NAPC Membership Chair and Administrator, JoAnne Sharp attended Women’s Connection 2017.  JoAnne reports:

Rain was falling as the shuttle arrived at Montreat. Yet even with rain falling Montreat welcomes you like a longtime friend. Women were relaxing in the lobby of Assembly Inn, as they waited for the rooms to be ready. Some were reading, some working puzzles…some were old friends, while others were new friends. The noise level increased 10 fold when about 250 women and a few men made their way into the Galax Dining Room for supper.

I love the fact that at Montreat the evening meal is supper! Again there were old friends, new friends, mothers and daughters, sisters gathering round the tables to break bread and be in fellowship. Those of us who had been there before knew to go and get our desserts as soon as we got our plates from the buffet!  Women’s Connection 2017 was under way! The rain continued to fall.

The Women’s Connection Conference has had it struggles like many organizations, conferences and yes churches. Yet there has been a strong remnant that believed in it, and saw its worth, and so they provided for it, even in the leanest years. We weren’t all Presbyterians, but there were a lot of us. What we were was a gathering of community who sought wisdom, knowledge, and respite from our hectic lives. If you have the opportunity to attend next year I encourage you to go! I will be there; I will be the one sitting on the porch of Assembly Inn watching the ducks on Lake Susan.

Oh yes the sun did come out on Saturday and continued even as we drove out of the gate on Sunday! Good-bye dear friend, see you soon.