Retreat Recap - If My People: 37 Seconds

Teachable Woman Podcast

Reverends Michele Owes and Diana P. Cherry

2025 Retreat Recap – If My People and 37 Seconds

[00:00:00]

Rev. Michele Owes: Welcome, welcome, welcome back to the Teachable Woman Podcast. We are so excited to be with you today. You have no idea what it took to get to you, but we are excited to be here. Finally, we are here. I am Reverend Michele Owes. As always, my podcast partner, friend, and mentor Reverend Mrs. Diana P. Cherry is with us. Together, we are Teachers of Good Things. Mrs. Cherry, welcome our podcast family.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Welcome, podcast family. I want you to pray for us because you have no idea. We've been trying to get a podcast recorded to give you an update and recap on our retreat. I'm looking forward to what God's going to do through us. Now that we [00:01:00] are finally going to get this podcast recorded.

Rev. Michele Owes: Amen. Well, what we have learned, and it's always a good thing to be reminded, when you are facing a certain level of difficulty, that's just unusual. It's just remarkable how it keeps coming at you one way or the other. But we have learned that wherever there is purpose, there is always opposition. The opposition and the technical difficulties we have experienced are not normal. and it's not part of what has usually been happening for us. However, we know that means that what we are going to share with you is something important for your journey. It's going to be meat for your journey, if you will. And we are excited about what God is going to say or do that will make a difference in your life. in our very last podcast, we were doing a recap of the [00:02:00] 2025 Teachable Woman Retreat, where we had the theme, the Transformative Power of Prayer, and we talked about the fact that effective fervent prayers. Avail much, which means it, transforms things. It changes things. That prayer can change us even in the process. And so we had some excellent teachers, some outstanding lessons. We did great workshops and we saw. Our participants were changing right before our eyes, and even our prayers were changing because, as part of the workshop, you know, they had to solve problems together, learn a little bit more about each other, and then develop a prayer which they shared with the group.

Rev. Michele Owes: So it was a very interactive retreat, which I really enjoyed. Mrs. Cherry and I weren't doing all the work. We enlisted the troops to be a part of what we were doing. Mrs. Cherry [00:03:00] share with us.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: And I think one of the things that I'm probably most excited about is that I had a young lady who's been a prayer warrior for years, and she told me that the retreat blessed her because she found that she'd become a bit stagnant. And that was because she'd gone to the retreat and participated in the workshops, which re-energized her to continue praying.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: And, to stand on the wall for us. And so that's very important because she has dedicated her life to prayer. And if the teachings on the transformative power of prayer did that in her heart, then I'm just excited about what it did in the hearts of all of the other attendees. And I've received several comments about that.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: And that is a blessing. First of all, her heart was open to receive prayer, even though she is a [00:04:00] prayer warrior. And, so that, that was exciting to me to know that it was a wonderful retreat.

Rev. Michele Owes: Amen. I think you said something there, Mrs. Cherry, and not even knowing what you said, the depth of what you said, you said that she was already a prayer warrior, but she was open to receive, and she came to the retreat. That’s really what our podcast is all about. Women who will remain teachable, no matter where their place, station, or experience is. that there's always something that God wants us to learn to do better to. To serve him better in some way or whatever capacity we are in. And so I think she hit the two nails on the head that are most important. One is that, you know, she was willing and then was allowing herself to, to be a teachable woman,

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Right, right. She was really a, a [00:05:00] personification of a teachable person. And that's one of the things that Reverend Oes and I desire so much, is that you not just listen to us, but you allow the teachings to come in and to make a difference in your lives. There are people being transformed by the things we share, and whose lives are being enriched because we are sacrificing our time to share with you; then it's all worth it.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: It's all worth it. And we're so excited and appreciative of all the comments you give us and the feedback you provide. We're not looking for anything else. Because we believe God has called us to do these podcasts. We are human beings and it inspires us to know [00:06:00] that the teachings are making a difference in your lives.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: So continue to write us to text us or whatever it means that you want, to use, just to let us know that the teachings are meeting you at your very points of need.

Rev. Michele Owes: Amen. Amen. That's important. I believe that it is a blessing and an honor even to be able to witness this way. You know, we all have this assignment from the Lord to be a witness unto our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. As we share these podcasts, it is also an opportunity to witness the goodness of the Lord and to share our experiences. We may not see as many people as you see in a day or a week, but as this podcast is shared, it is also an opportunity to witness the goodness of our

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Yes, yes. And everywhere [00:07:00] we go and everything that we do, we have to lift up the name of the Lord and we have to give people an opportunity to accept him. And even, while we were at the hotel, there were people who came by and who saw us, and we were distinctively different. From other people who were at that hotel or in the mall.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: And it's so important to live our lives no matter where we are, making sure that we don't pa don't miss any opportunity to lift up the name of Jesus. And I, I've always been a person who's never been ashamed of my age or my mom used to always. Hide her age or not tell the truth about her age. And I think as a little girl, I made up my mind that I would never exaggerate about my age.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: I would never lie about my age. And so one of the things that I use often as a witnessing tool is my age. I have some t-shirts that say [00:08:00] things like, I might be old, but I, what was I getting ready to say? And I have another one that, I have another one that says, I'm, I might be 80, but you know, I, I cer I'm blessed by God, just tee t-shirts.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: And it inevitably,

Rev. Michele Owes: Yes.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Those t-shirts opened doors for me to witness. And so I was out the other day with some of my great-grandchildren, and this man was reading my t-shirt and my granddaughter had given it to me and it says, blessed to be a mother. A grandmother and he had to kind of look, kind of bend down to see the rest of it, and a great-grandmother.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: And he said, you're kidding. And he said, what's your secret? Well, man, that's all you gotta do is ask me what's my secret? And you know, God's gonna get some glory of it. So I share that to say. Wherever we go, whatever we do, whatever conversations that we have, we can always, use those things as, [00:09:00] as opportunities to witness.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: And the retreat that we had was a big opportunity for us to witness to people as we went out eating in the mall, as we walked through the hotel, as we dressed and looked so different, some. From so many other people. The retreat was a blessing. The teachings were great, and so many lives have been changed and strengthened because we have that retreat.

Rev. Michele Owes: You are absolutely right. I, I just want to share just from my personal experience and this, this is not a you should do, it's just something that has happened in my life, as a result of the retreat. my children are adults, I have. Requested Tuesday night as the family prayer night. And we are just, and we're, we're including [00:10:00] the grands. and so everybody is praying on Tuesday night, and it, it's amazing to me that the children, remember it's Tuesday. That means it's prayer night, grandmommy. We've gotta pray tonight. yes. And so, you know, if schedules don't permit someone to be there, that's not stopping us. We're praying. We're praying with who we have. And, it's an opportunity. You know, the first night I heard my family pray, it brought me to tears. because we've, we've prayed for one another. We prayed with one another, but not in this way. And, where everybody has an opportunity to. To say what they want us to agree with them in prayer about, and let us know where you are at that moment.

Rev. Michele Owes: And I can hear that through your prayer. Whether you say the words or not, I can see where you are mentally and emotionally in your prayer. It brought me to tears because this was one of the first things that [00:11:00] caused me to be attracted to my husband, which was that he prayed with me. That he was the first man to pray with me and to hear my, adult sons pray, and my daughter pray and, and my grandchildren pray. It's, it, it just blessed me I was like, okay, we are, we're, we're living what you taught us and we always prayed together when my husband was alive, but we didn't seem to do it after he left. This was back to what we know, what we've always done. Of course they were younger then and many have left home and, adults and with families, married, whatever, whatever. But Tuesday night, this is, this is the one night we've all got, we're gonna take our shot and, we are going, heaven will hear from us as a family on Tuesday night.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: That is awesome.

Rev. Michele Owes: So, and, and I, that was burden on my heart as a result of the retreat[00:12:00]

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: That is awesome. That is awesome. And the thing about it, it's gonna inspire other people to have a family prayer night and, and it's, it's just gonna multiply. It's just gonna multiply it. So thank you for sharing that.

Rev. Michele Owes: You know what's so funny is I had been trying to get a family game night for forever, right? I have. It's like, come on, let's try a Friday or, or a Saturday. Let's just have a family game night where we come together and just laugh and talk and we can get a chance to check in on one another and see how we're doing. And I think we have one family game, just one, but the family prayer night, it's like. We always seem to be in, in the kitchen around the, the butcher block. Not eating, but we are in the kitchen. That's our congregation place, if you will. just an opportunity to, [00:13:00] pray. And it's, it's been a beautiful experience for me. It's just been beautiful. I, I can't explain it in

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: right.

Rev. Michele Owes: but, uh, it, it's wonderful. It's a real heart

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Yeah. And another thing that, the retreat did, we last year chose to, invite the men who were with their wives at the retreat. We invited them into the session, and so this year we did the same thing and we invited the men in. And their input into the retreat and asking us questions about how did the podcast start and how did we come up with the Teachable Woman podcast?

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: And they really asked some, Some very in-depth questions that that caused us to, have great fellowship with them. And I think that that's something that really sets our retreat apart is that we encourage the wives to bring their husbands to [00:14:00] have some quiet time together, to strengthen their marriages, to walk in the mall together, to hold hands, to pray.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: And I, I was very impressed that once again this year the men did come and they did, in fact participate in in the retreat.

Rev. Michele Owes: Yes,

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: So take it away, Michelle.

Rev. Michele Owes: yes. And I'm so glad that you mentioned that because, not as a slight to, a woman that's single or is not married, but. When you are married and you have children, it is very difficult to get a moment alone with your spouse. so the retreat in our minds, if we're gonna make that kind of investment, let's make it all the way around. If you're gonna be away from the family, away from the home, why not come together? And as you're learning at the retreat, be able to share that with your loved one, and you all be able to grow closer [00:15:00] together and go back home. A fortified unit. and that's not, that's not a slight to someone who is not married, that is just saying that it's a, another opportunity to strengthen the family and to strengthen the Christian Bond in a marriage, while they're away at the retreat.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Mm-hmm. And the men, I think the men really appreciated being a part. Of the, retreat. And one thing that we always do is to have them to pray us out after the retreat, and we generally do, a live podcast. And I think they enjoyed that. and Michelle, your, your husband, your pastor prayed us home this year.

Rev. Michele Owes: Yes, he did. He did. I was very pleased to, first see him there. But, Reverend, Cabrina White taught and so, he came and so we were excited, about that and he did an awesome job of praying us out.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Yeah.

Rev. Michele Owes: [00:16:00] We just appreciate. all the men who took the time and, and, brother White, who is Pastor White's brother, who actually came to do the, the, Livestream recording for us. I really appreciate his input as

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Yeah.

Rev. Michele Owes: All the volunteers, the people who just showed up and worked in whatever capacity was necessary for us to pull this retreat off. We just wanna say thank you. There's no way we could do it without you. whenever I call someone, I typically say. A few words, which is the Lord has need to be. I don't ask anybody to do anything I say, the Lord has

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Right. Right. And truly

Rev. Michele Owes: because he

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: hate that. That's

Rev. Michele Owes: retreat. Right.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: That's right. And so as we,

Rev. Michele Owes: And it's easy to tell me

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: right,

Rev. Michele Owes: But if I say the Lord has need to be, I ask a.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: right. And so when we say to you, the Lord has need of you, trust us [00:17:00] that we really mean that we, we need your prayers, we need your support because we cannot keep these podcasts going without the support of those of you who are being blessed by, by the podcasts. So, you know, think about what you can do to help us, and one thing you can do is to pray for us.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: And to pray that all of the problems that we're encounter encountering with, the technology, you know, these are real issues. Reverend Os and I have been trying for about three weeks to get a podcast out to you. It's not that we've forgotten you, it's not that we've not. Try to get one going, but we have had challenges galore.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: when we thought we had a couple of them already recorded, we found out that something happened. So pray for us earnestly because this is a labor of love and we don't get any [00:18:00] recompense in a natural sense by doing these, but we believe God has called us to do them. And when we hear from you, you just really encourage our hearts to continue.

Rev. Michele Owes: Mm-hmm. That is so true. That is so true. I really like the fact that this retreat was about prayer. I like the fact that, Many of us are called and few of us are chosen. many can be called, to choose to, Let me work on my prayer life. That's because that's our communication with the Lord. That is. How we approach him, that is understanding what his character is and making sure that when we approach him, we are acknowledging who he really is and how we approach him, world has become very loose in how we respond to and, and, and what we say about our heavenly Father. He's, [00:19:00] he's not our dog, he's not our role boy.

Rev. Michele Owes: He ain't none of those kinds of things. He's our heavenly father and Jesus is his son, our savior. And we don't go before the, the, the earthly kings and call them row dogs. We, it we. we have to know who he is and to reverence who he is, in our approach to him in prayer and understanding that he's not interested in a bunch of flowery words and, making sure that it all strings together just right. so you can get a amen. He's interested in the contents of your heart. He's a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart, and he knows when we're coming to him in earnest. and that's just what he wants from us. I use the example of when a baby cries. We know the cry that is the wine that says, Hey, where's everybody?

Rev. Michele Owes: Nobody's picked me up. Or, you know, there's, and there's a [00:20:00] different cry that says I'm hungry. But then there's a cry that says something has gone wrong. And that cry gets everybody running. The minute you hear it, everybody drops what they're doing and everybody's running. so that's how God wants us to seek. Him with all of our heart. He wants us to seek him early. He says, when you seek me, you will find me when you search for me with all your heart. And so that's leaving. Nothing lacking. Nothing aside. No, no distraction to it. But God, I'm coming to you because. I wanna be here. You are my heavenly father. You created me.

Rev. Michele Owes: You know me. I have need of you, you have need of me, direct me, lead me, guide me.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Hmm.

Rev. Michele Owes: we also wanted to just end the cycle of being, faulty fixers, doing stuff first, and then trying to get God to fix what we did, instead of seeking him and asking him to

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Right, right,

Rev. Michele Owes: you know, we don't have to try to fix all [00:21:00] these mistakes we're

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: right. And, and we talked. Yeah. Aren't we all? And we talked about the simplicity of prayer. it's not complicated. He is our father. He knows us. He knows what things we have need of before we even ask. And it's not difficult to pray to God. You talk to him like you do. I, I remember, Pop Winans that stayed at our home one time and he said, God told me, talk to me like a man.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Just talk to me face to face. And that blessed me because that is such a simple way of, of putting it. Just talk to him like

Rev. Michele Owes: Yes.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Talk to him like because he is, and we don't have to use flowery words. We don't have to use this, these thou. Almighty God. You just talk to him. He is waiting to hear from us.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: He's waiting. as we taught earlier in one of the sessions, he's waiting to [00:22:00] be kind to us. He's waiting to hear our petitions. He's waiting and then text scripture reverend, oh, share what your text scripture was from Chronicles. You know, if we. God is waiting. If we would just call out to him, we're complaining about the,

Rev. Michele Owes: yes.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: the nation.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: We're complaining about, the leadership we're complaining about, but God says, what does he tell us in two Chronicles If

Rev. Michele Owes: Well, it was if my people, which are called by

Rev. Michele Owes: and we said the first thing we have to decide is, are

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: right.

Rev. Michele Owes: You know, have is our election, has it been made? Sure, are we really Christians? Do we believe in him as Lord and Savior? And if we are his people and we're called by his name, meaning that we've answered his call, would humble themselves, have we humbled ourselves?

Rev. Michele Owes: Are we even able to admit that, [00:23:00] God, these are the things that we did wrong. I did this wrong, and I'm asking for your forgiveness for what I've done wrong, but humble yourself and pray. And seek

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: See my face.

Rev. Michele Owes: In other words, seek what God's will is in this situation and for our lives. And oftentimes when we pray, we just telling God how we want, what we want as the outcome, we're not saying, God, what is your will in this situation? is what's best for me? 'cause I know that's what you have planned. And keep me in your will in this situation. humble themselves and pray. Seek my face and turn

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: their weak ways,

Rev. Michele Owes: We've all got some

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: yes.

Rev. Michele Owes: That God is not pleased with and, and so as we pray with the character of God, knowing what God's character is, the fruit of his spirit, which is love, and joy, and peace, and long suffering, and gentleness and goodness, [00:24:00] and meekness, and faith and temperance, if we pray in the character of God. Then we allow God to demonstrate his character through us, which is his will in the Earth, which allows us to be a witness for him. So as we pray the kind of prayers that God wants us with, the purpose of heart that he wants us to have, then our prayers can transform us transforming our situation.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: yes,

Rev. Michele Owes: So the first transformation is

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: yes.

Rev. Michele Owes: we ended with the key point of 37 seconds. And that came out of Matthew the sixth chapter, verses nine through 13. And we read that, that prayer together, and we realized that that is Jesus' example of prayer that he was teaching his disciples because the disciples ask him, master teach us to pray. They witnessed Jesus praying and they wanted to learn how [00:25:00] to pray, and this was the example that he set. For them. Are we not disciples? Yes, we are. And so what he set as an example is a perfect one for us. So we prayed that prayer together from the King James version and found out that it took exactly 37 seconds to pray a perfect prayer. There's not much we can do in this world today in 37 seconds. But to get a perfect prayer through with a heart that is humbled itself and recognized, and a mind that is set on being a child of the most high God, we can transform some things. We can get some prayers through to

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Yeah.

Rev. Michele Owes: We also learned that we don't have to try to tell God what to do and how to fix it.

Rev. Michele Owes: We just need to give him permission to operate in the earthly

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Right.

Rev. Michele Owes: because once he gave Nan Dominion, he needs our permission to operate.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Right. Amen. It is our fervent prayer. That [00:26:00] this podcast is going to be a blessing to you because we've been trying to get one out for so long. So please continue to pray for us as we strive to do what God has called us to do. Our hearts desire is that you would indeed be teachable people of God, allowing God to make a difference in your lives.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: We love you so much.

Rev. Michele Owes: Amen. And as we are teaching you, we are being taught ourselves. And yes, we love you. God bless you. We will see you on our next podcast.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: God bless. Good night.