The Saturday morning women's fellowship was initially organized by Mrs. Barbara Newton, Mrs. Mary Ann Lyles and Mrs. Chrisie Cobb as a women's support group. The vision is of women getting together to support each other and to be mentors to younger women of the church. Our meetings are one of fellowship, exchanging of ideas, comparing of notes, and encouraging one another in a relaxed atmosphere. Along with sharing health issues and articles of interest to women, we always set aside time for Bible study. Minister Montique (daughter of Mrs. Jean Whitley) leads us in our Bible study portion of the metting.

Initally, meetings were from 10:00 A.M. until 12:00 every Saturday morning. For the first year and a half, meetings were held at the home of Mrs. Mary Ann Lyles. The group decided that since the majority of the participants were members of First Rising, the group should be under the umbrella of our church. A mission statement with justification and purpose was submited to the church body for approval. The approval was voted upon and granted by the church body on January 22, 1997.

In 2003, we changed our meeting days from every week to 2nd and 4th Saturdays. During the latter part of the year, each organization of the church was asked to select a ministry. We selected "homeless women" and submitted our proposal for approval by the pastor, deacons and trustees.

In the first year, we were joined as a team in our ministry by the Sisters in Fellowship. Our homeless women ministry expanded its outreach to include: providing warm clothing to both the women and men at the Open Door Shelter, and delivery of toiletries to the Calvary Women's Shelter. The clothes and toiletries were donations from family members, church members and members of the group. Our meetings are open to the women of the church. We read and study the book "The Purpose Driven Life," which has proven to be instrumental in helping to open the eyes of women to the realization of their purpose in life.

We were informed by the pastor that there were concerns from the women of the church about the physical health of women. We were asked if we could start an exercise class, which he said falls under our ministry. We started the First Rising Mt. Zion Exercise Class the second week of September. The class is opened not only to women, but to men in and outside the church. We invited women from both shelters that we served. We started a Saturday morning women's fellowship newsletter that is distributed monthly. We share interesting articles on health, exercise, alternatives for healthy eating and home remedies as it relates to women.

For 2005 our ministry will join with the Homeless/Addictions ministry to minister to the homeless in the surrounding communities of the church. We will focus on women that gather in such places as parks, in or around abandon buildings, bus stops and metro train stations. In addition to focusing on providing some of the obvious needs such as clothes and food, our hope is to include information on area shelters, soup-kitchens, work a day for pay locations, Bible tracts, toiletries and an invitation to our church. We also plan to adopt individual patients at the Northwest Nursing Home this year. We will continue with our newsletter but it will be distributed quarterly. And we will continue with the exercise class as long as there is an interest. We thank our families and church family for their continued support throughout the year.