About 60 women gethered for the two-hour session, which met during the North Carolina Baptist Pastors' Conference.

Officers selected by the group's nominating committee and elected for the 1997-98 year include:

• Carole Barnhardt of North Catawba Church in Lenoir, president
• Vickie Parker of Baton Church in Hudson, vice president
• Norma Brown of Northside Church in Greensboro was re-elected secretary/treasurer
• Ella Rae Roberts of Elizabethtown Church in Elizabethtown will continue as publicity chairpersons.

Margaret Musselwhite of Turkey was elected 1998 retreat chairperson.

Outgoing president Penny Church of Troy emphasized the value of the annual ministers' wives retreat which is held in July at Camp Caraway in Asheboro. "It's a time to let our hair down, to cry on each other's shoulder for awhile, and to laugh together," she said. While she noted the importance of her calling as a pastor's wife, Church said the retreat offers an opportunity for the women to be known by their own identity, rather than simply as "the pastor's wife."

Featured speaker Carol Benoy, a member of Mt. Calvary Church in Albemarle and co-director and counselor at Pregnancy Crisis Center, described the center as a "warm, safe place to go for girls who are scared to death" during unintended pregnancies.

"You might think 'My daughter would come to me if she got pregnant,'" she said, then warned, "your daughter might not come to you."

Benoy emphasized the diversity of backgrounds the center's clients represent. Services offered by the center include a free pregnancy test, crisis hot line, education on pregnancy, abortion and alternatives, clothing and furnishings for mother and baby, referral services, and ongoing counseling.

"Eighty-five percent of abortion-minded women -- when given information about abortion procedures and fetal development -- will change their minds about abortion," she said.

Benoy encouraged the ministers' wives and their respective churches to support pregnancy crisis centers across the state through prayer, financial support, and volunteer service.

The theme for this year's meeting was "He Knows - He Cares," and Judy Church provided instrumental and vocal music. An offering was collected to support a retired pastor's wife.

(Editor's note: Childers is a freelance writer from Charlotte.)