By: Laura Shields, Women’s Ministries Assistant Director
What does Women’s Ministries look like in 2023? I am writing to you as I embark on the eleventh year as Assistant Director of Women’s Ministries at Hume Lake. Hume offers two Spring Women’s Retreats and two Fall Women’s Retreats, and I’m pleased to report that, concluding our Spring Retreat, a total of 800 Women attended. For me, this number means a few things. First, it means that 800 women heard the Gospel clearly (of which 10+ made first-time decisions to follow Christ). Second, it means that 800 women were united in coming together to worship the one true God, and third, it means that 800 women had a weekend to refresh and reflect on what God is doing in their life and how God might use them to impact their church and community when they go home.
What’s the secret sauce to running a Women’s Retreat at Hume? In addition to an amazing full-time staff who takes care of all the details from registration, kitchen, and facilities to activities, we are sticking to the basics: corporate worship, the teaching of the Scriptures, and prayer. These three elements saturate our weekend, from our initial staff meeting on Friday to praying for women before we excuse them for lunch on Sunday, excuse me, BRUNCH… to keep it classy. We know that without our full attention on Jesus, these weekends, at best, produce busy bodies. As we expect God to move in His people, we humbly submit ourselves to Him over and over throughout the weekend as a staff, and you know what??? God moves in and through His people, and we’ve witnessed it repeatedly!
I mentioned prayer, so let me focus on that for a moment. Our host staff is gracious to pray with women as needed throughout the weekend. They are prepped and trained for this before the guests arrive at 3 pm on Friday. I honestly can’t tell you how many times our staff saw God move through prayer in these last two Spring Retreat weekends. God is so good and so gentle in the process of prayer. There were countless stories of how God perfectly paired up our staff to pray with women who either WERE or ARE in almost identical circumstances as the guest they were praying for. The Church Body was being used in ways completely out of our control, pointing only to the explanation that God is sovereign. He knows, He cares, He sees, and it is our privilege to walk in obedience alongside our guests in prayer as just a small but powerful part of the Women’s Ministries at Hume Lake.
Are you interested in more info on Women’s Retreats? Click below for the Fall schedule!