What is going on with the Central States Conference Women’s Ministry stride? In 2021, even though we were still battling this pandemic, we pressed on from our Virtual Women’s Week of Prayer in June to our first Women Elder’s Retreat in October of 2021, which led into the ordination of the first woman pastor.
In March 2022, Women’s History Month, we paid tribute to the seasoned women of our conference. What better way to reflect Central States history than from our own conference family? Through the little chit chat with the matriarchs of our conference, we discovered where they were from to how they came to know the Lord to becoming a Seventh-day Adventist. We learned that some were present before Central States became a conference. A tribute to our pastor’s spouses whose support and dedication goes unnoticed completed this segment. Our Women’s History Month was concluded, by request from our Prayer Ministry’s director, Pastor Brian Irby, with the women leading out in our conference-wide prayer meeting where we were filled with the Holy Spirit.
There are other planned activities that will lead up to our conference-wide Women and Teen’s Retreat with focus on Women in Prayer. It will take place October 20-23, 2022, at the Embassy Suites by the Kansas City airport. There we will discover the power of prayer through lessons found in a prayer journal authored by Sister Lori Baynham, CSC HR director, to a prayer journey to navigate through various stations designed by Dr. Sherry Payne and Min Laura Coaxum, retired military soldiers, now soldiers for the Lord, to lessons through instruction from our presenters.
Our featured guest speaker, Karen Abercrombie, is an award winning actress of many films to include War Room, Discarded Things, God’s Compass, to name a few. Other presenters will include Sister Desiree Bryant, NAD Ministerial Spouse’s director; MAUC Sister Diane Thurber, president of Christian Record (service for the blind); Pastor Janis Cobbs, retired VA chaplain and co-pastor; Sister DeeAnn Bagraw, NAD Women’s Ministry director; for our teens, Sister Erica Jones, NAD assistant Women’s Ministry director; Sister Britney Fatoma, counselor and educator; Sister Jorden Schoenhofer, counselor and educator; Sister Anabelle Sahadeo, teen ambassador and blog/Instagram manager.
Registration is open. You may register with your phone by using our QR code or web link. Vendors are welcomed and may register the same way. We love to promote businesses. We pray we see you there.
Elder Donna Brown is the Women’s Ministries director for the Central States Conference.
