King’s Daughters Connect empowers women through Christ

Gathering in the Library Atrium, Jazmin Mullen and dozens of other young women talked, ate, and bonded during the King’s Daughters Connect meet-and-greet on Saturday, Feb 23.

A group that aims to inspire women

Jazmin Mullen, 23-year-old ODU graduate and second year Law student at Regent University, started an organization for Christian women and named it King’s Daughters Connect, Inc.

“I started King’s Daughters back in 2015 at Old Dominion,” said Mullen. “I wanted to get together with a group of women who also wanted to strengthen their relationship with God.”

 The group has a Delaware Chapter and a Virginia Chapter, as well as a strong social media presence on their Facebook and Instagram pages.

“Our mission is to plan annual, faith-based women empowerment conferences. Starting in 2016, we’ve had one every single year at ODU, and now I am so blessed and thankful that we can do it here.”

Strong friendships with friends they’ve never met

The group consists of many women who plan the events through technology, forming strong friendships with women they have sometimes not even met.

“When we plan the conferences, we do a lot of things through technology, over the phone, through texting, through group chats, and a lot of girls don’t know each other, they’ve never actually met in person,” said Mullen. “So the meet-and-greet is for everybody who’s part of the Girls’ Nights, who are planning the conference, but they don’t necessarily know each other.”

Despite not having met each other prior to events, the women involved in King’s Daughters Connect share an emotional bond of vulnerability and Godly love.

“As women, we carry so much. As Christian women we carry even more because we are carrying our stuff and other people as well,” said Mullen. “But at the Girls’ Nights, we’re honest with each other, we’re open, we’re transparent. We talk about our struggles, but we don’t leave them there – we build each other up, and then we pray about it and eat and have fun too. The primary purpose is that you came here weak, but you’re gonna leave with strength.”

SURVIVAL Conference 2019

The group hosts many functions, with the empowerment conference being their main event every year.

“Our conference is April 13 in this same room [the library atrium], and the theme is survival,” said Mullen. “Pretty much the message for that is to survive, like whatever difficult season or time or obstacle you’re facing, you may not feel like you’re an overcomer, you may not feel like a warrior, you may not feel like everything the Bible defines us as as children of God, and that’s okay.”

The conference has a social hour, workshops, guest speakers, performances, food and music. Women come from all over Hampton Roads, the Eastern Shore, and Delaware, according to Mullen.

“The three primary topics are: identity (knowing who you are in Christ), placement (knowing that who you are does not change based on where you are), & purpose (you must pursue your purpose in the midst of your pain),” said Mullen.

The event will take place Saturday, April 13 from 11:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m., and doors open at 10:00 a.m.

“Survive it,” said Mullen. “Get through that season, pass that test, and then know that it’s gonna build you up for everything God has for you.”

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Shelly Slocum is a department head for the Daily Runner.