2018: Our Year In Review
Another year has come and gone, and we here at Dayton Women in the Word want to mark it the best way that we know how: by proclaiming God’s faithfulness to us.
We started 2018 with lots of big plans. Not all of them were fully realized in this calendar year, but as we walked in faith and obedience, we could see His greater mission going forward. We can say with confidence that He is at work in the city of Dayton!
Here are some ways that God has proveN Himself faithful through DWITW this year:
Women (and men!) across Dayton participated in the DWITW365 Chronological Bible Reading Plan! We experienced a full year of bible reading within community, 52 weekly encouragements on the blog by our dedicated 365 blog team, and 66 video introductions to each book of the Bible on Instagram - not to mention the countless messages about the awesome things God was doing and the connections He was making as we read His Word together.
Our extremely talented podcast team also put out two seasons of the DWITW Podcast (plus all of our Hosea recordings and a few special episodes spaced throughout the year). We had the privilege of hearing from over 30 guests combined in both the “Transformed” and “Timelapse” series’!
We celebrated our 100th podcast episode and hosted the DWITW Podcast Live event, gathering local women together and calling them to remember God’s faithfulness and goodness to us in the stories of the podcast and in our own lives as well.
We launched the Teaching Collective, allowing women a safe space to practice teaching and talking about Jesus. We saw much growth in the regular attendees, many of whom have stepped up to teach in their churches, in small groups, or within the DWITW community!
We hosted our 4th annual Summer Study by walking through the book of Hosea. God brought hundreds of women and as many kids as our classrooms could hold! We hosted a morning and evening study and extended our resources to include an at-home guide, which many women used to follow along with us from both near and far away from Dayton.
We launched an updated version of this website to make it easier to access our resources.
The DWITW Traveling Bible made it’s way (slowly, but surely!) around the city, getting read, marked up and beautified by lots of women in our network.
The Directors shared regularly (and vulnerably!) on the blog in our bi-weekly Team Journals blog series.
We began the behind the scenes work for a video series about bible study tools that we hope to finish and put out to the public in 2019.
God showed up for the ministry once again on Giving Tuesday and blessed us financially, in addition to the provision of many monthly givers that started in 2018.
Overall, we’ve seen God giving women confidence and depth in their relationships with Him. We’ve seen Him sending women out into their churches and areas of influence to teach and read the Bible with others. We’ve seen women’s ministries and bible studies start in churches which did not previously have them. We’ve seen church leaders take notice of the movement God is doing among the women in our network and ask them to take on leadership roles in their churches. It has been a year of growth and excitement.
It has also been a year of much transition on our leadership team. Several of our leaders were called out of the ministry throughout the year, which caused us to lean on the Holy Spirit for help and provision more than ever. God provided several new team members at the right times and continues to be the One who carries us individually and as a team. As the Team Lead, I wish you knew what I know and could see what I see! These devoted volunteers give many, many hours of their time to make Jesus’ name great among you. Your DWITW Team does so much behind-the-scenes work to keep our network alive and well. From graphic designers to content editors, blog contributors to Summer Study volunteers, babysitters to administrators — many hands, minds and hearts are at work to help the women of Dayton read their Bibles and know God better.
We are prayerfully expectant for 2019 and can’t wait to see what God does among us in the coming year.
God is good. we are grateful. We give him all the glory.
“With my mouth I will give great thanks to the Lord; I will praise Him in the midst of the throng.”
Natalie Herr is the founder and team leader of Dayton Women in the Word. She is a servant of God, a wife, a mom of four and a God-sized dreamer. She loves teaching and equipping women with God's Word.