ROAR Like a Mother! Women’s Conference

January 20, 2022 | Uncategorized

We’re so excited to announce that we are hosting the ROAR Like a Mother! Conference:

Saturday, March 19
9 am – 3 pm, Baker Center
$30, includes event entry, light breakfast, lunch, and t-shirt
(for those who register by February 23)

Our featured speaker is Hillary Morgan Ferrer, co-author and founder of Mama Bear Apologetics; our goal is to empower mothers to stand on the truth of God’s word and challenge cultural lies with courage, grace, and love.

Click to Visit the Conference Information/Registration Page

Click to Download a Flyer about the Event (pdf)

Click to Visit the Mama Bear Apologetics Website

“Lord, How Do I Do This?”

The idea to host this conference was brought to King Street Church by member Eloisa Rice (pictured in the center of the bottom row, holding the book) and her team of ladies including Jen Barnhart, Kathryn Randle, Betsy Bender, and Stacy Myers.

Eloisa shares that after her children were born, she began to feel a crippling fear about how to raise them to love the Lord with all their hearts. She knew that following Jesus was counter-culture, that many people do not even acknowledge the presence of God.

She said she would pray, “Lord, how do I do this? How do I raise my children to have a biblical world view? How do I teach them to know and love the truth?”

Eloisa says the responsibility seemed overwhelming. Some days she almost wished she could build a bunker and hide her children in it!

“The more time I was in the Bible, I would identify truths I wanted them to know. I want to teach them that!” she says, pointing to an imaginary Bible, “And that and that! And I want them to know truth from the Author of Truth so that they don’t fall easily to the fake versions of it.”

“Our Fears Were Replaced with Hope”

That’s when a friend showed her the book, Mama Bear Apologetics. As she scanned the pages, Eloisa felt an immediate sense of relief. “I thought, this is so good. Everything I was thinking, the book put into words. One chapter described post-modernism, how our world tells us to be our most authentic selves, but we are full of sin and evil and it’s not a beautiful thing! That messaging is everywhere, and it’s not going to take you closer to God. It’s actually going to take you further away. We need to make sure we are thinking biblically about everything.”

Mama Bear Apologetics shared practical steps for how to equip children to stand on their own and fight against carnal influences. Eloisa says, “That’s my greatest desire, that my children would be able to stand on the truth on their own.”

She continues, “So about one-third of the way through the book I stopped, because I realized, I want to read this with my mama friends, because I believe that I am not the only one who needs to hear this information. I reached out to my friends and soon there were nine of us who studied it together, and it encouraged and inspired us so much. Our fears were replaced by hope. I truly believe every mom needs to read this book. It doesn’t answer every question but it will get you started on the right path.”

“We need to know what we believe and why. The goal is to have a biblical world view and teach it to our children so they aren’t easily swayed by the pretty words of others, or rely on their own feelings to guide them. We must show them how to test everything against the Word of God so they aren’t lost to the culture and to the world.”

Eloisa explains that perfection is not the goal. She says she relies daily on the Holy Spirit to help her to be diligent in the training of her children aged 8, 5, and 4. She is already seeing fruit in their young lives.

Her daughter, aged 8, was recently teased by a boy who told her that she was ugly. She later reported to her mother. “I told him, ‘It’s fine, you might think that I’m ugly on the outside, but I know that Jesus is in my heart and He has made me to be beautiful!’”

Eloisa smiles. “She defeated that lie right there! She knew the truth in her heart! Her identity is rooted in Christ!”

Eloisa says she doesn’t shy away from any portion of the Bible. “There are hard parts of the Bible, like when Stephen was martyred for sharing the Gospel. I told my children, when you know Christ, even in death there is hope. Doesn’t have power over us; we don’t have to fear it, because straightaway we are in the Father’s arms. Straightaway we go to God. Now every time we see death in the Bible, my 4-year-old shouts, ‘Straightaway to Jesus!’ He is so young but he is comforted by that thought.”

“Yes, Let’s Do It!”

Eloisa’s book club was so successful that soon many other women were interested in studying the material. Eloisa began to wonder if there was a chance for a conference. She wrote to the author, Hillary Ferrer Morgan, never guessing that she would be open to coming to Chambersburg.

“She wrote back and said ‘yes!’” Eloisa shouts, “Oh yeh! I was so excited! Then I reached out to the church leadership to ask if we could have a conference and everyone was so positive and encouraging. So now it’s happening. We’ve been blown away by all the support!”

Eloisa gathered her leadership team, and the ladies were empowered. “We really felt like it was the Holy Spirit working and making it happen and so we said, ‘yes, let’s DO it!’”

“It’s an Awakening for Anyone Who Has an Impact on Children”

Stacy Myers is a member of the ROAR Like a Mother! (RLAM) Committee and mother to 5 children between the ages of 3 and 11. She was in the first book study and says, “It was perfect timing because just when the whole world seemed like it was going upside down with ideals, arguments, and dismantling all biblical views for human-made rules and ideas. I thought we must teach our kids to stand up against what the world says is right and dig deep into what God says in His Word, otherwise we will be standing on shifting sand when we need a firm foundation of God’s truth. Like out of Psalm 1:1-3, ‘Blessed is the one who does not walk in the step with the wicked, or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who mediates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not whither and whatever does prosper.’”

Stacy feels the conference is important because, “We live in a world that tolerates sin and invites it into our homes through TV, cartoons, songs, etc. Over time sinful lifestyles that are against God’s Word are beginning to be accepted as right. The modeling of godly behavior use to be the normal but now it is not the normal. The new normal is accepting sin which is very dangerous. We can no longer sit back and turn a blind eye by allowing television, movies, and media raise our kids.”

Jen Barnhart, RLAM Committee member and mother to three children aged 1, 3 and 5, says that she got involved in Mama Bear Apologetics because, “With what was going on in the world, I knew I needed resources on raising my children in a world that isn’t centered around Christ.”

Jen continues, “It not only made me more equipped to discern cultural ‘norms’ against God’s Word but I was also convicted. It made me realize that just because we may go to church and attend a Christian school, it is still my responsibility to teach my children from an early age to root themselves in God’s truths found in the Bible and to teach our family to stand up for what we believe!”

We asked Jen, why is this conference important? She answered, “It’s an awakening for moms and anyone who has an impact on children! If you know you want to raise your children or the next generation to be followers of Christ, but don’t know where to start, or you feel something seems ‘off’ in what you have been hearing or reading with what you ‘should accept’ in our culture, this conference is for you! If you want to protect your faith, your family, and stand up for God’s Truth this conference will provide encouragement and give practical resources on how to do it at home with your children. Even more, it’s an opportunity to connect with mothers in your community who want to raise followers of Christ!”