Decatur’s DayBreak event brings message of hope to 400 women

Nearly 400 Baptist women in north Alabama spent a recent Saturday in June at Decatur Baptist Church, attending DayBreak, an event sponsored by LifeWay Christian Resources. 
   
One of six similar events scheduled around the nation this year, the conference represents a different format for women, according to event coordinator Amy Cato.
   
“In the past, the only event [LifeWay] offered for women was Beth Moore’s Living Proof Live,” she said. 
   
“It’s expensive to take a weekend for Living Proof, and younger women were not attending. We wanted to create an event for one day,” Cato explained.
   
Event planners decided to use new LifeWay authors Priscilla Shirer and Angela Thomas in an updated format. 
   
“We are going off the beaten path instead of going to the big cities for these conferences. The conference is affordable and those who attend are hearing women teaching who are just like them,” Cato said.
   
In the meantime, women’s ministry leaders Sharron Steele and Dianne Walters, members of West Hartselle Baptist Church, Hartselle, in Morgan Baptist Association, were looking for an event for women in Morgan County. 
   
After consulting Cato, the pair enlisted women’s ministry leaders at four other Morgan Association churches — East Highland Baptist, Hartselle; First Baptist, Hartselle; First Baptist, Decatur; and Decatur Baptist — to help sponsor the DayBreak event.
   
Kim Matlock, women’s ministry leader at First Baptist Church, Center Star, in Killen in Colbert-Lauderdale Baptist Association, also joined the group. 
   
“I am thrilled that a conference of this caliber is in the area,” Matlock said. “I hope we can keep having good conferences like this.”
   
Shirer opened the conference with a message about getting through desert seasons. 
   
“God has not forgotten you. He is holding out His hands and catching every tear you shed,” she told the audience.
   
The author of four books, Shirer had plans for a career as a television news anchor but said God had different plans for her.
   
She became increasingly in demand as a speaker at women’s groups and now has a full-time ministry teaching at women’s conferences.
  
Thomas, author of a Bible study and five books, talked to the group about being “a grown-up Jesus girl.” 
   
The divorced mother of four shared a message of hope with hurting women but pulled no punches, exhorting her audience to live clean lives and not to hold on to secret sins.
   
“The Lord adds power when your life is clean,” she said. “It’s the Lord. He knows what you’ve got in your hand behind your back.”
   
Steele said she was pleased with the conference, reporting a positive response from the women who attended.
   
“My deepest desire for women’s ministry is that women who are hurting will find answers through events like this,” she said.