Tara Cox, Sheri Bowder and Lee Ann Zanon leading worship

Joy. We all want it. How do we find it?

Two hundred women gathered on campus last Saturday for the sixth annual Woman-to-Woman Conference to explore God’s path to joy. Keynote speaker Connie Cavanaugh traveled from Canada to urge her audience to get real, be real and stay real in their relationships with Jesus Christ and others. A pastor’s wife, author and speaker, Cavanaugh recounted her personal journey through spiritual famine to true joy.

“There was a time I didn’t feel anything inside because I was disconnected from God and other believers,” she said. “I believed in a Santa God, not the real God … When real life happened, without realizing it, I began to fear God.”

Between comical stories ranging from border crossings to failing brakes, Cavanaugh shared how she learned to step out of her comfort zone at God’s direction instead of shrinking away from him. That about-face transformed a woman who faked the emotions she could not feel into a woman overflowing with joy.

“You cannot walk with God until you say, ‘yes,’” Cavanaugh said.

That message had women in the audience nodding and laughing. Corban students, alumni, parents, faculty, staff and others came from Oregon and beyond to be challenged and encouraged.

“I got the conference flyer in the mail and sent it in the next day,” said Nancy Brammen, a Washington resident whose

Participants writing in Collette Tennant's poetry workshop

daughter attends Corban. “I knew right away that I wanted to go.”

“I heard ‘joy’ and was in a hard spot and thought, ‘That’s what I need,” said Theresa Douglas of Salem.

Douglas heard about the conference on the radio. She was joined by her 19-year-old daughter, Lex, who said she wanted to draw close to God and spend time with her mother.

“It’s been really good,” she said.

Between morning and afternoon keynote speeches, the day’s participants ate, chatted and chose from nine workshops with titles ranging from “Anxiety, Depression, Fatigue, Oh My!” to “Change – the One Thing You Can Count On.”

Led by Vice President for Student Life Nancy Hedberg, a nine-member committee spent months organizing the conference. Committee members are Linda Hoff, Lee Ann Zanon, Lori Schilling, Cathy Downs, Tina Haws, Nancy Sperling and Jeanette Votaw.

Counselor Stephanie Husk asking audience members to think about the signs of depression

“I felt like there was a wonderful spirit this year,” Hedberg said. “We always pray that God will use the conference in the lives of the women however he chooses, and we trust he does that.”

-- By Christena Brooks