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!

 

 

Tags: GROW

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