ST. PETERSBURG – Christian Women’s Fellowship, Woman of Excellence International held its annual Women’s Empowerment Brunch Sat., May 23 at the St. Petersburg Country Club. The theme this year was “Honoring Women on Our Journey.”
A heartfelt welcoming speech was presented by founder and St. Petersburg native Dr. Ada Davis, and with continued motivating spirit, the opening prayer was delivered by Pastor Karalynn Brubacker.
Brubacker captured the theme of truly empowering each other with her statement, “Let us look beyond each other’s faults and see each other’s needs.” She encouraged the importance of sharing ones stories with others.
Apostle Lolita Holman lifted the hearts of all in worship and prayer by raising her voice to God singing and speaking enlightened words touched by love and power that resonated throughout the Fellowship. The prayer reminded all of the grace of thankfulness and faith, and was collaborated with “amen” by many in agreement and acknowledgement of her spiritual words of encouragement.
Elder Devenia Novarolia continued the emotional climb to empowering women in 2015. Novarolia listed and analyzed the ways they stood to empower their fellow women through the acronym of the word itself: “EM” stood for Emmanuel, “P” for the Prince of Peace, “O” stands for Omega, the “W” for worship, “E” for everlasting father and “R” for righteousness.
The minister in charge of the festivities, Pastor Deborah Hill, instilled the importance of “always having to stay in that state of learning, that state of growing, that state of always evolving and moving…this helps me to be a woman of excellence.”
Keeping in the spirit of the theme, celebrated author Linda Mobley spoke of her successful book “I Hate My Teen Age Years.” Mobley’s theme as related to her book was how to break the generational cycle of domestic abuse by realizing ones’ own worth and the worth of our children and the importance of keeping them safe. This was listened to reverently as a testimony about the power of God’s relationship and love to seeking women in prayer. His comforting presence was felt and celebrated by the fellowship.
The women lifted their voices together in conclusion singing, “I need you to survive.” The beautiful chorus states: “It is His will that every need be supplied; you are important to me, I need you to survive.” This song was a perfect conclusion to the morning’s festivities, and everyone left revived.
Christian Women’s Fellowship started in a living room in April of 1987 with only seven women. This past Saturday they had the honor of celebrating 27 years of empowering, equipping and encouraging women at the celebratory brunch.
After recognizing specific members for charity their work around the community, multiple gifts were given out to various members of the group. Many of these women gave personal, social stories of strength, hardships and blessings from God.
The meeting closed with a brief history of the group, announcements and a closing prayer by Davis. She encourages women to come forward and register in order to help the community by joining the Christian Women’s Fellowship. Davis is the CEO and founder.
