Gwen is a speaker, writer, and world traveler, who wants to share the extravagant love of Christ with a hurting world. She loves hot tea, books, a good laugh, her Sooner Football, and anything Disney!

Gwen was born in Tulsa, OK and raised in a minister’s home. At the age of 18, she started Rhema Bible Training College, fell in love, and got married. Soon, three boys were added to the family, Thomas, Nathan, and Alex. Eventually, this very hard and turbulent marriage fell apart and at the age of 35, Gwen found herself struggling to become a single mom, start a career, go back to school, and pick up the pieces of a broken life. Those first few years were difficult for Gwen and the boys, as she was in survival mode and they were adjusting to a life of joint custody, two homes, and their dad’s second marriage. There were many difficult days as Gwen held onto the Father with all she had!

Eventually, life started to fall into place and life was going well, when she found a lump. Just weeks before her 40th birthday, Gwen was told she had Stage 2 breast cancer and she found herself in a battle for her life, as she spent a year in treatment, going through chemo, surgery, and radiation.

It was during this tough time that Gwen realized just how important it had been to keep the Word of God first in her life. She knew she had a choice, just like the children of Israel, when they spied out the Promised Land. She could look at the giants in front of her, or she could look at the grapes and stand on the promises of God. (Numbers 13.) She chose to stand on the promises, even in the darkest times. The day Gwen was told she had cancer, she received a phone call, asking her to speak at the Be Still and Know Women’s Retreat in Northern Georgia. She took a step of faith and accepted the invitation, trusting that she would fulfill the plan God had for her. As she was going through treatment, Gwen watched her oldest son graduate high school, she graduated from Southern Nazarene University with a Bachelor of Science in Family Studies, and she heard the words she knew would come, “The cancer is gone.” With great joy, she watched her middle son graduate high school just five months after finishing treatment.

While still recovering, Gwen felt led to go back to Rhema Bible Training College and finish the journey she had started many years before. In May 2016, she graduated from the RBTC Second Year Pastoral Studies program and within a few months, she took her first trip to the Middle East with CLUB1040, headed by Julie Beemer. There she attended her first Beautiful1040 Women’s Conference in Beirut, Lebanon. In 2017, she went to her second Beautiful1040 Women’s Conference in Egypt. Leaving Egypt, she joined CLUB1040 and her youngest son, in Manchester, England, for his first mission trip.

In 2017, Gwen was featured in the “Amazing Moms of the 21st Century” book (Dr. Elise Cohen and Hogan Hilling). She also wrote “The Daring Adventures of Single Parenthood: A 90 Day Devotional,” encouraging single parents that they can raise kids alone and have fun doing it! In addition to her own blog, Gwen has written for the “Single Momz Rock” Facebook Page and Blog. She also is the owner of GwendolynIrene, LLC, where she writes, proofreads, and helps women go from just surviving to thriving in life. Over the next year, she will be launching a subscription newsletter:

Tentpegs to Rubies: Navigating Faith as a Modern Woman

In 2014, she graduated with a Bachelor of Science In Family Studies from Southern Nazarene University. She graduated from Rhema Bible Training College, emphasis in Pastoral Ministry in 2016. Currently Gwen is enrolled in Grand Canyon University, pursuing her graduate degree, Master of Science in Psychology.

Gwen lives to show the extravagant love of Christ to a hurting world. She has done that in her local community involvement with her church and with Relay for Life (a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society.) Gwen has also served women in an undocumented refugee camp in the Bakaa Valley of Lebanon, as well as handed out food in Garbage City in Cairo. Gwen also participated in a Community Fun Day at a local church in Manchester, England.

Gwen believes it’s possible to live the abundant life that Christ promises us in John 10:10, no matter what the enemy or this life will throw at us and she will continue to travel the world, doing just that.