“There is a saying, ‘Where the family goes, so goes the community.’ It is incumbent upon each of us to become the voice that speaks with authority and passion in the public square and within our areas of influence,” Rachel Murray, Director of the Global Peace Foundation (GPF) women’s division in the United States and First Lady and Director of Music of the Lighthouse Church stated, welcomed attendees of a “Women of Influence” event hosted on June 30, 2018.
Rachel Murray launched the Women of Influence initiative to bring together women from various regions, businesses, and faiths within the public and private sectors of society to address the critical issues impacting communities across the nation. These powerful women engage in ongoing discussions, developing strategies to unite and empower women to create projects within their respective fields and networks and then capitalizing on their combined resources and talents to have a positive, united influence from the local level to the global community. “With each of you, your talents, and networks we can do the impossible,” encouraged Mrs. Murray. “Not only locally, but across this great nation and around the world!”
Grounded on the foundation that “peace begins in the home,” Global Peace Women provides education and resources to help men and women recognize their most important leadership roles reside in creating healthy, happy families that respect themselves and others as people born with the same innate value to contribute to the community.
Women leaders from across Maryland joined the event to hear, share and present ideas and concepts on how they can join together in collaborative efforts to build a foundation of peace within their homes and strategies to expand their work into their communities.
Lorraine Hiskey, founder and president of C.S. Lewis Institute, with 15 chapters worldwide, and Trish Wynkoop, minister at the U.S. Naval Academy, spoke at the program for a panel on “Family and Community in Crisis.” These women leaders spoke from a service-minded and family-centered perspective, communicating that with a passion and desire to give and uplift the family can provide the best platform to transform communities. Hiskey and Wynkoop highlighted the role of women in contributing to their family and society by utilizing their professional and personal experiences as tools of influence and engagement.
Participants, engrossed in the Q&A sessions, presented dynamic questions that opened the floor for further discussion. Participants and partners in the Women of Influence initiative plan to continue collaboration to provide women with resources to become leaders transformation in the community.
Learn more about the Peace Begins in the Home campaign