Washington-Alaska District LWML Convention
Everett, WA, June 20 -22, 2008
“For the Lord, the Lord is the ROCK Eternal” Isaiah 26:4
Come to the 26th Biennial Convention in Everett, WA
Fellowship with all of your friends.
Enjoy special programs for Young Women representatives,
Heart to HeartSisters and Interest Sessions,
Servant events, Bible studies,fun, fellowship, missions, and banquet!
SPEAKERS
Key Note Speaker: Beverly England
Beverly England is a member of GraceLutheranChurch in Tulsa, OK.She is married to Loren and they have two daughters and 6 grandchildren.
Most recently, Bev served on the Lutheran Women’s Missionary League national Board of Directors as Public Relations Director. Also on national LWML she served as chairman of the HOPE Committee and as a memberof the Leader Development Committee. She has been trained as an MMV Consultant by Les Stroh and forseveral years assisted with training new consultants. In her position as national Public Relations Director, she served on the Convention Programming Committee for the 2007 Sioux Falls Convention and was a member of the Visioning Committee. Bev served as Personnel Resources Coordinator for theLWML Oklahoma City Convention.
In the Oklahoma District LWML, Bev has served as Vice President of Servant Resources, District Planner/Facilitator, YWR Coordinator, Leader Development Chairman and served on the District Convention Planning Committee. She represented her congregation as lay-delegate at the Oklahoma District LCMS Convention.In addition, Bev conducts retreats in various districts and facilitates visioning workshops in LWML societies and LCMS congregations
For leisure, Bev loves to walk, cook, entertain, decorate, travel and play Mah Jongg. First interests are her family including her 6 grandchildren, history, music and art. Spiritual growth and prayer have always been constants in Bev’s life. Worship and serving the Lord give her the greatest joy! She says God has blessed her with “life in abundance” and she wants to share that abundance with all of God’s people.
Missionary Guests: Rev. Claude & Rhoda Houge
Missionaries Rev. Claude and Rhoda Houge are based
in Kenya, but work throughout East Africa,including Kenya,Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Sudan. Claude serves as the area facilitator for East Africa and works with national church partners in supervising regionalMission Training Centers (MTCs) in the variouscountries. The MTC model has proven to be particularly effective in Africa, where the church is expanding more quickly than leaders can be trained. MTCs help equip national church leaders to serveas church planters among their own people and as missionaries to neigh-boring people groups. Rhoda is the business manager
for the East Africa field, as well as the volunteer coor-dinator, assisting with mission visitors to East Africa.
From 1998 to 2003 the Houges worked with LCMS World Mission in Ghana. Serving initially in northern Ghana, Claude was coordinator and instructor in the evangelist-training program for church leaders, and Rhoda worked with Bible study and literacy programs for women. Claude previously served in the LCMS as a teacher, lay minister, and pastor in Nebraska, Ohio, and California. Both are graduates of ConcordiaUniversity in Seward, Neb., where Rhoda also earned a master’s degree. They were missionaries with Lutheran Bible Translators for 10 years, including six years in Liberia. Claude entered the seminary in 1993 after civil war forced them to leave their work in Liberia. The Houges have two sons: Ben lives in Shanghai, China, and Nathan, his wife Jodi, and their daughters Lydia and Elsa, live in St. Paul, Minn.
National Representative: Kay Kreklau
LWML Recording Secretary Kay Kreklau joined the LWML as a young mom with one small child and another on the way. She was new to the Lutheran church and had a desire to read and study God’s Word. Since the LWML Bible study seemed less intimidating than the pastor’s weekly class, Kay decided to give the LWML a try. And is she glad she did! In 1992 she attended Assembly of Leaders, where she first discovered she wanted to be a part of the larger LWML family.
While serving as North Dakota District President, she trained to become a Mission-Ministry Vision consultant and was appointed to serve on the LWML Leader Development Committee. At the 2005 LWML convention in Tampa, Kay was elected to her current position of LWML Recording Secretary. Kay has been married to her husband, Mark, for 35 years, and has three children, two step-daughters, four granddaughters and a great-grandson. Her hobbies include her work and the LWML, but she loves to spend as much of her free time as possible with her youngest granddaughter Lexi. Kay sees the LWML as an opportunity to reach out with God’s love to all women and encourage them to use their gifts in service to our Lord. Her words of encouragement to each and every woman of the LWML would be: “God doesn’t choose the equipped, He equips the chosen.”