IF Gathering 2024: Friendships from Around the Country

**Anna Duffy** (0:02)
Hey, y'all, welcome to today's episode of Every Mom Needs a Friend. I'm Anna, hope you're having a wonderful day. I'm so excited to hop into today's episode, because if you listen to the podcast for any amount of time, you've probably heard me talk about the women's conference that's called If Gathering. Also, you may have heard me talk about just specifically Jenny Allen, who is this amazing author, speaker, podcaster, and of course, the visionary, you could say, behind If Gathering.
And just about, I want to say this time about a year ago, I did a mini-series mid-season all about her book, Find Your People. And so I personally have been impacted by her mission and the way she celebrates and supports women. But my favorite component of what she does is definitely this Texas-based conference that I've been able to go to in person several times. For today, though, I wanted to break down the conference and my learnings, and like I said, let me think. My third time in a row getting to do this specific. So if you want further context, you can go back to, let's see, I wrote it down, season two, episode 41, and season one, episode 35 Both of those episodes I adore doing because it was kind of cathartic, you could say, to get back into my notes and see what stuck out. So y'all enjoy today's episode where you hear me do just that.
This year's If Gathering was so special for a plethora of reasons. From an If perspective, it was the 10-year anniversary, and like I've mentioned, I've been able to attend it at different locations for, let's see, four out of the 10 years. But I definitely wish I had been a part of it since the beginning, because how sweet would that have been? And even if I wasn't, it just wasn't lost on me how cool it was to celebrate 10 years of anything, so 10 years of this ministry, and the way it brings women together in just the most special way.
So to get your bearings, I think If started as a conference in Austin, Texas, and then moved to Dallas, Texas for the last several years. I've been able to see it there, and then this year moved over to Fort Worth to a large arena that allowed for a way bigger gathering. It was my first time in Fort Worth, so there's just so much fun to be had. And I will say I had the absolute pleasure of seeing a lot of my worlds collide as I had friends from all over the country join me. And I think I added it up, and at the biggest point, there was about 17 of us. And there was just something super special about getting to worship alongside my New Hampshire besties, my Louisville besties, my Seattle besties, and then some of their close friends and family. And it was just really special. It was some sort of parallel universe, as I would just glance around and see my friends of different places becoming friends with each other and forging their own connections.
Ah, I mean, wow. I just, not to be absolutely ridiculous, I just feel really proud of the women that I get to call mine. And truly, because of this amazing group, I feel like this If was different because it felt more about the people than maybe the content. And I feel a little sad saying that.
Maybe I didn't do as good of a job focusing on the amazing speakers because I was just so full and focused on the gals that I got to rub shoulders with. Like, I feel like in years past, when people ask me about how did If go, I always talk about the content, you know, the key takeaways from the speakers. And I kind of thought about the people that attended it alongside of me as secondary, like a great secondary. But this year when people asked how did it go, I felt like all I wanted to do is relish in the people that I got to have around me. And all the little moments, getting ready together, going to the fun dinners, shopping, going to the spa, and the countless Uber rides, and all the little conversations as we bebopped from place to place. And I don't think I was alone in this feeling because the amount of times I heard, this is so much fun, I cannot wait to bring my friend with me, my sister, my mom with me next year. And I had so many warm fuzzies, you could say, thinking about how our group of 17 could turn into 30 and more and more and more each year. And I had this whole vision of having hats or something fun made to further like separate out our group in this subgroup amongst the largeness of the whole If Gathering.