I’m just back from a Proclamation Trust‘s Clergy Wives Conference. This was my sixth year of attendance. A conference full of the wives of ministers seems a very peculiar thing, so I thought I’d list a few pros and cons of going away for four days with women whose husbands have similar jobs to mine.
Pros
- Refreshing and challenging bible teaching (thanks to David Jackman and Giles Walter this year) – listening to six whole talks without kids interrupting or rota duties for Sunday school is brilliant
- Wonderful opportunities to catch up with friends and hearing news of others
- Great resourcing for ministry by nicking everyone else’s ideas
- Food you don’t have to shop for or cook
- Table-clearing and washing up done by others
Cons
- Feeling very refreshed but also shattered by so much talking
- The Queen getting hold of some scissors and chopping off her fringe in my absence ‘because my hair was in my face’. She has been telling people at school that she fell over and bumped her head and the hair rubbed off.
Have you been on anything like this? What are your pros and cons?
For me…
Pros
– really feeling that God was teaching me some lessons I needed to hear in a place where I was ready to hear them.
– understanding (and even getting excited) about David Jackman’s teaching on Zechariah
– charity shop shopping with the expert!
– catching up with good friends and having the time to chat.
– coming home and realising that I’ve missed my boys (really!)
Cons
– eating too much
– sharing an almost double bed (masquerading as two singles) with a friend.
– feeling talked out (yes even me!)
– hearing of the difficulties that various friends have encountered during the year.
Well worth the effort each year.
I’ve been to the New Wine Leader’s Wives conference for the last 7 years, though I’ve never been to the New Wine Summer conference – too keen on home comforts to camp!The first time I went, I knew only my sister. Now I recognise between a quarter and a third of the 300+ women there on any conference.
Pros:
Meeting up with old friends, both from college (yes, really, quite a lot of Old Oaks from the last 20 years, and often 5 or 6 of us at college 3-6 years ago) and others who I remember from small groups in previous years.
Unashamed luxury of not having to think about shopping, tidying up, washing up…indeed about anything other than myself for a couple of days. No arguements about food, nagging about lifts, it’s such a privilege and worth every penny!
The swimming pool, the special treats arranged for us, the prayer groups, the talks – it’s so good to hear women lead and teach – and informal chats over coffee or meals, sharing the concerns of our lives with others who understand..
Cons:
Having to go back to the real world.
I miss people when they can’t come this year…