New Website for WoV South Puget Sound

This blogsite has been replaced with our new website at:  www.wovwashington.org (and click through to South Puget Sound.) However, please feel free to browse this blog and the links here for historical information on our chapter!

Prayer for Domestic Project Mission Trip

Prayer for Domestic Project Mission Trip

Tomorrow, July 23, 2011 is the departure date for our South Puget Sound Women of Vision second annual mission trip to Phillipi, West Virginia. Laura, Patty and Corri from our Chapter will time-travel to Jesus' Hometown Nazareth where they will participate in helping with vacation Bible school each morning while in costume they mingle with the town's children providing crafts, joining in songs and teaching them about Jesus. In the afternoons they will trade their costumes for work clothes and a tool belt and help with painting houses and other lighter construction work for local residents. They will be attending church services and  visiting the local World Vision office and storehouse, They will view and participate in World Vision’s U.S. Programs work taking place in rural West Virginia.

Prayer:
Dear Heavenly,
We come to You in the Name of Jesus asking that You would go before our South Puget Sound Chapter team as they travel to West Virginia and become Your Hands to the people there. Give them Your grace and mercy as they meet the demands of each day both physically and spiritually. keep them safe in their travels and in their work. Give them joy unspeakable and laughter as they work with the children. Put a song in their hearts and give them boldness to share the Gospel unashamed to any who will listen whatever their age. Bless them with something dear to each of their hearts that they can return home with that will encourage and empower them as they return to their daily lives here. Be with their families and fill in the missing space with your provision. We thank you for these women who are willing and who go in faith answering Your call.

Gifted to Give Gathering

 Gifted to Give Gathering

 It is with great delight that the South Puget Sound Chapter along with Beth Yeager,Women of Vision National Chapter Advisor and Dr. Anita Schamber, former World Vision International Leadership Staff invite all Washington Chapter leadership, partners and friends to join us for our first annual spiritual retreat. 

Inspired by our key verse I Corinthians 12:7 "A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other" learn how you can use your strengths to be God's Hands extended. As we are all actors in the mission of Women of Vision, Anita will help us clarify how our lead role and supporting roles enhance our ministry. Listen to Beth as she shares our opening devotional and leads a discussion. Conclude the day with a round table sharing on using our gifts. 

Enjoy the lovely setting at the Tacoma Country and Golf Club with its beautiful grounds, elegant clubhouse, and breathtaking view of American Lake. Dine on the finest cuisine selecting from five salad choices including the favorite strawberry chicken salad.

Leave inspired, informed and invigorated to use your gits to give to poor and marginalized women and children as an empowered Woman of Vision.    

Details:

     Date:  Friday, July 8, 2011 9:30 am-2:30 pm

     Cost: $35

     Club Dress Code: no denim; shirt with collar

     Agenda:

     9:30-10:00 Welcome/Opening Prayer/ Devotion

     10:00-10:45 Receiving our Gifts

     10:45-11:00 Break

     11:00-11:45 Opening Our Gifts 

     11:45-12:45 Lunch and Lounge

     12:45-2:05- Using Our Gifts

     2:05-2:30 Praise & Worship

     Prerequisite: Take the free Strong Life Test and learn your Lead Role and Secondary Roles

     Suggested Reading: Yours Are the Hands of Christ: The Practice of Faith by James C. Howell

    

     Location Address:

     13204 Country Club Dr SW Lakewood, WA 98498

   

     Questions:

     email: wovsouthpugetsound@gmail.com

  

                                                                                

 PLEASE RSVP by July 1, 2011 here
   

"Dinner for 60" - Network Tacoma Service Opportunity

Yes...dinner for "50" has now turned into dinner for "60"!! The response by Network Tacoma staff and families has been wonderful. This is a great opportunity to bless families in our community, by serving a lasagna dinner to Network Tacoma families as they gather for training and learning activities. We also try to interact with the families as much as possible, during the course of our service, so that we are feeding bodies and spirits!

This event is held on the 2nd Monday of every month. The next one:

Monday, June 13th

Soma Building, downtown Tacoma

2320 Pacific Avenue

The dinner takes place from 6-7pm,

with prep and cleanup time before and after.

Please RSVP by emailing: wovsouthpugetsound@gmail.com, to let us know that you can serve on this night.

Half the Sky Book Discussion Group - June 6th & 20th

Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide

by: Nicholas Kristof & Sheryl WuDunn

In this passionate yet practical book, the authors argue that the struggle for gender equality is “the paramount moral challenge” of our era. It is also a development challenge: unleashing women’s energy, they argue, is a key to economic success. The authors’ stated aim is to “recruit” the reader to join a worldwide movement to end these abuses."
Learn more about this book here.

Let’s talk about it!
Women in the Puget Sound area: Please join us for a two-session discussion on this "stirring and sensible" book and become equipped to join the worldwide movement to end slavery.

June 6, 2011 -- 7-8:30pm

Session 1 - Chapters 1-7

June 20, 2011 -- 7-8:30pm
Session 2 - Chapters 8-14

Location: Karen's Home -- 31247 10th Ct. SW Federal Way, WA

RSVP here for session one and RSVP here for session two, to let us know you plan to attend (or just come)!

Want to start another Half the Sky book club in your own area? Let us know and we'll get it advertised!

Bring a friend!

WoV National Conference Call: with special guest Marilee Pierce Dunker - May 31st

All friends and partners are invited to participate in this free conference call, with other women from all over the U.S.

"A Time of Prayer"

with special guest

Marilee Pierce Dunker,

World Vision Ambassador

Tuesday, May 31
4:00-5:00pm PST
Details here.

"The only thing more dangerous than a praying woman is a group of praying women!"
--Marilee Pierce Dunker

Sheryl WuDunn to be Keynote Speaker at September 18, 2011 Event

Women of Vision National Conference in D.C. - 2012 Dates Announced

Every Woman Has a Story: Change Her Story – Change History
March 4th - 6th, 2012
Washington D.C.
Join us for our biannual conference next March! This event-packed gathering will be an unforgettable time of learning and growth you won’t want to miss. You will:

•  Join other women who want to help build a better world for women and children enmeshed in poverty and exploitation 
• Learn from knowledgeable, encouraging speakers 
• Be inspired by the stories of courageous women worldwide 
• Put your passion into action with a Capitol Hill Lobby Day, supported by World Vision and Women of Vision. 
• Receive training to start, build, or improve your Women of Vision chapter.
• You do not have to be a Women of Vision partner to attend this conference - all women are welcome!
• Please see additional details here.

Network Tacoma Hosts Annual Dinner/Auction Fundraiser - May 21st

This is an annual fundraiser put on by our chosen local charity, Network Tacoma.

• Date: Saturday, May 21st
• Start Time: 5:30pm
• Location: Tacoma Country Club
• Tickets: $60

Though our group is not involved with planning this fundraiser, this is one way we can support Network Tacoma -- by purchasing tickets and attending the dinner. See Network Tacoma's website for details: http://www.networktacoma.org/.

*Note: we will not host a "dinner for 50" this month, but watch for information about June's dinner to come.

Eat at Joeseppi's Monday May 16 and Benefit Our Projects

What a yummy opportunity! And fun for the whole family.

We need 100 people to dine at Joeseppi's Italian Ristorante in Tacoma: Monday Evening

May 16th

 -- and if we reach that number, they will donate a portion of the proceeds to our chapter projects for the IMPACTS women's/girls trafficking recovery center, and to health and poverty initiatives in Appalachia.

Also: volunteers wanted for one or two hour shifts, between 4 and 8pm. It's a great chance for new friends and partners to get involved and contribute! And it's easy - all we do is serve as hostesses and bussers (thank goodness....no waitressing!) Why not choose a one hour shift and then have your family meet you for dinner? Or better yet, why not get your better half to serve as a host?

Please see event details here - and RSVP if you can volunteer, or to let us know that we can count on your family to slurp spaghetti on the night of May 16th. Thank you!!

God's Fellow Workers

Do You Worship The Work?

By: Oswald Chambers

My Utmost for His Highest

April 23 Devotional

We are God’s fellow workers... 1 Corinthians 3:9

Beware of any work for God that causes or allows you to avoid concentrating on Him... We have no right to decide where we should be placed, or to have preconceived ideas as to what God is preparing us to do. God engineers everything; and wherever He places us, our one supreme goal should be to pour out our lives in wholehearted devotion to Him in that particular work. “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might...” Ecclesiastes 9:10

Prayer:
Dear Heavenly Father,
As we go into preparations for the Sheryl WuDunn Event in September in addition to the other events and responsibilities that we have, we ask that You would keep us centered on You.

Please take the time to read this beautiful devotion and complete prayer as prepared by our chapter Spiritual Life chair, Karen -- here.

If you are interested in joining Karen on the Spiritual Life team, please let her know -- details here.

April Devotional

But Then Came Sunday . . . He is Risen!

by Rich Stearns, World Vision US President

Just a few weeks ago I walked in those places where Jesus walked in the Holy Land. It dawned on me yet again that Jesus did almost everything differently than conventional wisdom would have dictated. I visited Capernaum and Galilee where most of his three-year ministry took place -- a "hick town" ten days' journey from Jerusalem. Not the best location to start a movement that would change the world.

Join us in reading the rest of Rich Stearns' Easter Blog, here. 

Partners Invited: Overnight Retreat at Talley Chalet

UPDATE! See photos from this event here.

Are you a Women of Vision South Puget Sound chapter Partner? We want to know you better, and, we need your unique and creative input for planning chapter activities:

You are cordially invited to spend the night in a

georgeous swiss chalet in Cle Elum, Washington!

 

Our second ever Leaders/Partners overnight retreat will be a great mix of fun and laughter, prayer and devotion, learning about leadership, and planning for our most ambitious fundraising event yet. You don't want to miss out!

See more photos from our last
retreat at the Chalet.

 

Friday April 15, 5:00pm to Saturday, April 16th, 4:00pm

Details / RSVP on The City

 

You will need to join The City to RSVP.

Event is listed in the South Puget Sound Chapter group.

 

The cost is right: just $10, which includes snacks and beverages on Friday night, plus overnight lodging in one of the most beautiful and unique mountain homes in all of Washington. We will carpool and share cost for gas, and have a sign up sheet for contributing to meals on Saturday.

 

It's about a 2 hour drive to the chalet. If you cannot make it on Friday night, you are welcome to drive up early on Saturday morning and spend the day.

 

Not a partner yet? Join here, and sign up for the retreat today!

Network Tacoma "Dinner for 50" - April 11th

We have another opportunity to bless our community, by serving a lasagna dinner to Network Tacoma families as they gather for training and learning activities. A few volunteer spots are still open. You can either RSVP on The City (South Puget Sound Chapter - Events), or you can email us at: wovsouthpugetsound@gmail.com.

Monday, April 11th

Soma Building, downtown Tacoma

2320 Pacific Avenue

The dinner takes place from 6-7pm,

with prep and cleanup time before and after.

We try to interact with the families as much as possible, during the course of our service, so that we are feeding bodies and spirits!

Federal Way Book Club: Half the Sky Two Sessions

In a New York Times article, Martha Nussbaum writes:

“Women and girls die every day in large numbers all over the world, some from violence, some from what Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, in “Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide,” call the “diffuse cruelty of indifference”: inadequate medical care and other practices that betray a widespread undervaluation of the worth of female life.

In this passionate yet practical book, the authors argue that the struggle for gender equality is “the paramount moral challenge” of our era. It is also a development challenge: unleashing women’s energy, they argue, is a key to economic success. The authors’ stated aim is to “recruit” the reader to join a worldwide movement to end these abuses."

Let’s talk about it!

Join us for a two-session discussion on this "stirring and sensible" book and become equipped to join the worldwide movement to end slavery as presented by Pulitzer Prize author Sheryl WuDunn in her book Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide.

Who?

Women in the South Puget Sound Area

What?

Session 1 - Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide Chapters 1-7
Session 2 - Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide Chapters 8-14

Where?

Karen Marion's Home 31247 10th Ct. SW Federal Way, WA 98023

When?

Session 1 - June 6, 2011 7:00-8:30 PM

Session 2 - June 20, 2011 7:00-8:30 PM

Why?

To be equipped to be God's Hands extended to poor and marginalized women and children so that they can experience life in all its fullness.

How?

Make it a priority to purchase and read the book, mark your calendar and attend the discussion sessions. Email wovsouthpugetsound@gmail.com or RSVP here to let us know you plan to attend (or just come)!

Want to start another Half the Sky book club in your own area? Let us know and we'll get it advertised!

Bring a friend!

Running for IMPACTS - Team "Women of Vision"

Our own Jamie S. is heading up a Team World Vision Team that is planning to run the Seattle Rock n Roll 1/2 marathon on June 25th, 2011. So far, Annie, Julie and Brenda have all joined the team as well!

How about you?

Our team is running to raise money for IMPACTS, which stands for Improving Management of Programs and Aftercare for Children Trafficked and Sexually Exploited, in Cambodia. Over the past five years, World Vision has been a key player in establishing a network of partnerships that ensures vulnerable girls are receiving quality restorative care as they come out of Cambodia’s sex industry. World Vision and its partners (World Hope International, Hagar) create a case management plan for each child to support her in becoming physically, mentally, and emotionally well - until she can be reintegrated back into family or community life or is otherwise able to leave the residential facility.

Please see this link for more information about how you can get involved by joining the team and/or donating to this effort.

March Devotional

 Audacious Faith

 Bob Pierce’s most famous prayer, “Let my heart be broken with the things that break the heart of God,” has formed the basis for World Vision’s work alongside the poor and oppressed around the globe.

Bob Pierce's testimony of faith inspires us to step out of our comfort zone and do whatever we can to be God's Hands extended to poor and marginalized women and children to change the world one child at a time. What a privilege and honor we have in our small way to join this vision. Read what Rich Stearns says in his article below.

By Richard Stearns, President, World Vision U.S.

A risky, costly, reckless endeavor
Sixty years after founder Bob Pierce’s bold, audacious idea, World Vision has become a global organization whose presence in nearly 100 countries has helped change the lives of millions of children across multiple generations.

Bob Pierce’s most famous prayer, “Let my heart be broken with the things that break the heart of God,” has formed the basis for World Vision’s work alongside the poor and oppressed around the globe.

I sometimes wish that Bob Pierce had chosen a name other than World Vision when he founded our organization 60 years ago, in September 1950. If he had chosen a name beginning with an A, we would always be the first charity listed by the media after a natural disaster instead of the last.

But what a name — WORLD Vision. Ironically, Bob Pierce was denied his dream to be an Army chaplain in the 1940s because he had poor vision.

I have often mused over Bob Pierce’s sheer audacity. When he made his first trip to Asia in 1947, he barely had enough money to get to Hawaii, much less all the way to China. And he had to borrow an office from Youth for Christ in Portland, Ore., just to get the ministry started. So you have to love the recklessness of a guy who names his little charity “World Vision.” I think it made God smile.

A foundation that has shaped our identity
For 60 years, World Vision has lived by this risky, costly, and even reckless faith, believing that if we dared to follow Christ by going to the darkest and most dangerous places on earth, God would go before us and “be a lamp unto our feet” as we served the poorest of the poor in His name.

That unwavering conviction has led successive generations at World Vision into the pain of the world. Our courageous staff has faced earthquakes, famines, riots, cyclones, military coups, floods, pandemic diseases, and wars. They have lived among the broken, walked among the homeless, and given comfort to the widow, the orphan, the least, and the lost.

And they have done these things knowing the risk and paying the price but believing that God had called them for the great privilege of serving. Rarely does a year go by that doesn’t cost one or two of our staff their lives — seven have died this year alone.

Because of one man’s vision
That audacious faith of Bob Pierce has always characterized World Vision, and I dare to say it has changed the world for millions of children over the past six decades. That tiny seed planted in Asia in 1950 by one man has now grown into an organization of more than 40,000 men and women on six continents in 97 countries.

More than 3 million children are now assisted by sponsors worldwide, and 100 million people receive help of one kind or another — all because one man had the audacity to believe God and because millions more just like you were willing to join him.

World Vision...I think it still makes God smile.

Service Opportunity - Dinner for 50 for Network Tacoma - Monday March 14

It's that time of month again!
As you may know, each month, families served by Network Tacoma gather for training and learning activities. They bring their children. And the [small] staff at Network Tacoma feeds them ALL dinner. As part of our local service project, our chapter has volunteered to provide and serve this dinner on:

Monday, March 14th

Soma Building, downtown Tacoma

2320 Pacific Avenue

The dinner takes place from 6-7pm,

with prep and cleanup time before and after.

We try to interact with the families as much as possible, during the course of our service, so that we are feeding bodies and spirits!

We will prepare and serve a "Costco-style" lasagna dinner. We still need a few volunteers the night of the event. You do not neccessarily need to stay the whole time--you can volunteer to prep, serve and/or clean up. We also need someone each month to volunteer to do the shopping, and/or pre-cook the lasagna at home and bring it hot (either to the Soma building or to another chapter member who has volunteered to help serve.) Please email wovsouthpugetsound@gmail.com to volunteer.

Shopping Justly: All About Fair Trade - Conference Call March 8th

This call is open to all friends of Women of Vision!

Shopping Justly:  All About Fair Trade

4-5pm PST, on Tuesday March 8th

Call-in information is at this link.

July 2011: Partners visit to WV program work in Appalachia

Have you been wanting a hands-on missions experience? Are you interested in learning more about World Vision programs serving rural West Virginia? Do you desire to develop a closer relationship with other Women of Vision chapter partners?

If yes - please consider joining on a service/vision trip to Appalachia.

Details are still being formed but the trip is shaping up so far as follows:

• Laura Livingston, our SPS Domestic Program Chair, is on point for trip planning. Other chapters are being invited to participate, and sign-up will be on a first come first served basis.
• Participants must be Partners with Women of Vision. (Sign up as a Partner here.)
• Trip will take place the week of July 24, 2011.
• Exact trip duration and schedule of activities yet to be determined - but is expected to include painting houses and other lighter construction work during the week, for local residents in need, as well as helping with VBS, attending church services, visiting local office and storeshouse, etc.
• Trip cost is $450 and includes lodging, meals and extra activities (a fun day, a bbq with local staff, etc.)
• Trip cost does NOT include airfare. Participants will book their own airfare, and, will need to all chip in on the cost of a rental car and gas for the week.

Still interested? Please email wovsouthpugetsound@gmail.com asap and Laura will get back to you to discuss further.

Click here for more photos from the 2010 Appalachia trip.