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| Volume XXIII Number 14 | October 17, 2003 |
By Melissa Sherman
MIAMI LAKES, FL — “With prayer, anything is possible,” explained Yvonne Courtney, event coordinator. “As women, we must be well within ourselves. We are the strength of the community and to our families, and it all starts within us.” After Yvonne’s warm welcome, she introduced Rev. Bernie Goddard from Oklahoma who started off dinner with a prayer.
After dinner, the Republic of Tea representatives Barbara Graves and Kristen Onholt gave us a lesson in the different types of teas and how to prepare them. At our tables, we received different samples such as Red Tea, Ginger Peach, White Tea, Green Tea and Black Tea, just to name a few.
While we sipped, Barbara Graves explained about the medicinal values teas give us by releasing cancer causing free radicals. The White Tea has the highest level of disease preventative antioxidants known as polyphenols; the downy white leaves are only harvested by hand two days out of the year, right before the leaf opens. Barbara passed the different teas around in a bowl for us to touch, smell, and to view their variety of colors.
After our tea and relaxation, Rev. Bernie Goddard spoke about the power of prayer. Bernie has had anything but an easy life. What helped her get through her adolescence? Her mom. When she was three, she accidentally swallowed glass and told her mom happily, “Momma, I’m going to go with the Lord.” Bernie was raised in the fire and brimstone days of her daddy’s preaching and was excited to go to heaven.
After explaining what happened to her mom, her mom replied, “Child, go get the oil.” Bernie was sad. She knew she was going to live now, once her mom anointed her with the oil. That wasn’t the first time her mom saved her. She stayed home and prayed for her well-being as she caroused the town; escaped rape, murder and other curveballs life threw at her.
Before Bernie became a Reverend, she worked at a police department. When she applied for the job, they warned her that her family could be in danger from her career in law enforcement. She thought, “It would not happen to me.” Then the unimaginable happened, her son was murdered because of her career. What got her threw this? Prayer.
Bernie also gave us a piece of advice, “Be very specific of what you pray for.” She used to pray every day for this red Cadillac she saw around town. She asked God, "Why won’t you let it be possible?" Finally, the Cadillac went up for sale, but after getting a closer look at it, it had many problems, and she was grateful not to have the car. Bernie revised her prayer.
After dinner, Marla Dale, Mary Olitzky and Hanna Marchel from Hollywood Family Services handed out large construction paper stars and instructions to choose words to describe ourselves or how we would like to be, along with crayons, glitter, beads, and glue. We were instructed to play, create and have fun, something we rarely have time to do in real life. Once we finished, we marveled at our creations. We concluded the evening with a few door prizes and made plans to walk in the morning at 7 a.m.
After breakfast, our session began with Barbie Johnson, a certified fitness trainer, massage therapist and nutritionist with a lesson in “Climbing our own Mountains.” Barbie told us to do five things: Keep it simple, break it into small steps, choose a starting point, monitor our progress, and redefine our goal if necessary, and set a realistic deadline. After a short break we learned about “Caring for your greatest asset – your temple.”
The new improved food pyramid, vitamins, and the amount of calories needed for women, were a few of the topics discussed. For example, Barbie explained that, “M&M candies are like football fields. To burn off the calories of one M&M, you must walk the entire length of a football field.” We gasped in amazement. She also showed us how to take our heart rates and how to figure out our normal range during workouts.
When we returned from lunch we were un-knowingly going to participate in a chair workout. After everybody donned two paper plates, Barbie cranked up the music and started the routine, “Fan your face, fan your friends, and fan your fanny,” yelled Barbie as we fanned our faces, friends, and fannies. Those paper plates actually gave some good resistance, not to mention our legs marching stomping and kicking all while sitting down.
Later we learned about stress management through exercise and relaxation. In addition, the topic we all avoid, aging gracefully was discussed. We talked about hormones and menopause, which vitamins can help and even about hormone replacement. Barbie shared a story about her near-death experience a year ago from a bladder infection that turned to toxic sepsis. She pulled out of it thanks to prayer from her family and encouraged us to be right with God. Yvonne Courtney closed the evening after dinner with a few last words from Rev. Bernie Goddard.
The next morning, we gathered for heart-touching testimonials at the Healing Circle, hosted by Candice Kranitz. After a lot of laughs, tears and hugs from the group, Yvonne gracefully made sure we all received facials and massages provided by the Don Shula Health Club.
We all left the conference a little smarter, with a touch more inner-peace, and were incredibly grateful for people in the Seminole Tribe like Yvonne Courtney.
The Tribal Council was so pleased with the outcome of the conference they granted Yvonne two more Women’s Wellness conferences to honor women within the Tribe. A special Wellness Conference for foster families who have children in DCF placement will also be held in the near future.
If you have any questions, please contact Yvonne Courtney at (954) 964-6338 extension 116 or email her at courtney@semtribe.com.
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