Sara Stadem | Editor
Sometimes life becomes hectic and overwhelming. Sometimes, as a wife, mom, daughter, or friend, someone just needs a morning for themselves; a morning of relaxing and fellowship with other women.
The Colton Lutheran Parish is having their first annual “A Morning for You!” which will take place on Saturday, November 7, at Faith Community Church, 200 S Dakota Ave in Colton.
Rhonda De Jong is the mastermind behind this new event. A few years back, she went to something similar with her daughter which included breakfast and fellowship and she thought, “Why can’t we have something like this in our community? So, I decided to take it to the board.”
“A Morning for You!” is geared towards women of all ages and will have several events taking place throughout the morning. It will start with breakfast at 8:00 a.m. followed by praise, worship and then the first speaker, Cynthia Sheppard. Sheppard is a Stonecroft Ministries speaker who will speak around the theme of the event.
The theme of the event is the Bible verse Proverbs 4:23; Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. When asked why she picked that Bible verse, De Jong said, “I felt it was very fitting for women. We have a lot of emotions and things going on in our days from family to business and we are such caregivers.” De Jong continued to explain, “With all of that comes a lot of emotions and sometimes we have to protect our heart so that we don’t let it get out of control.”
In between speakers, there will be a break with some fun things for women to check out. There will be door prizes and a few small venders. “You can pick up some fun, little gifts for teachers, maybe, or whoever, a neighbor, friend. They will be inexpensive gifts that the venders will have made,” De Jong clarified.
The feature presenter will be the award-winning investigative reporter and broadcast journalist, Angela Kennecke, from Sioux Falls. She will speak about the foundation she started, Emily’s Hope, in memory of her daughter, Emily, who passed away from an addiction to opiods.
De Jong chose Kennecke as the feature presenter to bring awareness to an on-going concern. “It’s such an epidemic that is going through not only our young people but also middle-aged people and I think some of us are naive about all of this,” De Jong said. “For women, this fits in the morning; to look out for these things as mothers, wives and friends.”
De Jong wanted to make sure that any woman that wanted to join in for the event could so the church was able to do a few fundraisers such as cake walks and church rummages to offset the cost of the event. It is a free will donation but De Jong states, “If you can’t afford anything, don’t worry, we won’t leave anyone out and our doors are open for you to enjoy your morning.” There will also be a nursery available.
This will be the first annual “A Morning for You!” and De Jong has high hopes that it will continue as the years go on. “To get a good turn out, you have to do it a few times until you get the word out and more people will join. We are hoping to do this annually,” De Jong said.
Registration is requested by October 24. Please contact Rhonda De Jong at 605-310-2667 or rhondafdj@hotmail.com or Kathy Siegel at 605-351-4979 or mowingtime@yahoo.com. If you forget to register, De Jong says to join anyway!
