A month has passed already. To say that this retreat was one of the best is an understatement. It was well attended, and everyone seemed to enjoy it. After some had to cancel attending due to unfortunate circumstances, we had approximately 95 ladies present, along with 3 men. There were 22 churches represented.
Our key-note speaker, Lori Cline from Little Rock, AR did an exceptional job speaking on areas that are relevant to all ladies, no matter their age. Several have suggested that we have her return in the future.
In keeping with the idea of having “younger” women involved, we asked Jessica Kempfer from Loyalty, Sparta, IL and Molly Kingston from Bethel, Lonedell, MO to be our music worship team. They didn’t know each other prior to this event but did an excellent job in leading us with a variety of songs (some old and some new). We thank them for their willingness to serve.
We were blessed to have Mrs. Prakash attend. She spoke about their work in India and was able to visit with ladies individually throughout the retreat. We continue to pray for them as they serve in a difficult area of the world. We thank the Zion Baptist WMA for paying for their hotel room and the Ohlman Baptist WMA for paying for their meals at the retreat. I understand that some others may have given them love offerings as well.
It was planned to have Caitie Cox, National GMA President, speak and we were going to collect a love offering for her to use as she travels promoting the GMA program or to use for a mission trip that she may go on this summer. However, she had to cancel due to a death in her family. During her time slot we had Connie Reifsteck speak about the current National WMA project, Janet Widger spoke about the changes in the format for the 2023 National GMA Camp, then Tanya Hutton spoke about Caitie. After that we did collect the love offering. Our ladies are always generous. The amount collected was $1,130.35.
The “silent” auction for Camp Garwood was a success as it has been for many years. There were close to 500 items, with the total amount of money raised $2,013.00. We cannot say enough about how generous our ladies are when it comes to Camp Garwood. Of course, there is always a down-side to this. But it is a good problem. We need about as much room for the silent auction in a facility as we do for the meeting room. This means larger facilities and of course more expensive facilities. However, as we grow, our ladies remain faithful in their willingness to pay. For that we are thankful.
Having table decorations that were used as attendance prizes was a great hit again, one that we will probably repeat in the future. The committee is already planning for 2023. Watch for announcements in this paper as well as on the WMA of Missouri Facebook page.
