FRANKLIN
The Women’s Ministry of the Eternal Life Church in Franklin will host a “100 Ladies in Hats” event to benefit the Genieve Women’s Shelter in Suffolk on Sunday, June 14, at 3 p.m.

The event is the continuation of a partnership between the church and the shelter that began two years ago. Felicia Blow, the head of the women’s ministry at Eternal Life Church, met Mary Williams, executive director of the Genieve Shelter at a Rotary Club event. The Church adopted the Genieve Shelter and has hosted Christmas benefits for the shelter since then.

The Rev. Delores Manley of Piney Grove Baptist Church, also in Franklin, will deliver the keynote address of the event, titled “What Kind of Hat Sitteth on Your Head?”

“If we as the Body of Christ … desire to model ourselves after our risen Savior … we must exemplify love and compassion by sponsoring outreaches, services and missions that address the physical needs, as well as the spiritual needs, of the lost, the broken, the wounded and the oppressed, in general,” Manley said.

The address will be followed by presentations from a representative from the Genieve Shelter and a survivor of domestic abuse.

“You hear about this stuff on TV, but you don’t really know what these people go through until you talk with them,” Blow said.

Attendees are asked to bring items to donate to the shelter. The site relies entirely on donations and is in particular need of vacuum cleaners, bed frames, living room furniture, office furniture, pillows, linens, bedsheets, cleaning supplies, office supplies and diapers or pull-ups for the women and children housed in the shelter.

“With this ministry assignment, I clearly hear the clarion call to minister to the spiritual, emotional and mental needs of wounded women as the assembly of women at Eternal Life Church minister to the physical needs of the battered,” Manley said.

The shelter provides women and children in Western Tidewater suffering from domestic violence a safe place to recuperate free of charge. Other services offered include individual and group counseling and workforce training for victims.

For more information on the 100 Ladies in Hats event, contact Blow at 562-3226.