Spirits of Courage and Boldness

The McAllen District hosted the 32 Annual Meeting of the Southwest Texas Conference on October 13-14, 2006, in Kingsville Texas. The theme of the meeting was Spirits of Courage and Boldness based on the scripture Acts 2:17-21and Luke 24:1-12.  There were 45 women from the McAllen district that attended the meeting and welcomed 166 women from all over the Southwest Texas Conference to South Texas.

The meeting started with a banquet on Friday night at the Texas A&M Kingsville Student Union Building. The keynote speaker, Barbra Wheeler from the General Board of Global Ministries, reminded the participants that United Methodist Women has always been full of women of courage and boldness who have made a meaningful difference in the lives of women through their mission work and giving.

 

During the reception following the banquet, there was time to visit with old friends and find new ones. We heard reports from two of the youngest members of the Southwest Texas Conference who are working to bring UMW to the university campuses they attend. Each of these girls grew up with very active mothers in UMW. They talked about how their experience as children attending the School of Christian Missions and Assembly has helped to form their current love of UMW. They truly are young ladies of courage and boldness. 

At the reception, there was also a report from Reverend Randy Webster about the missionary work he does in Honduras. Thanks to help from UMW and UMCOR Rev. Webster has helped to bring out the spirit of courage and boldness in the women of this poverty stricken country.

The Saturday morning business meeting started with a devotional message by Barbra Wheeler. From the meeting scripture Barbra focused on the themes of community and communication. United Methodist Women have always had a strong sense of community. Barbra spoke about her trip to the Ivory Coast where she met a group of United Methodist Women. These courageous and bold women worked together to get a micro-credit loan that allowed them to purchase a truck to take their vegetables to market. This truck is also used to build their sense of community and pick up women for UMW circle meetings.  Women often bear the brunt of conflict and strife; a sense of community can help these women through this.  With the second theme in the scripture, communication, Barbra said that we are called to share the good new of UMW.

Sue Sidney as conference president gave a state of the conference report. Sue reminded us that United Methodist Women have always had a sense of boldness through a willingness to undertake thing that involve risk.  The decline in membership is a concern for all of us. She relates asking a group of women "Why do you stay in United Methodist Women?" One one responded because it is the organization that most closest resembles the will of God. Sue took went through a delightful look at the UMW purpose line by line, giving examples on how United Methodist Women really live the purpose. One example of this is the purpose says United Methodist Women develop a creative supportive fellowship. An example of this is the thousands of prayer shawls that have been made by brave and courageous women to wrap their recipients in love.  Sue said that we are all United Methodist Women for a reason and we should work harder to bring each other up in love. We should share our faith journey and tell women why we are United Methodist Women.

The conference meeting was filled with wonderful inspiration, music and fellowship while sprinkled with a little conference business. This was a great experience truly awaking our spirit of courage and boldness.  The next conference meeting is in San Angelo, Texas, October 12-13, 2006.