Stepping In To A Dream at Gather BC

by Helen Burns

To me, it felt like I had stepped into a dream… a desire and longing of my heart was finally coming to pass and I was to discover that this very dream was resonating inside the hearts of many women and leaders throughout our city and beyond. The first regional gathering of GatherWomen took place on a gorgeous Saturday morning, April 2nd in Surrey, B.C. with close to 400 women and team in attendance. On the afternoon before the event 250 women had pre-registered so it felt like an Ephesians 3:20 moment where God did exceedingly and abundantly above and beyond our wildest expectations.

Though there was such diversity amongst the women that came – from our backgrounds & ethnicities, our ages and church affiliations, we all sensed the wonder and joy of unity and truly felt the ‘kiss of Heaven’ upon every moment that we were together.

Each person who graced the platform spoke of the strength that we as the Canadian sisterhood share when we come together in unity to further the work that God has put in each of our hands to carry out.

I have had such positive feedback and I have heard from a number of amazing leaders in our city that their ‘hands are up’ to join the growing throng of women who are eager to be a part of shaping and growing a healthy, safe and committed community of sisterhood here on our beloved Canadian soil. These are early days, but they are very exciting days.

• I loved seeing churches come together alongside great Christian organizations like International Justice Mission http://www.gatherwomen.com/our-partners-ijm/ and Compassion http://www.gatherwomen.com/our-partners-compassion-canada/ to do this significant work together.  
• I love that there is a national prayer movement rising up and that we can pray collectively with strength and unity. Please go to GatherWomen.com go join your heart and faith and pray with us. http://www.gatherwomen.com/join-our-prayer-movement/
• I love that in just 5 days that GatherCircles is officially launching!  http://www.gatherwomen.com/gather-circles/  We are excited for those of you that will be joining us on this 6-week journey and also for those continuing to pray about beginning a Gather Circle group in your area. If you have the details (location, short group description, start date) for your group all worked out would you be kind enough to email those to Keri at gatherwomen@gmail.com. Then we can send you an invitation to the Gather Circle Leader Facebook page.  We would like to keep the Facebook page for those who are actively leading Circles, but will be happy to add new people anytime a new group gets started!
• I love that we have several more opportunities come together this year at regional Gather events – the next one is on May 14th in Edmonton, Alberta (Can’t wait – you can register on the GatherWomen website. Invite your friends to join us too!)

I think it’s pretty obvious that my heart is bursting with vision and eager anticipation of what is yet to come. I pray that you will find yourself growing alongside all the rest of us who have a passion to see a thriving movement of Christian Canadian women across this vast nation we love.

With love,

Helen Burns xo