine woods is very dark at night! No street lights. No light coming from all the empty cabins. And our little flashlights we had brought or had on our smart phones did not adequately show much on these trails in the woods with rocks, roots and stumps everywhere! At my next opportunity I went shopping at the local WalMart and bought the best flashlight I could find and took it back to camp. I was so pleased that evening when we walked to my parent’s cabin with how well I could see! The path was clearly lit and there was no more stumbling in the dark. My flashlight did not light up the forest, but it sufficiently lit up my path and I was able to walk through the dark with confidence.

The last nine months of my life have been a very dark forest. My husband was diagnosed with terminal cancer at the end of June last year. The next five months were a difficult time of seemingly endless doctors appointments, hospital stays, suffering and hospice care. He went to be with our Heavenly Father in November and I then entered the dark forest of grief. And now my children and I are moving to a new home out-of-state. We are leaving the only home they have known, the only church they have known and their friends of a lifetime. I am navigating through things I know very little about like paying bills, dealing with insurance companies, and going through the process of buying a home in another state. The world seems like a very dark place.

But Psalm 27:1 reminds me “The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?”

The Bible also reassures me in Psalm 119:105 “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”

God’s Word and His presence have always been my light and what I have clung to, but in these past months I have needed a bigger flashlight. More of God’s Word. More time on my knees. More of my God in EVERY way. And He has proven Himself faithful time and time and time again.

My life seems very dark, but my Father continues to shine a light on my daily steps. Each day I awake knowing everything I need that day for me and my children will be provided and cared for. With His guiding hand I walk through the dark with confidence.

He is a good God. A great God! He will light our way until He leads us each home. He never needs to change the batteries on His flashlight. He fails not.

No matter what challenges you face in your life today, run to your Father for light and guidance. Though we wish we could see everything coming our way, all we need to see is the next steps in our life. He may not light up the whole forest, but He will light up your path!

Calling all Pastor's Wife's! / Mrs Vicky Mutchler

Mrs Vicky Mutchler

Pastor's Wife

Grand View Baptist Church

Beavercreek, OR

Pastor’s Wives

I don’t know about you but being a Pastor’s wife was not on my bucket list. As a teen I always promised God that I would do whatever He wanted me to do. I was saved at the age of 16 and was married to a pastor at the age of 19 and headed to our first church! There was little time to think about all that was in front of me for which I am thankful! I had only known one pastor’s wife. She was very quiet and shy- kept to herself. I knew that would never work for me!

The good thing is there is no PERFFECT PASTOR’S wife. Everyone gets to be themselves! (The self that God and the Holy spirit are constantly working on!)

I hear pastor’s wives say:

I’m just not out going. It’s hard for me to make friends. I’m just not a hospitable kind of gal.

WELL--- WORK ON IT!

The question I ask myself, “What do people in my church need me to be?”

F- Friendly. Introduce myself. Get to know them!

A—Available. Time to talk with me…. 5 undisturbed minutes!

I—Involved. Present in ministries, workdays, planning.

T—Teachable. Don’t pretend to know it all. Learning from those 2 years- 92 years old.

H—Hospitable. Open my home. Be someone that doesn’t lose my mind over someone dropping in.

As you can see…that spells FAITH. Your church will have more faith in the fact that Christ is shining through you!

Some play piano. Some sing. Some teach. Some do office work. Some home school. Some organize.

SOME DON’T! But we can all be used of Christ to meet the needs of others. Please! People in our churches are counting on us!

Confessions of a Control Freak / Mrs Cindy Harris

Mrs Cindy Harris

Wife / Mom / Grandma

Lafayette Bible Baptist Church

Wildwood, MO

Confessions of a Control Freak

I am a control freak. I guess I just grew up like that. Just let me do it myself. That way I will know it is the done the “right” way. (that would be MY way) I tried to let go but sometimes I just couldn’t. As an example, we homeschooled our 3 children for a couple of years when it was necessary. I’m afraid to say my children were probably a bit crazy with my system of organization and the structure that I kept for them. My rationale was that I wasn’t a trained teacher so it was my way of coping with what seemed like the overwhelming task of this new challenge. I’m sure my family could come up with many more examples of my controlling but suffice it to say, I can be a bit over-bearing at times.
Still my life seemed to be fairly trouble free. We moved to Northern Illinois in 1999 and the kids were put back in school. Whew! I can quit controlling, right? Not really. I struggled with lots of issues with having older children at home. Letting go of things that were out of my control, such as the demands of a large ministry on my family, that was fairly involved in many different ministries at church and school. I also got involved where I could. Ladies’ soul winning, working in a busy church nursery, and I even volunteered in the kitchen at the college we had at our church.
Then in January of 2004, when I was 43 years old, something life changing happened to me. I had gone to lunch with my husband and later that day 1/2 of my face and even inside my mouth went numb. My first instinct was that I had eaten something that maybe I was allergic to. When the numbness lingered into the next few days, I made an appointment with my primary care doctor. She is the sort of doctor, who when presented with a strange thing, will search until she knows what is wrong. She thought I had Bells Palsy at first but I had no facial dragging, so she was still unsure. I also had become rather dizzy along with the numbness. She wrote in my chart that day that dizziness wasn’t normal with Bells Palsy. After 2 weeks the numbness was still there, and the dizziness was beginning to really bother me. When I called her, hoping for some sort of medication to help me with the dizziness, she responded with an order for an MRI! Ugh! So I had that done right away and the very day I had it done she had the results. I had Multiple Sclerosis! They had found plaque on my brain.
For those unfamiliar with MS, it is an auto immune disease where your immune system goes haywire, attacking your central nervous system. Anything in or on your body that is controlled by that CNS could at ANYTIME stop working. There is usually NO WARNING! Well, you can imagine what this news did to this control freak! Things were suddenly very much out of my control! I had to start seeing a neurologist on a regular basis, learn to give myself injections, and also learn that there were now going to be some limitations on what I could and couldn’t do anymore.
I did finish out the school year in the college kitchen but after that I realized it was taking more and more energy to do that. Auto immune diseases usually do one thing... make you tired. Everything became an effort to do. I struggled with the fact that I needed a nap every day, then I couldn’t sleep well at night. Suddenly all control was taken away from me. I always had loved the verse Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me”. Suddenly that verse became very real to me. I am not doing anything in my own strength, but it is through Christ that I can do anything!!
What have I learned through this challenge in my life? 1. That Christ is what gives me the strength to do anything. 2. That having a husband who prays for you is the greatest blessing! My husband has had the patience of Job with me over the years and we are closer than ever now that we are “empty nesters”. He prays for me every day! 3. Don’t stop doing things that are right to do if you can possibly still do them. I still was a part of that ladies’ group, I still was a nursery worker, I still worked the altar each service. 4. Most importantly, I can trust Jesus!! If I can trust Him to take me to heaven, (you have done that, right?) then surely I can trust Him with my life here on earth. If you’re His then nothing can happen without his OK. Job 2:10b “What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.”

Am I still a control freak? Yes sometimes I can still be that way. To my shame.I struggled writing this devotion. Maybe that is because once I send it out it is no longer in my control?!! I still have never had a relapse in my MS journey. That is HUGE! I’m now into my 14th year and although I am exhausted when I go to bed each night, I’ve not had a relapse. Our youth pastor preached a message Sun. and used a verse that really brought it all together for me. It was Philippians 1:12 “But I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel.” I pray when my life is ended that this is what can be said of me. What about you?

Get in the Ash Heap / Mrs Amy Vassak

Mrs Amy Vassak

Pastor's Wife

Northeast Baptist Church

Danbury, CT

Get in the Ash Heap

Most of us who are married view our husbands as our rock, our stability, and what keeps us together in this crazy world. There are occasions, however, when that stability is taken from us. It could be a calamity caused by God, a prolonged illness, financial ruin, or a collapse caused by his own failure. In any case, we as wives must be prepared to handle those times when necessary. They are some of the most difficult waters a wife can ever navigate.

Eight years ago, my husband stepped on a sea urchin in the ocean in Narragansett, RI. The creature left bacteria on the bone of my husband’s left foot. His bone became infected and soon my husband was septic and fighting for his life. In order to try and spare his life, nearly half of his left foot was amputated.

In the days preceding the amputation, we were instructed that along with taking some strong antibiotics, we were to soak his foot in a solution of peroxide and water twice a day for twenty minutes. The liquid would immediately begin to bubble from the infection. On one occasion late at night, I tripped while trying to pick up the container we were using. I landed on the floor while the tub flew into the air, and almost all of that disgusting liquid fell on me. I had hurt my leg in the process and really couldn’t move. I slammed my hand on the floor and said, “Really God?! What on earth do you want from me?!” My husband was so weak he couldn’t move, but wanted me to come to him so he could comfort me. He had been completely bed ridden for a couple of days by that point.

I crawled over to where he was, and he threw a blanket around me. We stayed there for a while, just sobbing together and holding each other. It was a definite low point for me. I was weak. I was scared. All of a sudden, I heard a voice speak to me in my heart. The voice said, “Now you’re where I want you. Joe is in his ash heap. He feels weak. He is scared. I want you to know what that feels like so you will stay there with him.” I recognized the voice of God immediately, and I knew what He meant. This was my husband’s trial. But, it wasn’t his alone. It was my trial, too.

In the month preceding my husband’s illness, I had been reading and studying the book of Job. I wasn’t sure at the time why God was leading me to read it so much, but I learned many truths from the study of it. We are given so many details about the trial Job endured. It is truly an expose’ into his life and suffering. One of the glaring details God reveals is that Job’s wife felt what Job was enduring personally, had very little to do with her. I’m slow to criticize Job’s wife because she endured so much heartache and loss. But, the Bible gives us the details it does so we can learn from them. Job 2:7-9 says, “So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown. And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal: and he sat down among the ashes. Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? Curse God, and die.” It’s clear that Job’s wife viewed him as “alone” in his ash heap. It was not “theirs.” It was “his.”

Our homes and churches today, have a dearth of strong women, who are committed to their husbands through the good times and the bad. We subject our husbands to constant scrutiny. We abandon them during times of darkness, and expect them to flip the spiritual light on for themselves. We yell at them with emotional disdain instead of talking about things rationally and in a spiritual mindset. We don’t “will them through” difficulties in prayer. We diagnose them as “babies” when they’re ill, and make them feel “less than” when compared to other men we know. When God places our husbands in the ash heap, those methods of treatment of the men in our lives will only multiply. Deciding to be the kind of wife that gets in the ash heap with her husband during a crisis, begins with being a dedicated, loving, and loyal wife when there isn’t an ash heap within a five hundred mile radius!

What can you do to get in and stay in the ash heap with your husband?

1- Become as strong as you can spiritually, emotionally, mentally, and physically.

My husband is my spiritual leader, but there were a few days when he couldn’t give me spiritual perspective. My husband is emotionally solid, but he was raw and spent during that time. My husband is brilliant, but was incapable of making decisions before his surgery. My husband was Superman, and was rarely ill, but now he was on the verge of going to Heaven. I had to be strong for him. It was my turn.

2- Take a deep breath, and accept the ash heap.

The Bible almost gives us the feeling that Job’s wife paused long enough to speak her mind, and after Job spoke his, she just walked on by. I wonder what would’ve happened if Mrs. Job had sat down, picked up a piece of potsherd and gave him some relief? We’ll never know, but we do know that there is no more mention of her while Job’s friends were there. Perhaps if they had seen her helping Job, they wouldn’t have had the boldness to tear him apart like they did.

3- Be encouraging.

Telling your husband things like, “You probably deserve what’s happening,” or “You can’t possibly still believe God after everything that’s happened!” is not productive for him, but it isn’t productive for you, either. When you say something, you’ve already thought it. Negative thoughts can stay in and go away. Negative words are forever. A spiritually strong wife will never let her life go where her mind has not already gone first. A wise woman builds, a weak woman spews.

4- Don’t give in to negative emotions.

Negative emotions lead to “poor me” thoughts. When a wife begins to feel sorry for herself, she will say and do almost anything to feel better. I can guarantee you that Job’s wife felt better for the first few seconds after she told Job to curse God and die. She had finally given in to the emotions that had flooded her heart in a destructive way, and she was soothed for a short time. It probably didn’t take her too long to realize the damage she had caused, and the guilt that followed must have been dreadful.

5- Listen to the Holy Spirit.

Prayer is key to handling the ash heap. You won’t make it without a constant line of communication with your Comforter. He will speak to you in ways that can’t be predicted or

duplicated by human means. He will give you what you need when you need it. You will have wisdom and strength beyond your capabilities. Connect with Him often.

In some ways, my husband is still in the ash heap. He will wear a walking boot and deal with pressure point wounds for the rest of his life. I change his bandages every day. But, He doesn’t have to worry; He has God.

He also has me sitting right in that ash heap with him, holding a piece of potsherd, telling him we can make it together.

God is Crazy About YOU! / Mrs Amy Sapp

Mrs Amy Sapp

Helper's of Joy Admin

Faith Music Radio Ladies Show Host

Jr Church / Bus Route

Amazing Grace Baptist Church

O'Fallon, MO

God is Crazy About YOU!!!

Who are you crazy about? Are you crazy about your husband, the love of your life? Do you remember your first date? Think about how you could not wait for the next time you saw him smile, the next love letter, the next phone call, the next text, the next date! Did your heart “pitter patter” when he would walk into the room? Wow! Planning your wedding! That very first kiss! The excitement of your honeymoon! The first place you would live as husband and wife! The first home you would purchase together! Your first child! All of the many milestones you will share together! You love that man of yours! You are CRAZY about him!

Are you crazy about your children? Do you remember the day you found out that you were expecting? What about the excitement of sharing the news of your pregnancy with each and every person that you knew? Remember how awesome it was to carry that tiny human in your womb; to feel every little move the baby made?! Finding out the gender! Baby showers! Then to head to the hospital! Oh, how you loved that baby from the get go. Everything from rolling over, to the first word, to walking. You were crazy about that baby! Birthdays, broken bones, the excitement of the day they asked Jesus into their heart, kindergarten graduation, their first piano recital, high school graduation, college! Their first date, their wedding day! Every single up or down; you are there! Because you are CRAZY about your child!

Maybe it is your best friend! You have several friends, but you may have one specific friend that is a bit more special than just any friend. It could be someone that you have known since childhood. It could be a sibling or maybe someone you have only known for a short time, and the Lord just knit your hearts together. There is a good chance you know almost every detail of your best friend’s life! Everything from every special date in her life to her hardest struggles. You get excited when she is excited and hurt when she is hurting. You are there when she needs you to be, because you are CRAZY about your best friend!

What makes you crazy about someone who is special to you? You are crazy about them because you talk to them; you go out of your way to spend time with them. The people that you are crazy about are special! They hold a huge spot in your heart. You trust them with more than just an average type of trust. You love them with an unexplainable kind of love!

Within the last two years, I have had some trials head my way. You could say that my world was turned upside down! I tested positive for BRCA1. It is a gene that everyone carries that naturally fights cancer. My BRCA1 gene is “mutant,” which means it lies dormant. Because of this, I have super high percentage rates of getting certain types of cancer. These past couple of years have taken me beyond my comfort zone and on an emotional roller coaster ride! When I am struggling, my husband will oftentimes remind me, “God has something BIG for the Sapp Family!” Bigger and better than our human comprehension. The Lord trusts me with this! He trusts me to take it and run with it for His glory. I need to trust Him!
Proverbs 3:5 & 6
“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”

God is CRAZY about me!

You realize how crazy we are about certain people in our lives?! God is crazy about us! Unbelievably crazy in love with us! With you and with me! He loves us so much that He sent His only Son to die on the cross for us. Imagine that! That is perfect love!
I John 4:18 & 19
“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him, because he first loved us.”

God has perfect love for us! He is crazy about us! We need to be crazy about Him. Just like you would be crazy about that special person in your life, you can be that crazy about the Lord. Even more so! Spend time with the Lord. Let Him be the first One you talk to in the morning and the last One you talk to at night. One of the best things about prayer is that it isn’t limited to certain times of the day. Share all of your secrets with Him; hold nothing back! Read your Bible; spend time in His Word getting to know the things that are important to Him. Go to church, and really listen to the preaching. Let His Word speak to you. Tell others about Heaven! Share His perfect love with everyone.
I Peter 5:7
“Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.”

You should be crazy about God, because God sure is CRAZY about YOU!

Hope / Mrs Stephanie Tucker

Mrs Stephanie Tucker

Pastor's Wife

The Way of Life Baptist Church

Clayton, SC

Just recently, our choir sang the wonderful song by Ron Hamilton, My Hope Is Jesus.  I was so touched by this song during practice that it got me to thinking… what do we hope in?  We often say, “I hope you feel better soon” or “I hope this recipe turns out right”.  As Christians, who or in what do we place our hope?  The Dictionary definition of hope is, 1) a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen: 2) A feeling of trust.  
Before the choir sang, I shared with them one of my favorite passages.  Lamentations 3:21-26, “This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.  The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.”
Our trust does not have to be in our circumstances or in the world around us, our HOPE is in JESUS!!!  He is our great God and Savior.  We can rest everything in Him.  God will never leave us nor forsake us and He has promised to always be with us through everything we go through.  I don’t know about you but, I often rely on my own strength, knowledge, and abilities to do the work of the Lord.  You already know what the outcome is… I fall flat on my face.  LOL I am so thankful for verse 22, the Lord’s mercies and compassions are new every morning.  Great is HIS faithfulness.  I love these precious promises!!!  Verse 25 tells us that it is good for us to wait on the Lord.  How many times are we tempted to go ahead of God’s plan?  In our impatience we make a hasty decision and hope for a good outcome.  Most likely, the consequences are not in our favor?    My husband has often said, “Our waiting time is God’s working time”.  I am so thankful that I can have the hope that God is working all things for my good and for HIS glory.  We can rest assured that Jesus truly is our HOPE!!!  
The chorus to My Hope Is Jesus goes like this, “My hope is Jesus - the anchor of my soul, the ruler of the universe, the One Who's in control. He saved me, and He will keep me till the end. The rock of my salvation - on Christ I will depend. MY HOPE IS JESUS!!!  I pray that as you read this, you will be encouraged that you, too have that same Hope.  Jesus never fails, He is our rock, our anchor, the ruler of this crazy world, He is in control.  Praise the Lord for the HOPE that lieth in us!!!

I CHOOSE TO BE HAPPY / Mrs Linda Vaprezsan

Mrs Linda Vaprezsan

Pastor's Wife

Metro Baptist Church

Belleville, MI

I CHOOSE TO BE HAPPY

My husband preached recently on choices and how many choices we make in a day. Think about it, you choose to get out of bed or be lazy. You choose to eat breakfast or not. You choose hundreds of little things a day. Therefore, you have the choice to be happy or grumpy!!

Proverbs 17:22 says, “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.”

Knowing that choosing Happiness was my topic this week, it seemed like God kept putting little phrases in front of me to remind me of happiness. The scripture that I chose above, my daughter-in-law Jennifer wrote a chorus to which I taught to our summer Kids Club.

A little “Pollyanna” thinking does help with this matter of happiness. If you ever saw the movie she was always finding things to be GLAD about. There is always something to rejoice about during a hard time. It may not seem like it at the moment, but when you reflect on the situation you can see God’s hand in everything.

Philippians 4:8 says, “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” We just have to be “happy” talkers. A lady I once knew was a master at pulling a rejoicing matter out during a hard time and then talking about it for a week. She chose to be happy.

True story: Yesterday a pastors wife friend of mine in Florida who has about five or six small children posted that they were in a wreck and her van was totaled so they were going to have to get a new one. Someone asked her what happened and she said this lady turned right into them on the passenger side and destroyed their van. She said after making sure everybody was OK her husband got out of the van and asked the lady who hit them were they in her blind spot and she said oh no my GPS just told me to turn left. She said after we got over the shock and knew everybody was OK then we started laughing. They chose to be happy and showed their children that they could laugh at a bad situation.

Try to think and talk about anything good that is going on amidst a trial. Possibly an embarrassing moment will bring you laughter. Laughing at myself helps me alleviate the bad, “woe-is-me” thoughts. The older I get the more “dumb” things I do!!! Preacher and I find ourselves laughing at the most unusual things that would probably upset many others.

This past Spring I was preparing for a Mother/Daughter banquet I was speaking at and due to the topic it was making me sad and I was having a hard time. My granddaughter, Micaela Reddick, took me to an eye doctor appointment since I could not drive due to drops in my eyes. Afterwards she went with me to pick out new glasses. In the process I misplaced my old glasses. So we went through each rack seeing if we could find my glasses. Of course we were looking for the pair without a price tag. In my hand, hanging on my fingers were three pair we had chosen that I was deciding between. When I looked at my hand I realized one of the pairs of glasses we were dating over was my own pair!!! We chose to stand there and laugh and it made me realize I can be happy no matter what the situation.

***It is not happy people who are thankful; it is thankful people who are happy. Have you ever noticed when you are thankful for something whether good or bad, you are happier? We need to teach our children to be happy when things don’t go their way.

My mother always taught me that when I was feeling sorry for myself or unhappy then to get busy and do something for others. She encouraged my brother, sister and I to always look on the positive side and try to be encouraging to others.

When our daughter-in-law Jennifer died, right before Christmas a year ago, that was a difficult time for our family. But we decided to go ahead and enjoy our Christmas celebration with our grandchildren that lived in the area. We spent much of the evening reminiscing about Aunt Jennifer and the many funny things she did or would say when we were all together. We made it a happy time for the family in spite of our sorrow.

***Happiness keeps you sweet. Trials keep you strong. Sorrow keeps you human. Failures keep you humble. Success keeps you glowing. But only God keeps you going.

Everyone loves a happy person. Many like to commiserate with those in sorrow. But the person who can put each of those in its own place is a happy person

The following was given to me by our missionary Heather Kokubun whose husband died a tragic death nearly two years ago. She is a person whom I admire for keeping her joy and happiness through her sorrow and rising above it and being grateful for the joy she enjoys today.

***Happiness can help in the work place. I have been blessed to be my husband’s secretary and office manager for 40 out of the 45 years in the ministry. Our office is a happy place. Our staff meetings contain lots of laughter. Yes, there are difficult days and yes there are tough times, but we choose to try to make it a happy place.

Our goal as women, mothers, grandmothers, teachers, etc., is to choose to be Happy. Anyone can be sorrowful or always discouraged. It takes work to choose to be happy but it can be done with God’s help you can be a happy person.