Wives of Faith

I love books! I really do! Just looking at all the books I have unpacked since our recent move, I can tell you I love books a whole lot. My husband might argue that I love them too well, because I have too many! (Never mind he has probably just as many in his Pro Gear stashed in the garage, but I digress . . .)

In the spirit of looking for the “inspiring admiration” part of our August, I want to be a little green today and post a reprint of an article I posted two years ago about online book swapping sites. So, enjoy!

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Before there was the television show, there was the book…

Army Wives: The Unwritten Code of Military Marriage by Tanya Biank

Recently I read the book Army Wives so I could review it for our Wives of Faith readers. It is a powerful book.

The original title for Army Wives is Under the Saber and it’s a very interesting nonfiction book about the lives of four different Army wives. The author, Tanya Biank, does a wonderful job of spotlighting four very different women whose husbands serve in the Army. She was able to talk quite frankly about these women’s struggles.

Pattie’s Review:

I have only watched a couple of episodes of the Lifetime series “Army Wives,” and they were early episodes. I was never hooked on the show, I guess, because my husband was deployed at the time, and his military career was nothing like the ones depicted on TV, and I just didn’t know much about the military. Of course, now the show is in its fourth season and is a runaway hit with women everywhere. (Perhaps I’ll catch it on DVD!)

That said, when I had the chance to order a copy of Tanya Biank’s book of the same title from Military One Source.com (I offer a link to this program at the end of this post), I was excited to read it.

While I enjoyed the book, I feel I must offer a disclaimer right away: this is a serious book. It’s not lighthearted or fluffy, and it’s not what might be considered a “fun” read.  Tanya Biank is a serious journalist, and this book is an extension of many stories she covered as a reporter in Fayetteville, North Carolina in the early 2000s. She is an excellent writer, and while this is nonfiction in content, it is most certainly not scholarly or stodgy in tone. I read it fairly quickly as this nonfiction narrative flowed smoothly.

In this book, Tanya Biank examines Fort Bragg and the people who serve there. She chose four wives from different walks of life, whose husbands had different ranks and jobs, and different temperaments. She talks about their lives, their husbands’ jobs and service, how they lived, and in some cases, how they died.

I found Army Wives to be a fascinating look at military spouses on either side of 9/11/01. Because the stories begin before that fateful day, and continue through that uncertain time, and end after the war is in full swing.

I’d love to see Tanya Biank do a follow-up to Army Wives now. Not necessarily with the same women she profiles, but with other military women in different situations and facing different challenges. I think it’d be fascinating.

I am always fascinated by people’s stories—it’s why I’m a reader of books and a watcher of people when I’m out, why I love being a part of Wives of Faith, and why I’m a listener of stories in my real life. I think it’s also why I really enjoyed this book so much.

To learn more about the book and the author, visit Tanya Biank’s site here.

WIN THIS BOOK!!!

And now for the giveaway. While I enjoyed this book very much, I also want to share my only-read-once copy of the book  with another Wives of Faith reader. (For any other bibliophiles out there, you’ll know what I mean when I tell you that my husband loves me, but not all my books—and with another move in a year after just having moved last month, you can see my predicament!)

No purchase necessary! Just leave a comment telling me one great thing about being a military wife. That’s all! One great thing. You’ll then be eligible for the drawing to receive my once-read, still-in-great-shape copy of this book. I’ll mail it as soon as the winner sends me her address.

Also, please be sure to include your email address in your comment. It won’t be public info for the public site, but it will give me a way to contact you in the event that you’re the winner.

So be sure to leave a comment starting now until Friday, July 9th at noon Central time. That’s when I’ll choose the winner!

Special thanks to Military One Source for the free copy of the book. It was sent to me for free
as a military spouse, not for review. To learn more about this program, click here.
You will need to join Military One Source to participate in this program, but membership is free.

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From the Archives, November 2008:

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From the Archives, September 2009:

I was very excited to get to read and review this book because I had heard great things about it, and I was not disappointed. Jocelyn Green along with 14 other military wives from all different branches, has written a wonderful selection of 86 different devotionals filled with scripture verses, faith, and encouragement.

Each devotional has verse that goes along with it, and at the end of each has an “Ask” and “Pray” section which asks you questions that make you think about what you just read and a written prayer for you to pray aloud. There was a wide range of topics that covered almost every area and aspect of military life including main topics such as:

-Taking Every Thought Captive: Training Our Minds to a Biblical Perspective.
-Guarding the Heart: Protecting Ourselves from the World’s Temptations.
-Ambassadors for Christ: Viewing Our Role as a Ministry.
-Taking Orders: Living the Life That Has Been Set Before Us.
-Total Surrender: Giving Up Our Attempts to be in Control.
-The Price of Duty: Overcoming the Trials Inherent in Serving.
-Active Duty Faith: Leaning on a Faith that Sustains.
-Hope of Victory: Recognizing God’s Goodness.

This book really hits close to home with real-life stories of other military wives and their daily struggles. There were so many things that convicted me and really spoke to me through this book and also so much to learn from! I was able to get something out of every single devotional in this book, and walk away feeling encouraged on a daily basis. There were some sections that just brought me to tears, because of how much I was able to relate, or because of something that God used to show me. This is a book that women of all ages, no matter how long they have been a military wife, can relate to. It’s something I will definitely be reading again and will be passing on for others to read as well!

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We had some great response this week on our Facebook page for resources wives recommend to help husbands grow spiritually. I thought I’d pass those titles on here. Enjoy (and if you have others you’d recommend, please comment!)

• Power for Today devotional booklets – Glenda said these can be ordered online if your church doesn’t provide them  (here’s a sample)
• The New Believer’s Bible  – Aundria says “so many things within that Bible to help a person on their new path with God. I love mine.” – view here.
• Morning/Evening Prayer Devotion books – Andrea says “ I just sent my husband a morning and evening prayer/devotional book. There are several out there but this one had space where he could review the passage and write his thoughts at the bottom as to what he is feeling and going through.”
• Men of Honor:Men’s Group Study - a great resource while on deployment
• A Table in the Presence - Colleen says “It will help your husband see God right where he is now- in the midst of war… and then he can go from there…”
• Strength for Service - Allison says “My husband spent a year in Iraq & recommends this. It really helped him handle deployment- before, during & after. It may be available through your husband’s chaplain.”
• How to Study the Bible and Enjoy It and Battlefield of the Mind - Ebony says “Both are great for the individuals, and can be worked through together, which is great for couples on opposite sides of the globe ”
• Man in the Mirror - Leslie says “Maybe not in fashion right now but when my husband reconnected with God he devoured Main in the Mirror and a couple of others by Patrick Morley. He even bought them as gifts for his brothers. I am a big fan of John Piper as well.”

Don’t forget to add your own recommendations! And if you’re on Facebook, be sure to follow our page!

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Are you a member at Paperback Swap? If so, please take notice of a new donation program for Story Time with Soldiers.

Paperback Swap has more information here about their partnership with “United Through Reading.” Basically, PBS members can donate PBS money and/or credits to the program.

What a fabulous idea! Especially timely given that April is the Month of the Military Child.

When my husband was deployed, the USO had a similar program on a traveling bus. Many of my friends took advantage of this wonderful program and were able to connect their children with their deployed parent.

I have been a member of Paperback Swap for about four years, and it’s a wonderful and “green” way to deal with the book overload at my house. Consider joining the community there and pare down your book weight

Have a wonderful weekend, Wives of Faith!

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Many of you know I’ve been leading the group study of GOD Strong at my church with a group of dear military wives and I’ve had several of my military wife friends on Facebook asking when I might do something online.

Sooo… if you have been reading GOD Strong or are planning to, please join me April 1 as we hold a virtual book club here at Wives of Faith and discuss together what it means to lean and depend on God’s strength and not our own.

Each Thursday beginning April 1st through April 29, I will post some thoughts and a few questions for us to discuss on the blog. THIS Thursday (March 25), I will post an Introduction to the book and you will be invited to comment and share if you’re participating.

Hope you’ll join me!

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Welcome to the blog tour for Leeana Tankersley‘s lovely and wonderful book Found Art: Discovering Beauty in Foreign Places. Leeana is one of our Wives of Faith blog contributors, and I’m thrilled to review her book here at Wives of Faith!

Found Art is a memoir of the year author Leeana Tankersley lived in the Middle East with her Navy SEAL husband during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. As her story unfolds, Leeana finds her life and her soul have been changed forever.

Pattie’s Thoughts:

Found Art is an amazing, deceptively small book—for inside its textured painted cover is a world: the world of a journey inside a woman’s soul. Leeana Tankersley tells about the first year of her marriage to her Navy SEAL husband, while they lived in Bahrain in the Persian Gulf. The book shows several journeys: the journey she makes during the year in Bahrain, and the journey the following year back in California.

The overlying theme of “found art” is presented artistically in the eight items in her life collage. Representations of themes in her life, Leeana writes about the items themselves, as well as what they represent to her. In doing so, she shares her heart in an open and honest way, and she also invites her readers to do the same. There are even prompts at the back of the book for personal journaling or group discussion.

From the standpoint of being a military wife, I appreciated Leeana’s journey. I have not yet been called into a foreign country as a military spouse, so reading about her journey, her spiritual awakening moments, called to my heart in a very special way. Also, the “stones of remembrance” she talks about has always been something that stood out to me in Scripture as well.

All in all, this book came to me at exactly the right time. It was a little “late” because it arrived in my mailbox towards the end of the blog tour timeline, but it was precisely the right time for me, Pattie, to read. I’ve made no secret to my friends, in the past year, about my great reluctance to turn 40 this past November. I felt like I was at some sort of turning point in my life, even though we’ve been in the same place nearly four years and I’m comfortable here in the way one is comfortable being in a place for that long. The eternal twin questions of who am I and what am I doing bombard me as I continue to pray for God to show me what His design is for my life. Where that “sweet spot” is for me.

Found Art arrived just after we listed our home for sale (a new venture) and prepared for a weekend trip to Winnipeg, Manitoba, to see the Royal Winnipeg Ballet dance Swan Lake. Granted, Canada is not Bahrain; yet any travel, even if it’s only a couple hundred miles north into another country, is still a journey. As I read the book a chapter or two at a time during this weekend, I found myself looking for things, noticing things, like the melting ice sculpture in the courtyard. Or the people in the street with various funky clothing or piercings. The taste of the French toast at Pancake House. Driving through fog. The overall beauty of the ballet. The joy on my daughters’ faces as they experienced the live ballet accompanied by the Winnipeg Symphony. Even my Tim Horton’s doughnut and coffee. All of these sensory experiences served to make a collage of our weekend.

My desire is to make the most of our opportunities as a military family. As the Air Force moves us onward and southward in the coming months, I will carry Found Art with me, its own work of art that spurs me and prods me to allow God to make my own life into art.

Somehow I ended up with an extra copy of the book; occasionally this happens with Zondervan. I’d like to offer it to one of our Wives of Faith readers as a giveaway. And this time, I’m going to make you work a little! (Kind of like our blog carnival at Christmas and the one coming up in May.)

To enter the giveaway, you need to write a response to this prompt:

In Leeana’s book she writes about little pieces of “found art” that grew in significance to her. Write about something that you have found at some time in your life that has become significant to you.

Write about it on your blog and leave the link in the comments. If you don’t blog, leave your response in the comments here. I will close the comments on Tuesday morning, March 23, and choose a winner by 10 a.m.

Looking forward to reading your responses!

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Go visit Jocelyn’s blog at Faith Deployed to read a wonderful interview with our own Sara Horn!

Faith Deployed: Sara Horn’s Military Wife Life

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The following article is an excerpt from a new book coauthored by Jocelyn Green of Faith Deployed. This is one of the books that will be a prize during the blog carnival in May, so stay tuned!

In the meantime, enjoy!

My Times Are in Your Hands

By Kristen Hamilton, wife of Kevin Hamilton, U.S. Army, Iraq, 2003-2004

My heart was heavy. I desperately missed my husband and longed to be with him. I could only imagine just how lonely, scary, and disconcerting it would be to be sent halfway around the world to risk your life in really uncomfortable conditions with people that you had only known for a matter of months. I wanted so badly to fly to him and “take care” of all his needs. Kevin is a strong, independent man – certainly more than capable of taking care of himself. Still, I would lay awake and wonder: Who’s encouraging my husband when he feels down? Who’s ministering to his spirit when he needs a friend? Is anyone praying with him? In the end, I felt like no one could replace me in looking out for my husband.

Then I read a book called The Hand of God by Alistair Begg. What an incredible blessing! The book follows the life of Joseph, and in chapter four Begg drives home a key point that I felt was written directly for us: Joseph was a long way from home and everything familiar to him, yet he was still hemmed in “behind and before” by God.

It pierced my soul because I realized that I could so easily replace Joseph’s name with Kevin’s. Begg writes that God’s presence was the source of Joseph’s protection. What a relief! My burden was lifted when I understood that there was nothing that my presence could do that God’s presence wasn’t already doing. In fact, God’s presence was all that Kevin needed. His circumstances could have been a thousand times worse, and still God was with him and God was sufficient. I didn’t have to be burdened with anxiety or concern. My amazing God was taking care of my amazing husband in ways well beyond my capabilities. From quiet, possibly lonely nights in his cot in the barracks to riding in the military vehicles on patrol, to helicopter rides to Baghdad, he was surrounded and secured with the power of God. What was left to worry about?

“My times are in your hands; deliver me from my enemies and from those who pursue me” (Psalm 31:15).

Prayer: Lord, thank you for remaining in complete control of all my days, and those of my loved ones.

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This devotion is an excerpt from Battlefields & Blessings: Stories of Faith and Courage from the War in Iraq & Afghanistan (AMG Publishers 2009) by Jocelyn Green, Jane Hampton Cook and John Croushorn.

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