The S.I.S.T.A.H.S. Ministry International
Uniting Women and Teenage Girls to Impact Their World
SISTAHS Embracing the Elevation Conference
On August 28-29, 2009, a two day-event took place wherein The SISTAHS Ministry International hosted their second SISTAHS Embracing the Elevation Conference, "Beauty For Ashes". The purpose of the Conference is to embrace the blessings that God has given us and provide life applications for all those who attend to daily experience God's elevating power.
It's an event that women and teenage girls will be talking about for years to come. To visit the Official Conference Website visit http://www.sistahsconference.webs.com
It's an event that women and teenage girls will be talking about for years to come. To visit the Official Conference Website visit http://www.sistahsconference.webs.com
The Nevada Chapter
of The S.I.S.T.A.H.S. Ministry
DIRECTOR, EVANGELIST CARMEN WEST
Evangelist Carmen West, a native of Las Vegas, Nevada, was born February 28, 1972. Carmen is the only girl and oldest of four children born to Rev. Harold and the late Gwendolyn J. Davis. Her siblings are Harold L. Davis, II, Eric J. Davis, and Leon E. Davis. Evangelist West became the mother of Christopher D. Lee (1990) at the age of 18. While raising Christopher, Evangelist West attended college at the University, Nevada Las Vegas, worked a full-time job, and stayed active in her former church, Greater Evergreen Missionary Baptist Church under the leadership of the late Pastor Nathaniel Whitney.
While in college Carmen met and married Kelcey A. West who later confessed to his calling in the ministry which was and still is to lead God’s people by teaching and preaching God’s Holy Word. Evangelist West and Rev. West added to their family of three, Kyle A. West (1998) and Cameron O. West (2000). In 2003, while under the leadership of Pastor Whitney, Carmen accepted her calling into the ministry of Evangelism. In 2005, Evangelist Carmen alongside her husband, Rev. Kelcey West planted Nehemiah Ministries Christian Church in the northwest part of the Las Vegas valley. Membership began with six members and has grown to over 75 members. In February of 2008, Evangelist West received her official Ministerial License. Evangelist West serves in the capacity of teacher, preacher, and Women’s Ministry director.
Evangelist West is the hostess and director of the annual Let’s Give Them Something To Talk About Women’s Conference. God gave the gift and assignment to Evangelist West to organize and lead this yearly conference. God charged Evangelist Carmen to put together a conference that was affordable for all women to attend. As instructed by God, the conference allows women to pay one price that covers their round-trip travel from Las Vegas to the conference destination, hotel accommodations, meals, and conference materials. The first two conferences, focusing on the Titus 2 woman and the Proverbs 31 woman were held in January of 2007 and 2008 at Zion National Park in Springdale, Utah. More than 80 women from churches across the Las Vegas valley attended the Let’s Give Them Something To Talk About conference. Women came together with the expectation of being taught, strengthened, healed, delivered, and saved during the three-day/two-night conference. God definitely did not leave these women void. Women laughed, cried, released, confessed to, and loved one another throughout the entire weekend. Since the first conference more than 120 women have attended this conference from many churches from various cities and states. Evangelist West’s purpose truly mirrors God’s purpose and that is to each year leave any woman who attends this conference with Something To Talk About.
Today, Evangelist West teaches and ministers at Nehemiah with her husband Pastor Kelcey West. She is currently working on the next Let’s Give Them Something To Talk About Women’s Conference 2009. She has spoken and taught for various ministries and women’s conferences. She also works full-time and loves to spend time with family and friends. Most of all, she appreciates the love, grace, and mercy extended by God to her each day and desires to serve God in whatever capacity He desires to use her.
Evangelist Carmen West, a native of Las Vegas, Nevada, was born February 28, 1972. Carmen is the only girl and oldest of four children born to Rev. Harold and the late Gwendolyn J. Davis. Her siblings are Harold L. Davis, II, Eric J. Davis, and Leon E. Davis. Evangelist West became the mother of Christopher D. Lee (1990) at the age of 18. While raising Christopher, Evangelist West attended college at the University, Nevada Las Vegas, worked a full-time job, and stayed active in her former church, Greater Evergreen Missionary Baptist Church under the leadership of the late Pastor Nathaniel Whitney.
While in college Carmen met and married Kelcey A. West who later confessed to his calling in the ministry which was and still is to lead God’s people by teaching and preaching God’s Holy Word. Evangelist West and Rev. West added to their family of three, Kyle A. West (1998) and Cameron O. West (2000). In 2003, while under the leadership of Pastor Whitney, Carmen accepted her calling into the ministry of Evangelism. In 2005, Evangelist Carmen alongside her husband, Rev. Kelcey West planted Nehemiah Ministries Christian Church in the northwest part of the Las Vegas valley. Membership began with six members and has grown to over 75 members. In February of 2008, Evangelist West received her official Ministerial License. Evangelist West serves in the capacity of teacher, preacher, and Women’s Ministry director.
Evangelist West is the hostess and director of the annual Let’s Give Them Something To Talk About Women’s Conference. God gave the gift and assignment to Evangelist West to organize and lead this yearly conference. God charged Evangelist Carmen to put together a conference that was affordable for all women to attend. As instructed by God, the conference allows women to pay one price that covers their round-trip travel from Las Vegas to the conference destination, hotel accommodations, meals, and conference materials. The first two conferences, focusing on the Titus 2 woman and the Proverbs 31 woman were held in January of 2007 and 2008 at Zion National Park in Springdale, Utah. More than 80 women from churches across the Las Vegas valley attended the Let’s Give Them Something To Talk About conference. Women came together with the expectation of being taught, strengthened, healed, delivered, and saved during the three-day/two-night conference. God definitely did not leave these women void. Women laughed, cried, released, confessed to, and loved one another throughout the entire weekend. Since the first conference more than 120 women have attended this conference from many churches from various cities and states. Evangelist West’s purpose truly mirrors God’s purpose and that is to each year leave any woman who attends this conference with Something To Talk About.
Today, Evangelist West teaches and ministers at Nehemiah with her husband Pastor Kelcey West. She is currently working on the next Let’s Give Them Something To Talk About Women’s Conference 2009. She has spoken and taught for various ministries and women’s conferences. She also works full-time and loves to spend time with family and friends. Most of all, she appreciates the love, grace, and mercy extended by God to her each day and desires to serve God in whatever capacity He desires to use her.
"We Are The Sheep of His Pasture"
Devotional by Evangelist Carmen West
I was recently in a Bible study and heard someone reference sheep as dumb animals. I started thinking about it and asked myself and God why we would be referred to as dumb animals. It really bothered me to think that anytime leadership thought of their flock, they think of them as dumb.
That is when God began to minister to me. He reminded that he made us in his image and freely gave us his heart, mind, and spirit. He then told me to look up sheep and what their characteristics are so I could gain a better understanding. I thought I would share what I found out with you.
I found that there are different types of sheep. Some are considered to be dumb, timid, fearful, easily influenced, stubborn, totally dependent on a shepherd to physically lead them to eat and drink. They are considered to be creatures of habit and they get into ruts easily. These types of sheep are representative of us before we accept Jesus Christ as our personal Savior. We are lost and are easy prey for the enemy. As a matter of fact, the enemy has us and that is why those sheep have those problems. We wander into places we have no place being because God is not in our life and we don’t have the Holy Spirit to guide us. Because we don’t have a relationship with Christ, the Bible can’t give us the instruction we so desperately need.
As I continued to study, I found there are also sheep that are called Bighorn Sheep. These sheep don’t have a physical shepherd but know where to go to get food and water. They don’t have to be physically confined because their inner nature leads them in the right direction and away from danger. I also found out that these sheep are able to recognize people, they react to facial expressions, they prefer a smile to a grimace, and they are capable of feeling love and loss. The bighorn sheep never leaves any of its pack behind.
After reading that it made sense to me. We are like the Bighorn sheep. When we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior, he becomes our shepherd. Upon receiving Christ, we receive the Holy Spirit. That is that inner nature that leads us in the right direction. If we are looking for food, the Spirit leads us to the shepherd who then gives us the Word which is him. If we are thirsty, he does the same. If we need a place to lie down and rest, he gives us a place of rest so we are not in danger. He is the gatekeeper so harm cannot get to us. We are able to feel love and loss because we have the heart of the shepherd. We can smile because his mercies are new every morning, and whether we deserve it or not, he showers us with blessings. When the shepherd grimaces at us, we can react because he chastises us with and in love. We can always be assured that if we go astray, the shepherd will come and look for us so we won’t be lost.
God is saying we have a choice. We can be that sheep that is fearful, easily influenced, and prone to go astray or we can be the sheep that knows the right direction to go, allows their inner nature to lead them, and are able to recognize the shepherd. The first sheep is obviously not a follower of Christ, but the second sheep is the follower of Christ.
So the next time you hear your shepherd refer to the sheep in his flock, think about whom you are and which sheep you truly represent.
Evangelist Carmen West
Nehemiah Ministries Christian Church
3630 N. Rancho, Suite 101
Las Vegas, Nevada 89130
Kelcey A. West, Pastor
That is when God began to minister to me. He reminded that he made us in his image and freely gave us his heart, mind, and spirit. He then told me to look up sheep and what their characteristics are so I could gain a better understanding. I thought I would share what I found out with you.
I found that there are different types of sheep. Some are considered to be dumb, timid, fearful, easily influenced, stubborn, totally dependent on a shepherd to physically lead them to eat and drink. They are considered to be creatures of habit and they get into ruts easily. These types of sheep are representative of us before we accept Jesus Christ as our personal Savior. We are lost and are easy prey for the enemy. As a matter of fact, the enemy has us and that is why those sheep have those problems. We wander into places we have no place being because God is not in our life and we don’t have the Holy Spirit to guide us. Because we don’t have a relationship with Christ, the Bible can’t give us the instruction we so desperately need.
As I continued to study, I found there are also sheep that are called Bighorn Sheep. These sheep don’t have a physical shepherd but know where to go to get food and water. They don’t have to be physically confined because their inner nature leads them in the right direction and away from danger. I also found out that these sheep are able to recognize people, they react to facial expressions, they prefer a smile to a grimace, and they are capable of feeling love and loss. The bighorn sheep never leaves any of its pack behind.
After reading that it made sense to me. We are like the Bighorn sheep. When we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior, he becomes our shepherd. Upon receiving Christ, we receive the Holy Spirit. That is that inner nature that leads us in the right direction. If we are looking for food, the Spirit leads us to the shepherd who then gives us the Word which is him. If we are thirsty, he does the same. If we need a place to lie down and rest, he gives us a place of rest so we are not in danger. He is the gatekeeper so harm cannot get to us. We are able to feel love and loss because we have the heart of the shepherd. We can smile because his mercies are new every morning, and whether we deserve it or not, he showers us with blessings. When the shepherd grimaces at us, we can react because he chastises us with and in love. We can always be assured that if we go astray, the shepherd will come and look for us so we won’t be lost.
God is saying we have a choice. We can be that sheep that is fearful, easily influenced, and prone to go astray or we can be the sheep that knows the right direction to go, allows their inner nature to lead them, and are able to recognize the shepherd. The first sheep is obviously not a follower of Christ, but the second sheep is the follower of Christ.
So the next time you hear your shepherd refer to the sheep in his flock, think about whom you are and which sheep you truly represent.
Evangelist Carmen West
Nehemiah Ministries Christian Church
3630 N. Rancho, Suite 101
Las Vegas, Nevada 89130
Kelcey A. West, Pastor
"Resolutions"
Devotional by Evangelist Carmen West
Each New Year many people go about declaring new resolutions for their lives. I looked up the definition to the word resolution and came up with the state of being resolved, steady, determined, or constant.
We resolute ourselves to losing or gaining weight, getting rid of old things, to not look back at the negative events that occurred in our lives, and the list goes on and on. I often wonder if we truly understand what we are really saying, especially as Christians.
The New King James translation of I Corinthians 15:58 says "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord". That should be our resolution for this year and all the coming years until Christ comes back.
In this passage of Scripture Paul is explaining to the church what will occur when we are caught up to meet Jesus. Those of us who are in Christ should not be fussing over our natural lives and the things that naturally happen to us as we live this life. Gaining weight as we get older, our hair turning gray, not being able to have the latest and greatest of things; those things are going to pass away! We should fully commit ourselves to the work of Christ so we can finish the task God has assigned to us. That is what II Timothy 2:5 tells us to do.
We as Christians have lost focus of what we should be firm in or determined about. We should be standing firm in the fact that Everlasting Life has been promised to us. The bonus in that is a brand new Glorious body, like Jesus has, has been promised to us too!
Every day, I realize I’m a step closer to dying and Jesus coming back. When I was a little girl, the older people taught us what they called our dying determination. So what is my dying determination? My dying determination is for heaven, whether I am up or down, weak or strong; I am DETERMINED to make heaven my home. I pray that as you make resolutions that your dying determination is also for heaven to be your home.
We resolute ourselves to losing or gaining weight, getting rid of old things, to not look back at the negative events that occurred in our lives, and the list goes on and on. I often wonder if we truly understand what we are really saying, especially as Christians.
The New King James translation of I Corinthians 15:58 says "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord". That should be our resolution for this year and all the coming years until Christ comes back.
In this passage of Scripture Paul is explaining to the church what will occur when we are caught up to meet Jesus. Those of us who are in Christ should not be fussing over our natural lives and the things that naturally happen to us as we live this life. Gaining weight as we get older, our hair turning gray, not being able to have the latest and greatest of things; those things are going to pass away! We should fully commit ourselves to the work of Christ so we can finish the task God has assigned to us. That is what II Timothy 2:5 tells us to do.
We as Christians have lost focus of what we should be firm in or determined about. We should be standing firm in the fact that Everlasting Life has been promised to us. The bonus in that is a brand new Glorious body, like Jesus has, has been promised to us too!
Every day, I realize I’m a step closer to dying and Jesus coming back. When I was a little girl, the older people taught us what they called our dying determination. So what is my dying determination? My dying determination is for heaven, whether I am up or down, weak or strong; I am DETERMINED to make heaven my home. I pray that as you make resolutions that your dying determination is also for heaven to be your home.
"Spiritual Perfection"
Devotional by Evangelist Carmen West
As women, we want to be perfect in the way we look, the things we do, and how much we weigh. We deprive ourselves of a piece of cake to fit into that perfect size eight dress or we work out an extra thirty minutes each week so our perfect shape doesn't show any imperfections at all. We look for that perfect blue dress to match that perfect blue shoe we bought. We visit the salon so our hair can be perfect and in place. Our make-up has to be flawless and no sign of wrinkles or age and dark spots can show.
We would all love to be that perfect size 8 with a perfect "C" cup bra. We look at other women and say she's the perfect size or her hair is the perfect length and color. Don't forget about the perfect man with the perfect house on the hill and perfect children. That's what we want; the perfect life with everything just the way it should be. What's wrong with that? Nothing, in fact, that's what God wants for us also. However, his definition of perfection is totally different than ours. He desires that we strive for perfection the way He sees it and not according to the world. Although we may hate to admit it, the world is where we get our definition from. His perfection says that we are to be constantly maturing in His word. We can manage to strive for and often times obtain the type of perfection the magazines or our favorite actress or songstress may portray but we find it difficult to obtain or even strive for perfection the way God says.
In the fifth chapter of Ephesians, God commands us to be imitators of Him. We serve a perfect God yet find it hard to be put together perfectly like Him. His word tells us that His yoke is easy and His burden is light. That is just reassurance that we can reach perfection. God doesn't care about our size; He cares about our health. He doesn't care about the blue dress because we are supposed to wearing purity. He doesn't care about the blue shoes if they are not the gospel of peace. He doesn't care about how many wrinkles we have. He counts that as a blessing because it shows that He has given us longevity! He doesn't care about how long or short our hair is; He's the one who numbers them. He controls that! He doesn't even care about our outer beauty if our inner beauty is all messed up. He wants us to focus on those things that we do control and that is our hearts, minds, and souls! In other words we control who and when we love. Love is a choice not a feeling we get. It's also the greatest command that He has given us. We are to adopt the mind of Jesus and take it on as our own. When we do that we will always follow the greatest command to love no matter what the cost. We decide where our soul will spend eternity based upon whether or not we choose salvation. We can't just accept Christ; we have to live Christ so our souls can live eternally with Him.
All of those together make the perfect woman or the mature woman. God tells us to be holy because He is holy. Translated, be perfect because I am perfect. We don't have to search, shop, diet, or dye our way to perfection. We just change our minds and become it.
We would all love to be that perfect size 8 with a perfect "C" cup bra. We look at other women and say she's the perfect size or her hair is the perfect length and color. Don't forget about the perfect man with the perfect house on the hill and perfect children. That's what we want; the perfect life with everything just the way it should be. What's wrong with that? Nothing, in fact, that's what God wants for us also. However, his definition of perfection is totally different than ours. He desires that we strive for perfection the way He sees it and not according to the world. Although we may hate to admit it, the world is where we get our definition from. His perfection says that we are to be constantly maturing in His word. We can manage to strive for and often times obtain the type of perfection the magazines or our favorite actress or songstress may portray but we find it difficult to obtain or even strive for perfection the way God says.
In the fifth chapter of Ephesians, God commands us to be imitators of Him. We serve a perfect God yet find it hard to be put together perfectly like Him. His word tells us that His yoke is easy and His burden is light. That is just reassurance that we can reach perfection. God doesn't care about our size; He cares about our health. He doesn't care about the blue dress because we are supposed to wearing purity. He doesn't care about the blue shoes if they are not the gospel of peace. He doesn't care about how many wrinkles we have. He counts that as a blessing because it shows that He has given us longevity! He doesn't care about how long or short our hair is; He's the one who numbers them. He controls that! He doesn't even care about our outer beauty if our inner beauty is all messed up. He wants us to focus on those things that we do control and that is our hearts, minds, and souls! In other words we control who and when we love. Love is a choice not a feeling we get. It's also the greatest command that He has given us. We are to adopt the mind of Jesus and take it on as our own. When we do that we will always follow the greatest command to love no matter what the cost. We decide where our soul will spend eternity based upon whether or not we choose salvation. We can't just accept Christ; we have to live Christ so our souls can live eternally with Him.
All of those together make the perfect woman or the mature woman. God tells us to be holy because He is holy. Translated, be perfect because I am perfect. We don't have to search, shop, diet, or dye our way to perfection. We just change our minds and become it.
Our Mission
Uniting women and teenage girls to impact their world is the heart beat of The S.I.S.T.A.H.S Ministry International through partnering together in ministries of evangelism and compassion, to train, empower, support and encourage.
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