Septembernewsletter

BREAK FREE 2013 Women Ablaze International Ministries | September 2013 Newsletter

September 2013 [Edition 1, Volume 1] Women Ablaze International Ministries John 8:12 | Again therefore Jesus spoke to them, saying, "I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life."

WELCOME TO OUR FIRST NEWSLETTER September 2013

if you have something you’d like to submit for consideration, you can send it over to womenablazers@hotmail.com ! Please include your full name and contact information.

Welcome to our first official newsletter for Women Ablaze International Ministries! We have plenty of goodies in store for you each month that you will only be able to find exclusively in OUR newsletter! God has blessed our ministry in so many beautiful, wonderful, AMAZING ways that only HE can and each month we will let each of you into our hearts as we share the journey ahead of us!

Every month you will find a woman who has inspired us and is BLAZING FOR THE LORD! We will share her testimony and story with you as well as let you in on what she’s doing that has inspired us so deeply.

We will share inspirational stories, poems, songs, quotes, Bible verses, photographs and videos and

We will also have a DIY corner where we will find some great do it yourself tips, tricks and crafts that you can enjoy in the comfort of your own home.

For those of you who love to try new, easy and healthy recipes there will be something there for you also! We will feature a recipe of the month where you’ll find something absolutely delicious to try that is family friendly.

And, as always, you will find the most up to date information about Women Ablaze International Ministries as well as announcements on upcoming seminars, meetings, get-togethers, conferences as well as a review of the previous events we have held.

Thank you for all of your prayers, love and support in our ministry!

SEPTEMBER D.I.Y | STAINED GLASS HANGERS

What you’ll need: Scissors, Sharpie Pens, Plastic Food Wrap, Paper Plates, Tape, String. Cut a shape out in the center of your paper plate. Tape a piece of plastic food wrap to the back of your paper plate. Using your sharpie pens, draw a design on the back of your plastic food wrap. Allow it to dry for 2-3 hours. Using your scissors, punch a hole in the plate at the rim and fish the string through. Hang plate by a window and enjoy!

– To add an extra special touch, you can decorate and color the plate before attaching your plastic wrap!

WHAT IS WOMEN ABLAZE INTERNATIONAL MINISTRIES? And what do we stand for?

Changing Lives, Restoring Hope and healing to the hearts of Women

Pictured Above | Bianca Thomas Founder of Women Ablaze

Founded Oct 2011, By Minister Bianca Thomas, Women Ablaze International Ministries is a Non Denominational Christian Women’s Ministry composed of a Network of Christians from different denominations and backgrounds with like minds, hearts and purpose which is to Love, lead and empower women propelling them towards greatness through Jesus Christ.

WAIM is committed to helping women from all walks of life, experience the love, healing and delivering power of God. As a team, we are devoted to create a Christian Network of Sisterhood; providing resources to positively influence the women we come in contact with throughout our lives. We are currently working on acquiring our 501c3 and our website that will have inspirational stories, video interviews, products and teaching materials to assist in living a healthy, successful and productive Christian life.

God has given us a great opportunity to expose women to a supportive community with an abundance of love, opportunities and knowledge to assist, inspire and encourage them to walk in faith and confidence, experiencing the Greatness of God through our lives, worship and service.

We are committed to encourage personal and spiritual development by working with other organizations as well as creating a loving and welcoming atmosphere in our conferences, workshops outreach and social events, so that women will experience the life changing power and presence of a Faithful and loving God! We truly believe our efforts will Empower women to have healthier family relationships, utilize their gifts and talents for the Kingdom of God, serve in their churches, Impact their communities and that woman of all walks of life will be able to proclaim boldly,” I am A Women Of God……, I am Loved, I am Beautiful,….. I am Powerful, I am Destined for Greatness …………………………, I am Blazing for Lord!!! “

For more information on how you may support or be a part of this life changing ministry, please contact: Bianca Thomas 804-536-5678 WOMENABLAZEIM@HOTMAIL.COM

PHOTOGRAPHING BEAUTY Turning Weakness into Strength

Some of you may know the face behind Vision of Rose Photography but not many know the story. What drives Rosey and how the road has led her to do the work that she is doing.

This is her story: “Hello, many of you know me by Rosey or Rose and a select few call me by my whole name, Rosemary. I could talk about the many events in my life that has led me down the paths I have chosen but what is important to me is the one that I walked AWAY from. You see, photography wasn’t always my passion and my desire. I can’t lie to you and say that my heart has always been in it. What I can say to you is that I’ve never in my life felt like I was doing EXACTLY what God wanted me to do until recently.

Some of you know that I opened Vision of Rose Photography in the past and as some things do, it just didn’t work out. My HEART wasn’t there. I wasn’t in the right place within my heart and I definitely wasn’t in the right place with God. It took me failing at what I was doing to realize that I just flat wasn’t doing it right.

Some of us are so scared to fail at something and I was one of those people. Admitting defeat is honestly something that I’ve never been good at. I always had to be the best at what I do. The most successful; the hardest worker. But it wasn’t until everything changed on the outside when I realized what I needed to change was on the inside.

I could go into details about the negative things that have happened in my life and how they’ve affected me in both good and bad ways. I could tell you in detail the many nights I sat up begging God to take me away. I could tell you the many scars I have on my body from self-inflicted wounds and why I put them there. I could tell you the many times I’ve been abused by those who I thought loved me. I could tell you how many times I’ve failed before getting it right. I could even tell you the many struggles I’ve faced. But the truth is, I’d rather tell you who I am today.

I’d rather tell you that you’re stronger than the situations you face. No matter what they are. But I’d also rather tell you that NOTHING is possible without trusting God. One of the best quotes I’ve ever heard in my entire life was told to me by a dear friend; “let GO and let GOD.” To be honest, when she told me that, I thought she was crazy. HOW can I let go of the pain?

HOW can I let go of the anger? HOW can I let go of the victim mentality that I had? The “why me” mentality.

How do I even begin to let that go?

If you would’ve visited me a couple of years before now, I wouldn’t be able to answer those questions. I would still be lost and wandering about without a purpose in life. Honestly, it wasn’t until I held my daughter for the first time on March 8, 2011, that I realized where I needed to go in my life.

You see, when I held her, my world came crashing down around me… but only in the best way possible. I could see her whole life flash before me. Her first tooth, her first steps, her first day of school, graduation, college, getting married, a life of her own, children of her own. But what broke my heart was the pain I could see in her eyes. My pain.

It wasn’t until that very moment that I realized she will carry my burdens. She will respect herself the way that I respect myself. She will love herself the way that I love myself. And at that time, I didn’t respect nor love myself the way that I should have. In that moment, I decided to devote my life to making sure she would know that she’s loved, she’s beautiful, she’s welcome to be herself and that no matter what, God loves her and is ALWAYS by her side. Even on the darkest of nights, the coldest of days. He’s there.

I also set out on a journey of my own in that moment. I unpacked my camera that I had put into my hospital bag and I began photographing her features. Her tiny toes, her long fingers, her rosy red cheeks and light pink lips.

All of those little things that I never want to forget.

Those little features that I want her to someday love about her.

to thank her for the gift, only a veil blowing in the wind remained.

Fast forward to December 2012, I received a call from a young lady by the name of Emily who was interested in my work. Mind you, my photography page only had images of my beautiful Zophelia and my handsome Zayne on there. No professional work at all! She was looking for a photographer who would take her senior portraits and she heard that I was the woman for the job.

She said she had visited my page and liked what she saw.

From there, we set up a date and shot her images.

So you see, because I loved that imperfect, beat up, old, dead rose, it came back to life. And from that vision, I thought, “what if I can heal the insecurity that women deal with? What if I could make them see how beautiful they are and how beautiful the world sees them?” I began working on a project called “The Beautiful Release” from that vision and it has been a great success.

A few weeks later, another call came in. Then another, and another, and another. This went on for months.

People were calling me to have me photograph them. I would pray and I would thank God for the people He was sending my way but I knew that there was a reason.

There was something MORE He wanted me to do.

One afternoon, I got extremely drowsy all of a sudden which is out of the normal for me. I didn’t know what was wrong so I lay down and decided to take a nap.

When I awoke from my nap, I had a clear vision of where I was meant to go with my photography. In my vision, I saw an older woman, whose body was covered in wrinkles, standing in a white summer dress with a veil draped over her head. She was standing in the middle of a field of big, beautiful roses.

I felt as if I knew this woman; as if we were connected in some way, even though I’ve never seen her before. I walked up to her and placed my hand gently on her shoulder. As I did, she turned to look at me and I noticed her hands were cupped around something. She opened her hands and there, sitting perfectly in her hands was a dead, wilted rose. For some reason, I felt sadness in that moment but I loved that rose. It was still beautiful and even though some may have tossed it out, I wanted it more than anything.

She grabbed my hands and placed the rose in them then closed my hands around it. I looked down at my hands and opened them slowly. As I did, I saw the most beautiful yellow rose I’ve ever seen. There were no imperfections on it anywhere. The color was the most pure, stunning yellow I’ve ever seen. When I looked up

It’s a network of women showing other women how beautiful they are, how loved they are, how the road they’ve followed doesn’t make them into the person they wish to be. It’s the road you choose to get off of.

It’s the path with the bumps, the twists and the turns that will mold you and shape you into whom you are.

Just as I too, was once a dead wilted rose, God took me into the palm of His hands and He loved me for who I am. He cared for me. He showered me with love and I grew into the person I am today. With this gift He has given me, I have been able to help women see the beautiful person God created them to be. My greatest weakness was always my insecurities, my scars, my weight, my height, my hair, my teeth and whatever other part of my body was lucky enough to be hated for the day.

Like every other woman, I am guilty of not loving how I look in the mirror but truth is, I don’t HAVE to always love what’s on the outside because I will ALWAYS love what’s on the inside. And I know that God made me the way that He did so I can understand women’s insecurities. So I can understand how a curvy woman feels out of place in front of the camera. So I can understand the woman who comes in frustrated because nothing fits the way she wants. So I can tell you that YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL just the way you are.

God created you for a purpose. He knows exactly what He is doing long before He even does it. The trick is to find your weakness, embrace it, love it and then flip it.

Ask yourself this question: “How can MY weakness help someone else?” That’s the place to begin. Once you do that, it’s a whole new world. Life just instantly becomes beautiful.”

To participate in Vision of Rose Photography’s “The Beautiful Release”, you can visit her website here: www.visionofrosephotography.com or visit on Facebook at www.facebook.com/vorphoto

BREAK FREE 2013

Women Ablaze International Ministries | Conference Review On Saturday, August 24th we came together in the presence of God and celebrated breaking FREE of the chains that hold us back!

The evening was so anointed and full of women who were experiencing God’s work first-hand. The evening was hosted by Bianca Thomas of Women Ablaze International Ministries.

We were blessed with performances from singers, dancers, poem readings, inspirational messages, learned how to defend ourselves and so much more.

A video recapping the night is coming soon on our brand new website that is currently in the works. A launch date will be announced very soon!

For now, you can view the images from the evening at: http://visionofrosephotography.pass.us/wabfc2013/ Also, t-shirts and bands are still available from the conference if you’d like to purchase one in support of our ministry you can contact Bianca at: 804.536.5678

DESTINED FOR GREATNESS Declare and Decree!

"I PRAY THAT THE PERCEPTION OF YOUR MIND MAY BE ENLIGHTENED SO YOU MAY KNOW WHAT IS THE HOPE OF HIS CALLING, WHAT ARE THE GLORIOUS RICHES OF HIS INHERITANCE AMONG THE SAINTS, AND WHAT IS THE IMMEASURABLE GREATNESS OF HIS POWER TO US WHO BELIEVE, ACCORDING TO THE WORKING OF HIS VAST STRENGTH" (EPHESIANS 1:18-19)

SEPTEMBER’S DINING IN RECIPE Hearty Beef Stew

School is coming up and for the working mom; it can be difficult to make sure a warm meal is prepared every night. But children’s nutrition is essential and there is nothing like enjoying a dinner together, as a family at the dinner table. There isn’t a night that goes by that our family doesn’t come together at the table, say a prayer over our food and then enjoy a warm meal. This was always a necessity in my home when I was growing up and it was a tradition that I surely wasn’t ready to let go of when I had children of my own.

Hearty Beef Stew

One of the greatest benefits of this stew is it freezes and lasts well so you can make it ahead of time, freeze it and then slowly cook it out in the crockpot for 1-2 hours and you have a hearty meal that will fill you up!

3 Cups Beef Broth

You can also substitute the beef out for more veggies and instead of using Beef Stock, use Vegetable Stock for a hearty vegetable stew!

2 Cups Water

3lbs Chuck Beef (cut into chunks) 3tbsp Olive Oil 2 Cups Baby Carrots 4-5 Large Potatoes (quartered) 2 Medium Onions (quartered) 1 Head of Garlic (chopped) 3tbsp Tomato Paste 1/3 Cup Balsamic Vinegar

2tbsp Dried Thyme 2tbsp Dried Rosemary 2tbsp Dried Basil

In a large stew pot, pour in your oil and heat to medium-high.

Once oil is hot, pour in your beef and add a sear to all sides but do not cook all the way through. Pour the meat into a bowl and set aside. In the same pot (do not wash) toss in your onions, potatoes, carrots, garlic, tomato paste and balsamic vinegar. Cook until almost all of the liquid has steamed out (make sure you stir this so the vegetables do not stick!) Put your vegetables into the same bowl as your meat and set aside. Using your beef stock, pour it into the hot pan to deglaze. Using a spoon, lightly scrape up all of the bits from the bottom of your pot and stir them around to mix the flavors. Toss in your thyme, rosemary and basil. Slowly pour in your vegetable and beef mixture. Add 2 cups of water. Stir around in your pot to mix well. You can either choose to simmer your soup on low on the stove-top for 3-4 hours or place it in a crockpot and cook on low for 4-6 hours. If you

Pictured Above | Hearty Beef Stew

choose to cook it stove-top, make sure every so often, you go in and stir the stew so that it does not stick then immediately replace the lid to your pot. If you choose to cook it in the crockpot, you just set it and do not remove the lid until it's done!

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