Portland, Oregon—The Portland congregation hosted their annual Women’s Enrichment Weekend over the weekend of March 24-27. This year, the theme was “Be Anxious for Nothing” based on Philippians 4:6-7. The purpose of the event is to encourage and strengthen the women of God’s Church, both younger and older alike, to help one another grow to greater spiritual maturity and to fulfill our unique role as women of God.

More than 90 ladies attended from the Oregon and Washington church areas, as well as a few from neighboring states. In addition to the ladies onsite, the weekend was also attended via Zoom by 26 women in Reno and Sacramento who gathered together in unity.

The weekend was hosted at Canby Grove Christian Center where the ladies were surrounded by nature, with beautiful mature trees gracing the property and a river that flowed nearby. Guests arrived on Friday afternoon and the weekend began with dinner, followed by a welcome “Fast Friends” mixer activity to get to know one another quickly.

Sabbath services included beautiful special music and Mario Seiglie as guest speaker. The message given was on how to deal with stress and anxiety in our lives. Very fitting after coming out of two years of the COVID-19 pandemic and the challenges that brought on. His wife, Caty Seiglie, was guest presenter in the afternoon. She shared her personal experience of dealing with anxiety, and how to look to God in every situation that comes our way. Four panel presenters contributed to the weekend with their personal stories of turbulent times and how they learned to lean on God when troubles come.

After sundown the popular and exciting not-so-silent auction began. This year the money raised from the auction went to Women’s Empowerment Center in India to help them buy much needed sewing machines. The initial goal was to raise at least $2,000 but, with the generosity of our ladies and a loaves and fishes act of God, the silent auction brought in $2,634, plus $1,200 from additional sales of quilting fabric from last year’s event, totaling $3,834!

On Sunday, the ladies from the Spokane area led us through a relaxing activity that called for us to cast our cares upon God. Sandy Cafourek-Miller presented a hilarious, yet touching, closing presentation and encouraged us all to lean on God in our trials.