December 2018 Theme: The Promises of God Where is a Peaceable Kingdom?

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1 December 2018 Theme: The Promises of God Where is a Peaceable Kingdom? Summary: Just about everyone in the world claims they want peace but are they turning to the only source for peace? The world continues to serve Satan and ignore God, the author of peace. Scripture: Philippians 4:7, And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Song: Peace Like A River REJOICE p. 542; Wonderful Peace REJOICE, p. 550; Perfect Peace by Laura Story (YouTube) Suggestions and Helps Resources: Poster & invitation are available from (under Treasure/ Program Helps). Promotion: Use the dove, a common symbol of the word peace. Make invitations with a dove and the word Peace written on it. Include the date, time, etc. of the WAC meeting. A suggested pattern is included below. Presentation Ideas: Have a Christmas tree in the room and decorate with doves. Give each woman a copy of the handout below and ask them to fill out words acrostic style for peace and war. For example: P-Prayer; E-Eternal Life; A-Angels Message; C-Compassion; E- Empathy. W-Wrath; A-Animosity; R-Revenge Missions Choose missionaries that are serving in turbulent areas of the world, i.e., India, Mexico, Bulgaria, etc. Have a special prayer for the God s peace to cover the missionaries. Also, pray for God to give them opportunities to share the Good News of His Peace with others. Service Plan a visit to a homeless shelter or nursing home and take the ornaments you used for decorations on the tree. Pass the ornaments out to the residents. Sing Christmas carols for the residents, have prayer, and possibly read the Christmas story from Luke 2. Prayer Pray that world leaders will seek God s peace while leading their countries. Refreshments A fun, interactive refreshment for Christmas time is a Christmas Cookie Exchange. Each person makes a cookie recipe of her choice (enough for each participant to get 3 or 4 each), and will need to bring a copy of the recipe for each participant. Since everyone will be bringing cookies to share, they ll need to bring some extra containers in order to take home all of the cookies they will be receiving.

2 Extras Ask the women to bring a wrapped gift you can make it a fun theme, like Christmas socks, ornaments, white elephant items, etc. Have each woman pick a gift other than the one she brought. Women love to get things and it s a fun way to fellowship with each other.

3 SUGGESTED PATTERN FOR DOVE: PLEASE COME TO THE WAC MEETING WHEN: BRING:

4 WAR AND PEACE You hear diplomats, world leaders, ambassadors, even pageant contestants wish for it PEACE. But, for the most part, are they really searching in the right places? We know true, lasting peace only comes from one source Jesus! Using the globe to represent the world that does not acknowledge God as the author of peace, write words beginning with the letters spelling out PEACE to describe your thoughts on the meaning of peace or what it takes to achieve real, lasting peace. Using the other globe to represent the world that does not turn to God, write words beginning with the letters spelling out WAR to describe your thoughts on the meaning of war or things that make you think of war. There are no right or wrong answers! (See example in presentation ideas.) P E A C E W A R

5 January 2019 Theme: The Promises of God Overwhelming Faithfulness Summary: God has been faithful to the promises and covenants He made in His Word. His faithfulness was not only evident in the Old Testament but also continued into the New Testament. One thing we can always count on is that God has been, is, and always will be faithful. He has never let us down, and He has never changed His ways. We can always depend on Him. Scripture: Deuteronomy 7:9 Songs: Great is Thy Faithfulness (Rejoice, p. 8); Faithful God by Zach Neese, (YouTube); Faithful by Chris Tomlin (YouTube); Forever by Chris Tomlin (YouTube); Never Once by Matt Redman (YouTube). Suggestions and Helps Presentation Helps Resources: Poster & invitation are available from (under Treasure/ Program Helps). Promotional Helps: Make invitations in the shape of a snowman. Put the sentence There s SNOW better time to come to WAC and include the date, time, and any other information. Ice Breaker: Have prepared a copy of a marriage covenant or vows that would be read at a wedding or have a promissory note prepared, discussing the faithful participation each lady should have in attending WAC meetings and ministries. Ask each woman to sign the promissory note. The coordinator or speaker could tear up the marriage covenant (vows) or the promissory note, explaining how we as earthly beings are not committed to keeping our word. Hold up God s Word and explain that God has been faithful to keep all of His covenants and promises. Decorations: Use snowballs (either cotton balls or wadded white paper balls) on the tables. Or use mason jars with glittery Epsom salt snow and white votives. Cluster these around other table decorations for a winter wonderland effect. Pinterest has several ideas for snowballs and decorating tables with snow. Missions Projects (choose one or more) 1. Choose a missionary family or families with deficit accounts. Make a poster showing how much in the red they are; encourage the ladies to pray about designating a monetary gift to the missionary to help support them. 2. Bring items to make a sunshine box to be sent to the family of a missionary serving faithfully on a mission field whether home or abroad.

6 3. Have faith promise cards prepared to encourage women to promise to give a certain amount to International Missions, North American Ministries, or WNAC. The faith promise card does not need to be turned in to the coordinator but will serve as a reminder to the ladies to set a goal for giving to one of these ministries during their offering month. 4. Bring pint jars with lids and ask the ladies to fill them during a certain time period with only their silver coins (nickels, dimes, quarters, or half dollars). Send money collected to WNAC as a love offering from your group. Challenge women to sacrifice monies spent on Starbucks or other drinks (Pepsi, Coke, etc.) for this project. Service 1. Plan an outing to visit a domestic violence shelter and host a craft night. There are many ideas on Pinterest for inexpensive, easy crafts. The women in the shelter need a chance to have something pretty in their lives rather than the ugly reminders of their troubles. Encourage your women to spend one-on-one time with the ladies, not asking about their troubles but rather showing them there is One who is ALWAYS faithful God. They have not had many people in their lives who have kept their promises, and they need to meet someone they can count on. 2. Visit, call, or send cards to those suffering from a serious physical illness or those experiencing grief in your church. Have cards available to sign ahead of time. Study Complete the crossword puzzle below as a reminder of the things they learned during this study. Prayer Have a special prayer for missionaries with deficit accounts referenced above. Refreshments Serve snowball cookies (also called Mexican tea cakes; basically any cookie covered with powdered sugar to resemble snowballs would work) and hot chocolate. Extras For a fun and insightful way to start the New Year, have a selection of positive adjectives written on small pieces of paper. Have each woman draw one of the adjectives. Challenge them to take that one word and strive to enhance that attribute in their daily choices for the year. It would be enlightening to ask them to journal times when they made a conscious effort to do so and how it turned out. If you can remember, have a time for testimonies at the end of the year to share these experiences. Here are some examples of positive adjectives. You can add more: patient, encouraging, meek, courageous, wise, thankful, peaceful, calm, appreciative, loving, faithful, joyful, and humble. Print bookmarks with the Footprints poem and distribute to the women; laminate and add ribbon. Footprint poem bookmarks could also be purchased from Amazon or a Christian Supply Store.

7 FAITHFULNESS Across 1. COVENANT OF HUSBAND AND WIFE 2. HE IS ALWAYS FAITHFUL 3. GOD'S SIGN TO HIM WAS A RAINBOW 4. LED CHILDREN OF ISRAEL 5. GOD SENT HIM TO US Down 1. ATTRIBUTE OF GOD 2. IN BIBLE 277 TIMES 3. HUMANS BREAK THEM BUT GOD DOESN'T 4. GOD PROMISED DAVID HE WAS A ROYAL ANSWERS: Across 1. marriage 2. God 3. Noah 4. Moses 5. Jesus Down 1. faithful 2. covenant 3. promises 4. heir

8 February 2019 Theme: The Promises of God What Are You Hungry For? Summary: God s greatest desire for His children is for us to focus more of our attention on gaining spiritual insights in seeking His Kingdom. In this passage, Jesus is not promising to meet our physical needs. He is promising that we will have the right amount of food and clothing in order to glorify Him. His glory matters far more than our physical need. Scriptures: Matthew 6:25-34 Songs: Standing on the Promises (Rejoice p. 223) Divide the group into two or three groups and sing the chorus in a round. Lord I Need You by Matt Maher (YouTube.com); Cornerstone by Hillsong (YouTube.com); Jesus Messiah by Chris Tomlin (YouTube.com). Suggestion and Helps Presentation Helps Resources: Poster & invitation are available from (under Treasure/ Program Helps). Ice Breaker: Have thread cut into lengths and a sewing needle available for each woman. Set a timer and see who can thread their needle the fastest. Have gift bags ready or inexpensive sewing kits to distribute to first, second, and third place winners. Decorations: Decorate the room with bees, focusing on yellow and black. Print a different Beatitude on each bee. Missions Service 1. Find out the needs of a Free Will Baptist children s home, or a local homeless shelter nearest to your local WAC group and plan a shower for them; clothing, diapers, toys, detergent, etc. Contact North American Ministries to see if there are any needs for youth camps or VBS in Haiti or Cuba. Contact Bud Bivens for needs of the Children s Home in Mexico. Helping Hands Ministry through the North American Ministries might have a specific need your WAC group could help with. 2. Make or purchase lap blankets to be taken to a specific nursing home (use this opportunity to reach out to those in a nursing home that are neglected or are not connected with a church organization). Take lap blankets to shut-ins that are members of your local church. Make or purchase stuffed animals for a pediatric floor of your local hospital. Start on a Christmas Shoe Box project for Samaritan s Purse. 3. Have a food shower for the Provision s Closet of your church. If your church does not have one, this would be a good time to discuss starting one. The Provision Closet of the local church

9 can help with physical needs for those in the church that might be struggling financially and just need some groceries temporarily. 4. Make Blessing Bags to give to those that are homeless standing on street corners. Bags can contain small packs of crackers, Vienna Sausages, small self-opening cans of tuna, small package of cookies, small containers of peanut butter, hand sanitizer, bottle of water. A Scripture or note of prayer can be printed and included in the bag. Study Discuss the importance of meeting the physical needs of people, as well as the spiritual needs. How can WAC groups better serve those who have spiritual needs? Be prepared to name some of the women from the New Testament Church and the specific area God used them in to meet the needs of others. (Dorcas, Lydia, Anna, Joanna, Mary Madelene, Mary, Martha, etc.). Prayer Pray specifically for ways to help those in the church and in your community. Pray for avenues to open, to minister to those with spiritual needs. Refreshments Consider having a tea party of small tea sandwiches and macaroons, or cupcakes for dessert. Have different flavored tea assortments (Bigelow has many varieties) available for hot tea. Use honey as a sweetener. If possible, supply china teacups and saucers to match or use decorative hot cups and paper products to match a bee theme. Print the Beatitudes on bookmarks and give to each one.