Clarksville, TN - Grace Community Church

The Lantern ministry, for military wives (or any woman committed toa Soldier) will begin on February 18, 2010, at St. Bethlehem ChristianChurch. (See calendar for details). 

The Lantern exists toencourage military wives into a living, growing relationship with JesusChrist in order to become equipped, through Him, to handle the vastchallenges that come with a military lifestyle. It is our hope thatevery military wife would be committed to a core group of women whounderstand and share their unique challenges so they can learn from,encourage, and strengthen one another.

The Lantern is not solelysponsored by any church in Clarksville, and consists of women from alldifferent denominations and faith backgrounds. 

Our Story:

Ourstory is similar to that of most military wives. We are a group ofwomen made up of mothers, professionals, students, exercise-aholics,scrap-bookers, and divorcees from all over the country and all faithbackgrounds, who are married to the military, er, men in the military.We have learned, often through painful trial and error, that we cannotcontinue to burden the challenges that come with a military lifestylealone. We have learned that when we rely on our own strengths,experiences, and plans to get through deployment and reintegrationperiods (often many periods), we fall short and our marriages,children, careers, and mental sanity suffer. It is only when we giveour lives back to the One who made them that we are able, through Hisstrength, love, and incredible grace, to live full lives despite ourcurrent circumstances. Okay, so you are probably still asking ... howdid The Lantern really get started?

In the spring of 2009 an Armyofficer and military wife, Mya Parker, decided to get out of themilitary upon the completion of her obligation in order to servemilitary families in some capacity. Throughout her short career, Myasaw the effects multiple deployments were having on military families,including her own, and she wanted to help equip them to better handlethe high operational tempo of today's militaries. Being someone who haddeployed, Mya knew that Soldiers had instant community within the ranksas well as vast resources available to them in order to cope withdeployment challenges ... but what about the women in their lives? Myahad the opportunity to serve as a battalion rear detachment commanderfor the last four months her battalion was deployed and the two monthsof reintegration. During this time, she worked with many hurtingfamilies, many of whom were trying to deal with the immense challengesof deployments and reintegrations alone. Of course, militaries provideopportunities to get connected with other wives in their husbands'units, but what if, for whatever reason, women don't want to tap intothose groups? What then?

In the middle of April 2009, Myaapproached her pastors at Grace Community Church in Clarksville,Tennessee, about the possibility of starting a military wives ministryin the community. Her pastors gave her great encouragement and advice,including starting the ministry with a weekly community group at Grace.In September 2009, the first military wives community group started atGrace with approximately 15 women. These women were from all differentbackgrounds but they quickly united in the similarities that theywanted to 1) create friendships with women who understood what theywere going through, and 2) learn more about Jesus. In November 2009, agroup of women, most of whom were from the military wives communitygroup, started meeting to discuss starting a monthly, open-invitegathering of military wives. Over the next several months, the groupcontinued to pray over and plan the military wives ministry that wouldbecome The Lantern. 

Make plans now to attend the first meetingon February 18th, 7 pm, at St. Bethlehem Christian Church, 280 DunbarCave Road, Clarksville. 

For more information email thelanternclarksville@yahoo.com