By Brienna Williams | Melinda Hines, HPU’s First Lady, has always valued relationships with older and younger women. Hines connected with Tracey Carrier, HPU class of 1989 and Christy Meinecke, class of 1998, this past summer when she and her husband, Dr. Cory Hines, moved to Brownwood with their family. The three women discovered their mutual calling to mentoring other women.
Passionate about their calling, the women started a ministry called HPU Women to Women. It will be a place where older and college-aged women can come together to find encouragement and community.
The ministry will kick off with their first meeting on Sept. 23 at 7 p.m.
“We will meet on the third floor of our home. There will be snacks and it will be super casual. It will be a chance for college women to connect with older women as well as each other,” Hines said.
The ministry will meet once a month in a different woman’s home. The three women recognize that college is a big time of growth for women and there are a lot of life decisions they are making. Their hope is to be able to encourage and walk through life with each other.
“The heart behind HPU Women to Women is just to be able to spend time together and be an encouragement to each other,” said Meinecke.
HPU Women to Women also hopes to be a place where college girls will be able to meet older women and form mentorship relationships.
“I am a firm believer in Titus 2 – in older women mentoring and discipling younger women,” Hines stated.
“It’s not that older women are smarter, it’s that they’ve experienced a lot of life. Having a mentor doesn’t necessarily mean you have to take their advice but instead, learn from their good experiences as well as their mistakes,” said Carrier.
However, not everyone who comes to the HPU Women to Women meetings has to have a mentor. The ministry is open to everyone.
HPU Women to Women is a new ministry of the HPU women’s club and members of the club will be mentors in the ministry. So far there are 20 women from HPU staff, the Brownwood community and HPU alumni who are eager to encourage college women and have already committed to being a part of HPU Women to Women.
“We want to be interested and intentional, however that looks for each woman. With so many new things happening at college it’s so nice to be able to pick up the phone and text someone who cares about you and has already experienced what you’re going through,” said Hines.