Busy With My Friends

For the first time since 2017 I am actually going away to the residential conference for "Spouses of Baptist Ministers". Our group is now called Thrive, prior to that it was Connexion, and before that it was "The Baptist Ministers and Missionaries Wives Fellowship". The original title was rather unwieldy - and also outdated once we had husbands of Revs coming to the local groups, and we opened up to spouses of chaplains, and others who were serving in Baptist Churches, but not necessarily in the traditional roles. So in 1997, we became Connexion- because that word historically represented groups of nonconformists, and also because we were a very disparate group, but with this one connection - what our spouses did. Then about 8 years ago, when things were very different and we were connecting via social media, and patterns of ministry were continuing to change, we became Thrive. Because we wanted to encourage our members to do just that - not just to survive the rigours of marriage to someone in a 24/7 job. 
I love the conference- it is time to reconnect, to share our stories- to encourage one another - to relax - to laugh and to cry together. These women [no husbands attending this year!]are among my oldest and dearest friends.

I should point out that even in the days when my Mum attended they didn't dress like this!