{"id":23596,"date":"2019-04-30T08:54:10","date_gmt":"2019-04-30T12:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/floridabaptist.wpengine.com\/?p=23596"},"modified":"2025-11-04T15:58:46","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T20:58:46","slug":"usvi-mens-conference-and-marriage-seminar-it-begins-with-healing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/usvi-mens-conference-and-marriage-seminar-it-begins-with-healing\/","title":{"rendered":"USVI Men\u2019s Conference and Marriage Seminar, It Begins with Healing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pictured above from lft to rt: Dr. Jeffery Singletary, Pastor Reggie Joseph, Cindy Dowdy and her husband, Dr. Myles Dowdy<\/em><\/p>\n

Strengthening men and strengthening marriage were the focuses of the recent USVI Men\u2019s Conference and Marriage Seminar, both held March 22-24 at \u00a0Cruz Bay Baptist Church<\/a> in St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Men\u2019s Conference theme was \u2018The Challenges from Boyhood to Manhood\u2019, from a Biblical perspective. Topics were issues men are struggling with including Toxic Masculinity and the enemy within me. An encouraging message from God\u2019s word came from Psalm 103:17 \u201cBut the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him, and His righteousness into children\u2019s children.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leading the Men\u2019s Conference was Dr. Jeffery Singletary, Regional Catalyst for the Central Region<\/a> of the Florida Baptist Convention<\/a>. \u00a0\u201cFrom boys to men they are struggling to navigate the ever-shifting landscapes of an emerging culture that views traditional manhood as toxic masculinity,\u201d Singletary said. \u201cFrom boys to men they are bleeding inside profusely and weeping in silence. Perhaps Albert Schweitzer said it best, \u2018The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Present at the conference was an 88-year-old man who shared of a wound that occurred in his teens as if it had happened yesterday. \u201cThe pain was still real; he was still bleeding. The tragedy was no one had noticed, and it appeared no one cared,\u201d recalled Singletary.<\/p>\n

An adolescent boy is often faced with painful challenges where, rather than being validated and guided, he\u2019s abandoned to struggle alone to find a solution or pave a new path without resolving the challenge. The teachings at the conference stemmed from the belief system that \u201cEvery coach needs a coach and every man needs a mentor. Your wife is designed to complete you, but it takes a man of wisdom and understanding to help you understand you!\u201d<\/p>\n

A man\u2019s experiences in adolescence follow him through adulthood and into marriage. Singletary further explained, \u201cIt\u2019s important that he finds healing from the woundedness of his childhood so he may enter manhood healthy, mature and well-grounded in life and living. He can now be the man, husband and father he has been called and ordained to be for his family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Myles Dowdy, Missions and Ministries<\/a> – Lead Catalyst of the Florida Baptist Convention, lead the Marriage Seminar with his wife Cindy. \u201cCindy and I had the joy of sharing the amazing truths taught in the Word of God on how God desires and designs for us to be successful in the relationships of our lives,\u201d Dowdy said. \u201cThe sweet fellowship and environment provided an incredible time of teaching and dialogue with our family of believers on the island of St. John in the Virgin Islands.\u201d<\/p>\n

Separately, Cindy Dowdy shared, \u201cI was so blessed to be able to connect with and encourage sisters in Christ.\u00a0The people of the Virgin Islands have been through so much and are still recovering from the hurricanes, but their faith is inspiring.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Strengthening men and strengthening marriage were the focuses of the recent USVI Men\u2019s Conference and Marriage Seminar, both held March 22-24 at \u00a0Cruz Bay Baptist Churchin St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":23608,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2621,47,17,18,19,20,746],"tags":[1792,1793,1794],"class_list":["post-23596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive","category-region-central","category-missions","category-multicultural","category-news","category-partnership","category-region-us-virgin-islands","tag-dr-jeffery-singletary","tag-dr-myles-dowdy","tag-usvi-mens-conference-and-marriage-seminar"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/78"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23596"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68468,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23596\/revisions\/68468"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}