Wow. That is the word echoing around QCCC Mapleton after Abide – The Women’s Collective retreat, and it does not feel like an exaggeration. 267 women gathered from right across Queensland, from all sorts of church backgrounds and traditions, and something beautiful happened. Hosted by QCCC Mapleton team for Cathy Knechtli and the wonderful Abide team, the weekend became a genuine celebration of unity – women from quite different expressions of faith coming together as one and finding it did not take long at all for the walls to come down.
Praise and celebration opened every single session, setting the tone for a weekend that felt joyful from start to finish. Prayer flowed freely throughout – women praying over one another, holding space for each other’s stories, and creating something that felt sacred and real. Lives were changed. Friendships were formed that will outlast the weekend by years. And again and again, women left saying they had met God exactly where they were and gone home closer to him.
Then there was the generosity! $13,500 was given to Baptist World Aid Australia – a beautiful reminder that when God’s people gather in unity, it spills over into blessing for others too. A huge thank you needs to go to the QCCC team, who went above and beyond all weekend to make Abide feel special from the moment women arrived. And can we just say – the food was absolutely excellent, including a gala dinner. Truly. What a gift it is to watch denominational lines blur for a weekend and see women simply be sisters in Christ together.
QCCC would love nothing more than to host something like this for the men of QB World. If there is a team out there – or the beginnings of one – with a heart to build a men’s equivalent to Abide, we would love to hear from you and help make it happen.
Here’s to more weekends like this one.
