Women form Godly Girlfriends to minister to others

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  • Members of the Godly Girlfriends are (l-r) Renee Floyd, Julie Strunk, Nathalie Kelley, Melissa Petty and Jackie Hackfeld.
    Members of the Godly Girlfriends are (l-r) Renee Floyd, Julie Strunk, Nathalie Kelley, Melissa Petty and Jackie Hackfeld.
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A group of Snyder women are in Hartville, Ohio this weekend for a Godly Girlfriends retreat — the 11th such retreat hosted by the group.

Melissa Petty, Godly Girlfriends leader, said the group is ecumenical and anyone wanting to attend a retreat or conference does not have to have a sponsor.
Local retreats are held at Camp Butman in Merkel, but the group has traveled to New Mexico and North Dakota.
Petty said the group is open to any female who is 13 years of age and older.
“We gear toward all women, in all walks of life, different age groups. We’ve all been through stuff. We all have history. We all have pasts. We all have failures,” Petty said. “We all have things that the enemy likes to keep us in bondage with and we’re thankful that God has drawn us all out of that muck environment and set our feet on a solid rock and we want to encourage other women to be able to walk in freedom. And when we do that, we’re strong enough so that we can fight for ourselves, we can fight for our homes, we can fight for our towns, we can fight for our nation. So that’s what we want to do.”
Petty said retreat leaders live in Snyder, Colorado City, San Angelo, Midland, Odessa, Monahans, Knox City, Mineral Wells, Stephenville, Lubbock, Abilene and Sweetwater. She said leadership members for the women’s and teenagers’ retreats are growing because women help each other move into leadership positions.
She said the idea of Godly Girlfriends originated in Snyder after a group of women attended a Women of Faith Conference as sign language interpreters.
Nathalie Kelley said it was the conference speakers, including Sandi Patti, Nicole C. Mullens, Kathy Triccoli and Chonda Pierce, that first inspired Renee Floyd to host a retreat at her San Angelo home.
She said Floyd planned the meals, crafts, outings, tours and prayer and worship time. It was the model for future retreats.
Kelley said Petty had an idea in October 2013 to host the first Godly Girlfriends retreat at Camp Butman in Merkel. She said with no definite plans, Petty called her, Julie Strunk and Jackie Hackfeld together for a meeting.
“God’s giving me this crazy idea. And I just told them all and they were all like, lets do it,” Petty said.
In February 2014, that retreat was held and a second was held in North Dakota three months later.
Petty said they did not plan for how to cover the cost, but the group went because that is where God told them to go.
Fundraising events began — selling hot sauces, head bands, cookies, cookbooks, coffee cups and T-shirts.
Strunk said it cost about $1,000 per leader to travel to a retreat, but the money was not an issue.
The group wanted to work with other women.
“In North Dakota, they have problems with sex trafficking there, so it’s important to raise up these Godly women there to strengthen them to rescue some of these others,” Petty said.
Today, the group hosts three retreats per year.
“Godly Girlfriends retreat ministry is designed so that we can just get a little quiet time, time that we all need from time to time,” Petty said. “We do not take lightly this ministry God has placed in our hands as we are just a group of West Texas girls, trying to stay in step with the Holy Spirit. We trust Him as He guides us one step at a time to build up women in the faith of Jesus Christ and to encourage them to step in to their anointing so that God can fulfill His plans and purposes for them according to Jeremiah 29:11, ‘For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’”
Hackfeld said what makes Godly Girlfriends special is that the women and issues are real.
“We don’t try to put up a front, like we’re better than anyone else. We let our flaws show and I think that is what is lacking right now because everybody tries to put their high pictures on Facebook. People only see the good in people’s lives, but we’re showing the bad, we’re telling them everything and that’s what makes us close,” Hackfeld said. “Because we can cry together and we’re vulnerable enough to let other people see it. We don’t keep that to ourselves and people like to know they are not alone.”
During the retreat in Ohio, the women will do something different  — walking the streets of Akron and working with the homeless.
Godly Girlfriends is a non-profit ministry consisting of all denominations. Petty said the group decided to place themselves under the authority of Word is Life Deliverance Church for accountability and prayer.
Petty hosts a Bible study at 6 p.m. each Wednesday at the church and Hackfeld hosts Straight Up Truth at 6 p.m. on Tuesdays.
The next women’s retreat at Camp Butman is scheduled for February and the next teenager retreat will be in August. The cost for attending a retreat at Camp Butman is $125.
For more information visit www.godlygirlfriendsretreats.org.