Oregon's Spanish-speaking women celebrated their ninth Oregon Conference Hispanic Women's Retreat on Sept. 8–10. At Camp Kuratli in Boring, Ore., 156 women got together with the sole purpose of living a life "United to the True Grapevine," (Unidas a la Vid Verdadera) our beloved Jesus. This was our theme for the whole event.
Liz Enid Polanco, a minister and teacher, came from Puerto Rico to be our guest speaker. We were blessed with her teachings and celebrated with an Agape Communion Service, in which we examined our lives and "pruned" ourselves of all the things that prevent us from connecting to the "true grapevine."
Friday night's program challenged each one present, as a Christian woman, evangelist, mother, wife or daughter, to live her life reflecting Jesus Christ in order to help her connect to the "true grapevine."
Our young women had a seminar on the same subject presented by Kathy Hernandez. Ruth Collins also presented seminars to help boost our self-esteem and offered counseling for individuals who requested it.
All of the programs, decorations and music were planned to help us gain a better understanding of our relationship with Jesus, and to leave the retreat prepared to serve our families, our churches and our God.
