Today is the day. It is finally here. Baptist Women in Ministry’s Annual Gathering!
We plan all year long for this day. We ask a church to host our gathering, hire a caterer, arrange for childcare, look at transportation options, and work with our designer, printer, and videographer. We have conversations with our preacher and worship leader. We enlist communion servers and offering collectors and program distributors. We make list after list after list (we like details in the BWIM office).
We plan all year.
We also pray all year … we pray for those who will lead worship, those who will attend, those who aren’t able to be with us this year. We pray all year, but we pray hardest on the day before when all those last minute details are coming together or not coming together.
Yesterday we worked all afternoon at Smoke Rise Baptist Church, where the Annual Gathering will be held today. We finalized plans and prepared spaces. And we set the table.
I set the communion table–arranging the chalices and patens, placing the candle in the center of the table. The communion table is set. Then Ashley Robinson, Meagan Smith, and I spread table clothes on our lunch tables. Ashley cut flowers and arranged them. Meagan and I put those flowers on our tables. The lunch tables are set and ready.
Today is the day. It has finally arrived. Friends, old and new, will gather for the annual Baptist Women in Ministry worship service and lunch. We are excited and eager to see you. We are ready for worship and celebration. The table is set.
Pam Durso is executive director of Baptist Women in Ministry, Atlanta, Georgia.