UM women to attend faith gathering

By Rachel L. Toalson
Staff Writer
In less than a week, San Antonio streets should be a bit more congested.
The Women of Faith national conference comes to the city March 15-17. The gathering is expected to attract more than 10,000 women from across the country, conference organizers say.
And United Methodist women from the Southwest Texas Conference plan to join them.
It’s the second time the national conference has been in San Antonio’s Alamodome. The first was in 2004.
Women of Faith, the largest women’s conference in North America, features speakers such as:
> Donald Miller, author of the best-sellers Blue Like Jazz and Searching for God Knows What.
> Robin McGraw, wife of best-selling author and television talk show host Phil McGraw.
> Comedian Chonda Pierce.
> San Antonio’s own bestselling inspirational author Max Lucado.
A group of women from First UMC, McAllen, plans to replace its annual Lenten and Advent women’s retreat with a trip to the national conference—because it’s much better than they could have organized on their budget, said J’Nevelyn Lloyd, who runs the youth and education programs at the church.
Usually their retreat, Lloyd said, extends from Friday night to Saturday. The Women of Faith event begins Thursday at 7 p.m. and runs until Saturday at 3 p.m.
“This year, when we saw this and that it was close, we just thought it would be nice to use in place of the annual women’s retreat,” Lloyd said. “It looks to be a really good conference.”
She said she hopes that attending the conference will encourage the women from her church.
“I hope it will strengthen them,” Lloyd said. “For us, this is something to do during Lent. We want to give our women time to have fellowship and to worship with other women, time to hear God’s voice in different ways.”
Northwest Hills UMC, Austin, plans to send 20 women to the event.
“It’s awesome,” said Sherry Wilkinson, co-chair of adult education at the church. “We’ve been before—three or four times. It’s very spiritually uplifting and motivational. The speakers are wonderful and the singing is wonderful.”
Women of Faith, a faith-based women’s organization founded in 1996 to encourage women, is a division of Thomas Nelson Inc. of Plano. The organization runs 30 conferences each year. Each event attracts 10,000 to 20,000 women.