Saturday, February 21, 1998

Promise Helpers to spread to regional audience

By LORETTA FULTON / Abilene Reporter-News

A women's organization started a little over a year ago in Clyde will spread to a regional audience Feb. 28, and possibly beyond.

The group calls itself Promise Helpers, although the founders insist it is not a spinoff of the men's organization, Promise Keepers.

The idea for the group came from a former Clyde woman, Glenda Garrison, who now lives in Weatherford. Carrying on in her footsteps is Kathy Hawk, a Clyde homemaker and vice president in the family business, Hawk Portable Buildings.

Hawk said the idea came about because so many ministries are available only to men, but few to women exclusively.

"This is something they needed to bring them closer to God," she said.

The area meeting will be from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 28, at the Abilene Civic Center. No admission will be charged, but a love offering will be taken. Purpose of the meeting is to introduce the program to women of other communities so they may start a chapter in their hometown.

The session will include lunch, singing, speakers, and prayers at each group of eight to 10 women. Hawk said that on the local level, the prayer groups are what the women seem to like best.

"What the women are really enjoying is the intimacy they have with one another at the tables," she said.

The group originally met in Clyde in November 1996 with about 50 women. Now the meetings attract between 40 and 80 and the founders want to spread the word to this region and possibly statewide.

Hawk said the founders envision an organization of Christian women that crosses racial and denominational lines. In fact, she said the organizers urge women to meet somewhere other than a church so that the group won't be identified with any denomination.

Organizers are expecting as many as 500 women for the area meeting.

"The response we've had has been overwhelming," Hawk said.

For more information, call Hawk at 893-4113.