As promised yesterday, a little bit about the convention I went to this past weekend.
First off LWML stands for Lutheran Women’s Missionary League and YWR stands for Young Women Representative. I’ll probably be tossing those terms around here in a bit so I thought I’d describe them up front.
So what is LWML? In a nutshell, and as described on the LWML webpage: LWML is “The official women's organization of The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod. The LWML supports mission outreach and personal spiritual development” A YWR is a woman between, roughly 25-35 (and I mean roughly…our group ranged from 18-39ish) years of age who has a love and devotion of her Lord Jesus Christ and wishes to participate in LWML and represent them at their zone (or national in some cases) convention.
Now I’ll be honest here. I haven’t been active in my LWML society at church. The meetings are in the afternoon which meant I’d either have to bring the kids with me (which can be VERY distracting) or hire a babysitter. That was about enough to prevent me from participating and my suspicion is this, or other similar scenarios, are one of the reasons that there is a lack of young women in the LWML. Trust me, you could pick the YWR’s at this convention out from across the room simply because we didn’t have gray hair. I find it to be a somewhat disturbing trend. I think the LWML does too which is why they have the YWR program. One of the things they encouraged us to do as YWR’s is to reach out to the younger generations of women and find ways to get them involved.
I digress though…..
So, back to the convention. Several of the LWML ladies at church had asked if I would represent Peace Lutheran as YWR. I hemmed a bit, but ultimately I could find no good reason not to, (not the best attitude I know) and in hindsight I’m really glad I said yes.
Friday was the opening evening. I had been a bit anxious all week since I didn’t know what to expect really. Seriously, I had weird dreams about what it would be like… a sign that I’m nervous and dwelling on something. So here I sat of Friday night in the pews with a bunch of other YWR’s feeling a bit inferior since I was pretty clueless about what to expect and figured the others had it all figured out. By the end of the evening it was clear that the majority of us were in the same boat. None of us had been to a convention before and a few hadn’t even been given much choice in going. They were “volun-told.”
To make a long story short, by the end of the weekend we were all friends on Facebook and making plans to possibly meet again at the LWML retreat in July. We enjoyed a wonderful Bible Study on Psalm 8 led by the incredible Donna Pyle. We also enjoyed a breakout session with her about using social media to help grow LWML and make it more approachable (dare I say ‘cooler’) to the younger generations. We got to help make Mercy kits (personal hygiene package like towel, soap, comb, toothbrush, etc.) for distribution through Orphan Grain train. We tied fleece blankets for Project Angel wings. We also helped distribute handouts, collect offerings, and lead the LWML pledge, among other things. In all it was an amazing and inspirational weekend.
Oh, and as with all things Lutheran, yes, I got the “Do you know XXXX Duchow???” question. Met a gal (whose name is escaping me right now) who went to Concordia in Portland and knew Kevin’s Uncle Wally as well as cousins Jim & Marty. I also ran into a lady who is friends and attends church with Kevin’s godparents. It really is a small, small, world.
