about Shannon Guerra, Copperlight Wood, and what you'll find here

Hey friends. This is the space where we are supposed to concisely share with you who we are, what we do, what we believe, what our vision and mission are, how we got here, what we were delivered from, and whether or not we support (or abhor) various sacred cattle among the church.

Wow. No pressure.

*deep breath, cracks knuckles* Okay, let’s do this.

We are both writers and intercessors. We minister toward wholeness and healing for families and individuals, with the intent to normalize Kingdom culture in our communities. Seeking the Kingdom first, in all the facets of our lives, ought to be the common standard among people who claim to follow Jesus, rather than tame, indifferent Churchianity.

We’re cultivating a culture that nurtures wholeness and authenticity, and creates an atmosphere for the deep places to be healed and restored. And as we’re doing that here in the physical space of our home and community, we’re continuing to share tools for that online.

We value real connections in real relationships; less time online and more time in offline conversations where we can look people in the eyes and hear the tone of their voice. More time in the yard, less time in chat rooms. More time being honest in conversations rather than watering down our words and beliefs out of insecurity or fear of offense. In spite of all the work behind the computer, we want to get away from screens and get more in people’s faces, and we encourage you to do that, too. (In a loving, boundary-respecting way, of course.)

Our focus is rooted in Matthew 9:35:

Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness.

Most of our own teaching and proclaiming happens in our writing, but we also work toward healing and restoration for hurting families and individuals – we meet, text, counsel, listen, help, and disciple toward physical, emotional, and spiritual wholeness.

In that light, the following passages also highlight the crux of our mission:

I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being,so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

–Ephesians 3:14-19

We have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy;giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.

–Colossians 1:9-12

We believe fully in the Word of God – which means we believe it must be taken fully in context, as it was written for us but not to us, and must be read as such rather than interpreted solely from a Western, English-speaking, surface-level, modern mindset. We believe in the sanctity of life and marriage, the equality of men and women, divine healing and miracles, and the active work of the Holy Spirit.

When we let the Lord move us in these foundational ways, we not only create healthier families and marriages and friendships, but we pave the way for Him to do the deep work in our hearts where we all need healing.

We’re an Alaskan, homeschooling family of ten. Our family expanded by two kids through the challenging miracle of adoption in 2012, and two more boys followed in 2015 and 2018 (yes, we know how that happens, and we like it). We’ve reached the stage where kids are rapidly growing up and moving out, which includes a myriad of issues that come up in parenting adult kids, but we still have a houseful of people (and cats) here.

Some of our kids have multiple special needs and we know the hard road of broken parenting with kids from hard places who make hard choices. We’ve walked through some extremely difficult, dark years in both our marriage and parenting. We don’t gloss things over and you won’t catch us pretending that everything is perfect.

But we do still believe that we’re a battleship, not a cruise ship.

We choose to play it cool, not giving the enemy more attention than he deserves, and we put our eyes on Jesus, on what God is doing. And as we do that, He shows us more and more of what He is up to.

And hey…Guerra sounds like gair-uh, in case you were wondering. Any other questions? Need prayer for something? Contact us here. Want to partner with us and support all of this? Our give page is here.

Bless you,

Vince and Shannon
PO Box 2980806
Wasilla, AK 99629