“It was a magical night; much more than I could have hoped for,” explained DeAnn Carroll, Newport Beach resident and outgoing president of Young Women of Vision. “It’s amazing what God did in just four years. What started as a passing thought grew into answering God’s call to start Young Women of Vision.”
Carroll spoke about the graduation celebration for the first class of girls of the recently formed Young Women of Vision, a Christian Mother-Daughter service organization. Carroll said she’d dreamt of such an organization for several years but felt it was too big an undertaking to organize.
“God gave two friends the same dream, and along with two other dear friends, the Founding Leadership of Young Women of Vision was formed,” Carroll said. “The women are Lara Lanfried, Corinne Schroeder, Kristen McGuinness and Yoli Brogger. The five of us met, prayed and planned for almost a year before our first official meeting.”
“While planning, we dreamt of this day, that after four years in YWOV, we would celebrate graduating a class of beautiful, smart, strong, capable young women who have been transformed throughout their four years in YWOV,” Carroll continued. “God is in the business of making big dreams come true.”
“DeAnn and her friends asked if I could help them start the group because I’ve been involved in service organizations and helped start other things,” Brogger said. “I felt that God wanted the ministry to be under the umbrella of Women of Vision because it already had the credibility and the structure. It’s so challenging to start a new ministry or charity from scratch.”
“Now we have Young Women of Vision, a volunteer ministry of Women of Vision that unites Christian mothers and high school aged daughters who desire to grow in the knowledge, love and the service of our Lord Jesus Christ,” Brogger continued. “The young women invest their time, talents and resources to serve impoverished women and children locally by being the hands and feet of Christ. Our first class had 11 girls and 11 mothers. It’s been a tremendous success.”
“Next year, I’ll be the past president and can look towards getting the policies and procedures together so other chapters can start,” Carroll said. “Women of Vision nationally is on board to help me with that.”
There are four grade levels of mothers and daughters, from freshmen to seniors in high school. Brogger said the mothers and daughters meet monthly to learn about foundational Christian character qualities such as humility, honesty, hospitality, purity, service, encouragement, hard work, prayer and being transformed by the Word of God.
The girls volunteer at Shalimar Learning Center in Costa Mesa, the Sheepfold in Fountain Valley, KidWorks in Santa Ana, and A New Way of Life in Los Angeles.
“During the recent graduation celebration at the Santa Ana Country Club, mothers and fathers honored their daughters and fathers blessed their daughters and commissioned them to go out in to the world,” Brogger said. “And the girls honored their mothers with beautiful tributes. There wasn’t a dry eye.”
“Thank you for everything you have done for me,” graduating Cassidy Carroll said to her mother DeAnn. “Your passion and determination in starting YWOV inspires me to listen to God’s calling and pursue it wholeheartedly. I am so thankful for the opportunities YWOV provided me with to serve and grow in my faith, with you by my side. Our relationship has flourished through Women of Vision and I can’t wait to watch it continue to develop in the future.”
For more information, visit ywov.org.
Cindy can be reached at cindy@onthegrow.com.
