Getting Started
Our desire is to see Wives of Faith spread wherever military wives need to connect. In the past, we’ve required wives to contact us for permission to get set up as a Wives of Faith chapter. That is no longer the case. We want to make it as easy as possible for a woman who is excited to connect with other military wives to get started.
Connect
The first thing you’ll want to do is contact us to see if there are any other wives in your area on our mailing list or in our FB group. We can put out a note on the blog or in our monthly newsletter asking wives in your area to get in touch with you about getting a group going. Then, as your group develops, you can join our blog and use it to put out meeting and get-together notices so no one misses the fun!
When the first Wives of Faith group held its first get-together, a December ornament exchange we held at a local church, we didn’t know if we would have many ladies attend, or if it would just be two of us. Our attitude was “if we get the word out, they will come.” (We hoped!) Publicity is crucial if you are going to reach military wives living in a non-military town. When you live on or near a military installation, it’s a lot easier to connect because everyone is in one central location. However, living in a city is like trying to find military wives in a haystack instead of the proverbial needle – you think they’re out there, but until you hear from them, you just don’t know! And in order for them to contact you, they must first hear about you!
Contact your local papers, local radio stations and local churches to help spread the word.
Plan
If simplicity is in the structure of Wives of Faith, flexibility is behind the planning. Wives of Faith meetings and gatherings are just that: appointed times where military wives can get together and share life – the joys, the frustrations and the sadness, which many times can all be experienced in one setting!
Gatherings do not have to be elaborate – they can be as simple as a potluck meal in someone’s home or as formal as holding a meeting at a host church and bringing in a special speaker.
Variety is important – try to hold at least one main gathering a month and then see what else you can come up with. For the Nashville chapter, we started weekly Friday gatherings at a local McDonalds with a huge indoor playground for kids. These were attended mostly by the members who are moms with small children whose husbands are deployed; we also tried to hold at least one evening activity during the month where other ladies, those who work or whose husbands aren’t deployed, can still attend and have a night out with the girls.
Your group can do a wide range of things, from making care packages for deployed husbands to scrap-booking to holding a Bible study. It’s really up to the group to decide what your interests are and what you’d like to do as a group.
Many ladies may be interested in doing some type of military support project. This can be good, but remember that the main focus should always be on how to support the military wife first, with other projects secondary to that prime goal. The reason for this focus is that as wives, our tendency is to give and give to help others: our husbands, our children, our families, other friends—Wives of Faith is a chance to give to each other and receive back. So if you have several ladies in your group whose husbands are currently deployed, make sure that their needs are being met first (whether that’s letting them vent, having a fun night out to take their minds off of the deployment, or helping with kids) before moving to do other projects, however worthy of the group’s time.
Check our web site frequently for new Bible and devotional resources you can use as you plan your get-togethers. We hope to have some materials online that will be available for you to find, print off and use in your groups. If you’d like to contribute to these materials, contact Sara and let her know.
Start Small
Your group does not have to have large numbers in order to be successful. If you are connecting with just a few ladies who need help and encouragement at this time in their lives, then that’s what counts! Start with two or three women and take the time to get to know each other. Pray for each other and share your ups and downs with one another. Too often we focus on the number instead of the person. Don’t allow yourself to fall into that trap. Focus on the women who come and pray that God’s blessings will be on you and your group.
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