Widow Strong Ministry Impact Q2 Report: Your Partnership in Action!

Posted July 9, 2021

Bountiful Breakthroughs
2021 2nd Quarter Report

Dear Friends,

If 2020 was a year of brokenness due to the pandemic which led to breakthroughs ways to serve our widowed community, then 2021 is shaping up as our year of Bountiful Breakthroughs in community connections and opportunities for our widows and their children!

Widow Strong gatherings and events increased significantly during Q1, and in Q2 it was all I could do to keep up! To allow time for my own sustainable self-care, one of the activities I temporarily paused was writing our newsletter. Now with more help, the newsletter is back on track! Thank you for your patience!

Which leads me to a very good problem to have. As we expand our team to allow more professionals and volunteers to serve widows and their children through our Widow Strong programs & chpaters, we covet your prayers and support so that we may serve and grow well!

SAVE THE DATE: Please make plans to attend a VERY SPECIAL EVENT Widow Strong Fundraising Premier Event on Saturday August 28th between 6-10 PM in partnership with LIFE UNIVERSITY!! BIG News coming in our NEXT Newsletter!!

Today’s newsletter is a quick recap of our second quarter…and Spoiler Alert…Q3 & Q4 is already FULL of surprises and upcoming events for our widowed families and supportive community! More on that soon!

THANK YOU, Widow Strong Community Tribe, for volunteering, serving, encouraging, and giving to Widow Strong programs and events! Every dollar you give helps us create and grow gathering events that encourage and empower widows and their children locally, nationally, and (soon) internationally! We appreciate you and are so thankful for your support as we continue to grow Stronger Together while serving widowed families in honor of James 1:27!

Onward, Friends!
Mishael Porembski

April:
BE: Widow Strong FREE Family Retreat

Thanks to a partnership and grant from 12 Stone Church, we were able to offer our LARGEST Widow Strong Widowed FAMILY retreat to date on April 23-25 FREE OF CHARGE TO WIDOWED FAMILIES. EIGHTY-FIVE widows, children, and volunteers traveled to Camp Grace in Roberta, GA, to be loved on and served by a phenomenal team of volunteers! We are so grateful to 12 Stone Church for their generous partnership!

Our BE: Widow Strong Family Retreat offered widows relaxation through pampering, art therapy, karaoke, Bible study, panel discussions, prayer, a time of worship and so much more! The children who traveled along with their widowed moms also received their own fabulous retreat filled with fun indoor and outdoor activities, encouragement, and faith-support too!

Check out this 2-minute video to learn more!

May:
Widow Strong Board of Directors’ Retreat
Mother’s Day Pampering & Pizza Gathering Event
& Widow Strong honored at the Divas with a Cause Event!

Our Board of Directors’ Retreat was hosted at Promise Point in North Georgia April 30th to May 2nd. This was a powerful time of prayer and strategy meetings as together our board sought God’s leadership on how we may serve widows and their children. Sandra Kay Reynolds, a director from the John Maxwell Team, led our board retreat. It was an amazing time!

A celebration of all things “Mom” took place at the Widows Empowerment Center the very next weekend on Mother’s Day. Mothers were pamperd in partnership with Lisa Adams and her company gut-health products from Plexus that support Widow Strong! Widows were also able to pick Whole Foods Whole Body beauty products for their own individual gift bags!

Lastly, Widow Strong was honored to be recognized as a beneficiary nonprofit at the Diva’s With a Cause Fundraising Event in Marietta, GA! Thank you for supporting Widow Strong, Divas!

Click to See our Board of Directors Retreat Gallery of Pictures

Check out this 2-minute video to learn more!

June:
Father’s Day Picnic, Portraits, & Planing Gathering Event
&
Widow Strong Community Garden Launch!

Father’s Day is a very important and sensitive day in the live of a widowed family. Our goal is to provide a gathering event that encourages, empowers, and connects widowed families.

Donors provided food, snacks, games, family pictures were taken, and all around fun was had! Please watch what one 5-year old boy shared about coming to Widow Strong events on special days in our 2-minute video below!

Widows and their children planted also came together to start our new Widow Strong Community Garden with seedlings provided by Neighbor’s Feed and Seed in Smyrna, GA and extra storage provided by STORsquare portable storage! Watch our second video to learn how our community garden labor of love!

Check out this 2-minute video to learn more!

Widow Strong Community Garden Update

As Spring has been warming to Summer, we at the Widow Strong Widows Empowerment Center have been working on a community garden! The land was provided for the center and the garden by Faith Lutheran Church. Storage for tools and materials was provided by StorSquare. The cost for the lumber and supplies to custom make the cedar planting boxes was provided by pastoral counselor, Greg Griffin, owner of Life Transformed Christian Counseling.

Overseer Steven M. Shearod and Pastor Velicia Shearod from Cathedral International Church and Bishop Tyrone Washington and Pastor Jacqueline Washington from Total Truth Restoration Ministries along with congregational volunteers helped build and install two garden boxes and beautify the center in Phase I. The also provided funding for soil that was given at a discount by Neighbors Feed and Seed in Smyrna.
We LOVE our community growing STRONGER TOGETHER!

Check out this 2-minute video to learn more!

Upcoming Up for Q3

Back to school backpack distribution in partnership with Pulte Homes!
- To Be Held July 27th-29th at Widows’ Center
- Click here for more info
Rebuild and Restore Premiere Party on August 28th, 2021 at Life University
- Click here for Trailer Sneak Peak
Drive-In Movie and Munchies
- To Be Held September 17th
- Click Here for more info

Upcoming for Q4

Fundraising Gathering
- To Be Held October 16th
- Info coming soon!
Grillin’ Out Gathering
- To Be Held October 24th
Friendsgiving Gathering
- To Be Held November 18th
Merry Widows Gift Gathering
- To be Held December 18th

We are able to lavish fun, fabulous events that share practical help, grief support, joyful living & the Love of God to widows and their children because of YOUR faithful partnership! We are so thankful to our sponsors and individual donors that make these enriching programs FREE to our widows & their children. THANK YOU!

Please consider becoming a monthly donor so that we may focus our energies on planning events for our widows rather than raising the necessary funds to host them.

If you would like to support our upcoming Widow Strong events with a one-time or recurring tax-deductible donation, please click the button below now. Thank you!

GIVE

God promises to bless us then we bless the widow and fatherless child.

If you are harvesting in your field and forget a sheaf there, do not go back to get it. It is to be left for the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.” Deuteronomy 24:19.

May God bless the work of your hands! Thank you!

Stronger Together,

Mishael Porembski
Founder, Widow Strong
WidowStrong.com