Women urged to release light

The women gathered at the annual Women’s Lifestyle Evangelism Conference started the conference like they started the morning – looking at a woman in curlers. Only this time, the bathrobe-clothed woman was humorist Kay DeKalb Smith and her practical depiction of a “Proverbs 31” woman, rather than their reflection in the mirror.

Speaker – Smith offered a practical depiction of a “Proverbs 31” woman.

Under the theme “Release Your Light,” the ninth annual jointly sponsored conference brought together women from all over the state for three gatherings in Taylors, Myrtle Beach and Columbia. More than 5,000 women attended this year.

Smith encouraged the women to show their lights to the people closest to them.

“Start at home being the light of the world to your family,” said Smith.

Smith expressed wisdom garnered over her career making people smile, including humbling insight from a 6-year-old neighbor who once told her that old looked “crinkly.” Smith shared that her light was released at an early age from parents who fostered a love for God and other people in her home. It is wisdom she seeks to impart to her children today.

“I am teaching my girls to love God first, hands down,” she shared.

Also addressing the crowd, businesswoman Sylvia Hill gave the women an example of released light in the marketplace. More than 20 years ago, Hill and her husband founded the first independently owned airport shoeshine business in Boston’s Logan Airport. More than 2 million people per year pass by the stand.

“We have a ministry sitting right at the crossroads of life,” she said.

Sylvia Hill

Dealing with CEOs, professional athletes, politicians and presidential candidates, Hill has seen and heard candor unlike any other business.

“They see us as non-threatening and a non-person, and they will never see us again. So they will sit down and tell us all their problems.”

Hill and her husband would then tell the patron they would pray for them and record the request in a book. The Hills have seen hundreds of requests answered.

Hill, whose husband Donald died five years ago, set aside a successful career in human resources to pick up the Christ-focused business.

“It is a menial job with a meaningful purpose,” she said.

Christine Wyrtzen, founder of Daughters of Promise ministries and daily radio program host, pointed attendees to the woman at the well of the gospels and encouraged women to take their lives’ “theme of pain” and allow God to transform them.

“God wants us to understand where we are thirsty.”

Much like Jesus identified the Samaritan woman’s greatest point of need, Wyrtzen spoke on identifying the place in life where “you shut down, where your growth was stunted.” And like the woman at the well, she encouraged women to constantly be transformed by Christ’s love.

“The most important song is ‘Jesus Loves Me,’ and on some level we will be internalizing that song the rest of our lives.”

Other conference leaders included Jamae Smith, North American Mission Board missionary in Portland, Oregon, who, along with her husband Troy, operates SAFE (Setting Addicts Free Eternally) ministries to addicts, and Deborah Klassen, Canadian worship leader.