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GROW Ministries hosted 5th Year of One-Day Young Women's Conference
On Saturday, April 9th, 2016, G.R.O.W. Ministries held its 5th Annual
Conference at St. Stephen’s Orthodox Church in Midland Park, New Jersey. The
Conference was held from 8:30am to 4:00pm. Ladies from Boston, New York, New
Jersey, Philadelphia, Maryland, Washington D.C. and Virginia attended the
conference this year. The theme of the conference was Under Construction: Christ at
Work, based on Philippians 1:6, “He who began a good work in you will bring it to
completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”
As in the past four years, we were honored and blessed to have our
Metropolitan, His Grace Zachariah Mar Nicholovos present with us at this
conference. His Grace is the greatest supporter of G.R.O.W. Ministries and without
his support, G.R.O.W. would not have been able to come this far in its journey.
We also had our very special guest speaker, Ms. Clio Pavlantos, a graduate of
St. Vladimir’s Seminary who is currently a hospital chaplain at Memorial Sloan
Kettering Cancer Center. Ms. Clio helped provide a beautiful, active day for the
ladies, starting in the morning with a personal and insightful message about life, and
leading up to an active and reflective movement session that helped the ladies get in
touch with their inner selves and realize how they can worship and connect with
God using their physical bodies.
We were very blessed to have Mrs. Sunitha Zachariah, from St. Gregorios,
Bensalem, Pennsylvania, to lead one of the workshops: “In the Meantime”. We were
also able to hold two other workshops today. One of the workshops was called
“Body, Mind, Improvement” (BMI) led by our keynote speaker, Ms. Clio, and the
other workshop was called “Architects of Daily Life” (ADL), led by various
committee members. Each workshop provided the ladies with an individual lesson,
allowing each woman to think about how she is a masterpiece under construction
by God, the Creator Himself.
In the afternoon there was an activity and socializing session, during which
all the ladies were able to make and decorate prayer jars, using different materials
as well as Bible verses and inspirational quotes provided to them. After this session,
we were honored to hold an open forum with His Grace Mar Nicholovos. Ladies had
the opportunity to ask any questions or express any concerns they had, to His Grace
directly. His Grace responded insightfully and respectfully to all the questions and
comments that were made. It was truly a blessing to have this opportunity to have
our own voices heard in the community.
The conference concluded with a spiritual reflection in the sanctuary. The
women were guided, with peaceful words, to help focus their minds on themselves,
and on God. The women were asked to write down their strengths and weakness on
two separate sheets of paper and place them together to form a cross. This
reminded all the ladies that everything goes back to the Cross. The session was a
serene time to look back on all that God had done in the lives of these women, and
reflect on what they experienced during the conference.
Through the continued support from Thirumeni, clergy, volunteers, and
sisters in Christ, we were able to have a wonderful and blessed 5th Annual
Conference. We truly appreciate everything you have done for the ministry. Please
continue to keep G.R.O.W. Ministries in your prayers. With the support of your
prayers, our Ministry will continue to GROW in faith!

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