A Journey of Revelation and Empowerment
For Girls in 6th through 12th Grade
Young Women's Conference
In Their Shoes
History of In Their Shoes
Hello, I am Evelyn Myers Wooten. When asked to introduce myself at a meeting or event, I like to say I am a flower-child hippie from the sixties, but since I am am now well past my sixties, I am just a bit hippie. I spent much of my childhood with my maternal grandmother who taught me the secret to a happy life is to follow the Lord's lead and to always maintain a sense of humor. I married early at age 16 and divorced after a 22+ year marriage. I married again eight years later and then became a widow when my second husband of twelve years passed. I am the mother of two, grandmother of six, and great-grandmother of five. I love the Lord and at His leading, I became the founder of "In Their Shoes."
The Lord gave me the ministry of the Young Women’s Conference back in 2013. I had helped with another conference at our church called In Her Shoes put on by Every Woman’s House. The all day Saturday conference contained workshops dealing with awareness on domestic violence. One of the messages talked about how women often felt trapped to stay in abusive relationships due to finances, but mostly from lack of confidence and resources to get away. I remember thinking how different my life would have been if I had known I did not have to endure the physical and mental abuse from my mother during my childhood, and the sexual abuse from her brother. It was the lack of knowledge and low self-esteem that led me into a marriage at age 16 to a man who would be abusive to me and our children.
I can not recall if it was the very next day after the conference, or a Sunday or two later, during praise and worship and the singing of Surely the Presence of the Lord is in this Place that I had my first physical encounter with God. As I was standing there singing with my eyes closed, I became aware of a fresh coolness in the air, kind of like a brisk autumn morning but it had a sweet aroma. Then I felt something brush lightly against me. I was a good foot or better from the end of the pew, so it wasn’t someone walking by, but I opened my eyes to check but no one was there. I closed my eyes again as the congregation continued to sing and I began to see a vision about “In Their Shoes.”
I actually saw the heading for the website with teen girls in different shoes surrounding the term "IN THEIR SHOES. Phrases like, “meet the girls where they are at” and “give them knowledge through My Word” stayed with me through the next several months as I researched social issues for teenage girls and noted speakers. It was so amazing how I would be working on a topic, and all of a sudden the perfect speaker would pop up in my search. And, they were all so accepting of the vision of the conference! Once everything was laid out, I finished the website and presented the ministry to my pastor at the time. He was not interested at all. He didn’t like the heading on the website, stating he thought it was sexually explicit for the girls. He was in the middle of a fund raising for a mission trip to Guatemala at the time and the conference idea was dropped. I was heartbroken and even a bit angry. But the “In Their Shoes” never left me. I thought about it from time to time over the years and saved the website and resources I had gathered.
In November of 2020, I became a member of a sister campus of Christwalk Church in Millersburg, which was based out of Cornelia, Georgia. Our church grew quickly and we were very involved in the community. On Tuesday, January 11, 2022 during the 777 Revival Meeting at the Christwalk Church in Millersburg as I was listening to Pastor Chip’s message, I became conscious of a “weight” upon me. It was not a heavy weight, but more of a feeling of being surrounded, or encompassed. Then I began to hear instructions on how I was to revamp the In Their Shoes: Young Women’s Conference of Revelation and Empowerment ministry He had given me in 2013. I started writing down some of the things I was hearing concerning the workshops and then was instructed to “hold the conference in each school district in each county in every state.” I abruptly stopped writing because the enormity of the command was overwhelming. My immediate response was, “Wait a minute, wait a minute Lord, we need to talk about this!”
I was awake all night that night talking to the Lord, trying to make sense of what He was asking of me. My main issue was the enormity of the program. When I first developed the conference, it was to be a one-time event for up to 100 teenage girls in Holmes County. Now He was telling me to take the conference to every high school in the entire United States! Seriously, every single one!! He calmed my spirit by taking me to Proverbs 4:12 “When you walk, your steps will not be impeded [for your path will be clear and open]; And when you run, you will not stumble.” And also “The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives. Though they stumble, they will never fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand.” Psalm 37:23-24. My spiritual gifts are administration, teaching, and helps so He had equipped me with the mechanics of what was needed to do the conferences. I had the skills and experience to plan and carry out large events as I had chaired 3-day state conventions for several years in my past. I presented my mission to Pastor Chip and our church and they were very supportive. I formed a committee and we began the process to not only offer an “In Their Shoes” conference locally, but also with the Lord's divine guidance we developed a plan how we could to take the conference to each school district in each county in every state.
We worked through the spring and early summer to develop the workshops and had scheduled our first conference for East and West Holmes School District for the Saturday following Thanksgiving. To save costs, we did not bring in speakers for the workshops. We had 4 young ladies within our congregations in both Ohio and Georgia who felt a calling to lead each workshop. We worked together to develop the curriculum and used Zoom meetings for each leader to present their workshop to the rest of the committee for critiques. We had planned to launch our recruitment campaign through the middle and high schools the week after Labor Day. I was also going to talk with the Juvenile Probation office and the Child Welfare office in Holmes County to present our conference in hopes they would recommend our program to girls they thought could benefit from attending. We were all excited and set to go until Satan reared his ugly head on Sunday morning of Labor Day weekend in 2022. Pastor Chip and his assistant pastor, who was also his son-in-law, went before the church in Georgia and each said they had to step down from their positions because they had sinned. Our church in Millersburg received a text that was read to our congregation. Everyone was shocked and dismayed in both churches. No other information was given and Pastor Chip's wife, who had taken charge of the church, was not graceful in dealing with inquiries. I realized she was hurting and in shock like the rest of us. She was actually in no condition to handle the situation. She said no one needed to know anything else and she wished us well in finding another church if we didn't agree with her decision. The church in Georgia went from 150+ members down to less than 25 within a couple weeks. Our Millersburg campus held together until she closed it the end of October. The In Their Shoes conference was dropped.
I have written all this to give you the background on In Their Shoes. I also want to give you some insight into my walk with the Lord. I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior at my grandmother's funeral in November of 1991. I had spent much of my childhood with her due to my mother not wanting me around. My grandmother was a God-fearing woman and read her Bible everyday. She told me about Jesus and there was no doubt in my mind He was real. However, I didn't want anything to do with Him. I couldn't understand why if He loved me so much, He didn't protect me from my mother and my uncle. I was 40 years old when through a series of amazing events surrounding my grandmother's passing that I accepted Jesus as my Savior.
I was fortunate to become a member of a solid, Bible teaching church. I immersed myself in The Word for the next several years, being a part of any and all Bible studies offered. A day came when my ex-mother-in-law made it impossible for me to continue at that church. We had changed pastors and the new one was very young and wasn't equipped to handle her. I left the church because I didn't want to be a part of spreading discord throughout the church. I did not attend a church for the next 14 years, although I would often watch different ministers on television. Then my older sister died in December 2011. My brother's pastor performed the funeral service for Diane and I became reacquainted with his wife. Our families had been good friends during my childhood. In January of 2012 I began attending the Millersburg Church of God. Once again, I became very dedicated to learn more about the Lord. I was so blessed to meet Janet Yoder, who would become a very dear friend and who would disciple me for the next seven years before she and her husband left the church. I ended my membership with that church in September of 2020. I had started attending Bible study classes locally once a month with Christwalk Church in December of 2019. I immediately recognized the teaching as being solid Biblical truth at the very first meeting with Pastor Chip and Pastor Jonah. I could hardly wait for the next month's meetings and was very saddened when Covid 19 shut the classes down in March of 2020. I was beyond thrilled when a month after I had left my church the next fall when I learned Christwalk was starting a sister church in Millersburg in November.
I loved our church and I was devastated when Christwalk Church closed. I felt lost and fell into a deep depression for over a year. I would watch TV ministers from time to time and began visiting local churches in 2024. I began attending one church regularly in January of 2025. Then a friend invited me to a service at Gateway Fellowship in March and I instantly felt the Holy Spirit's presence. I have been attending regularly since and consider myself a member, although they do not do formal memberships.
I have been very interested in The Great Commission since I became saved. I have supported missionaries and love it when one presents a message at church when they are home from their mission field. I have made websites for missionaries, free of charge, and continue to pay to keep their domain name up to date and make any changes they may want. I do not believe a mission field needs to be in a foreign country. I know the Lord gave me In Their Shoes as my mission field to help fulfill The Great Commission with our young girls in America. My sincere desire is to have girls attending a Young Women’s Conference to leave In Their Shoes having a stronger knowledge of who they are in Christ, with resources to handle their social issues and to truly know “For with God nothing shall be impossible.” Luke 1:37.
God's Blessings to You,
Evelyn Myers Wooten
"In Their Shoes - A Journey of Revelation and Empowerment" is a ministry outreach to fulfill The Great Commission.
