In the back of Border's bookstore on a chilly Saturday morning, six women are talking about life over coffee and pastries. The women, ranging in age from 30- to 70-something, have been meeting every Saturday at 9:30 a.m. for the past three years. Some days more women join them, sitting in the big, leather chairs at the back of the store, but on this day it's just the six, chatting on issues of the day, including the book of the month: "The Difference Maker" by John C. Maxwell.

"He (Maxwell) tells a lot of stories of what people went through before they made it," explains their discussion leader for the month, Linda Huffman, "and how they didn't just get there overnight like we think they did."

Mrs. Huffman could easily be one of the stories. She knows all about hard times, although first impressions of her give no clue to that. A happily married, successful interior designer with her own business (Interiors II/The Nesting Place), she exudes confidence and a zest for life. She also is a certified life coach and founder of Women Encouraged, a non-profit organization that offers support and networking for women of all ages - the monthly book club at Border's being one part of it. And she was the driving force behind establishing the WE Place this year, a beautifully decorated retreat in St. Joseph where Women Encouraged meets once a month to hear guest speakers on a variety of subjects and hosts special-interest get-togethers, such as SOAR for single women.

"Linda is so accepting and giving," says Helen Carroll, a book club participant and member of Women Encouraged for a year and a half. "It doesn't matter if you're a housewife or an executive of a big business, when you meet her, you're instantly just the best person she's ever met. You don't meet many people that way."

It's not because she's led a charmed life. In fact, Mrs. Huffman says the inspiration for starting Women Encouraged came from one of the low points in her life.

"It was seven months of hell," she says.

Although it was years ago, she can remember it like yesterday. There were already some serious problems in her second marriage, and she had thoughts of suicide. She was in therapy, but doctors didn't know what was wrong with her. Only much later would she learn she had agoraphobia, which is a type of anxiety disorder related to fear.

"When people say they are having agoraphobia or panic attacks, I want to hug them," Mrs. Huffman says, "because I know what that means. Other people don't know what that means."

Physically, she didn't look sick or injured, so it was hard for her husband, friends or family to understand what was going on with her. She was routinely dizzy, had trouble breathing and sleeping and was so fearful, she couldn't go from room to room without someone going with her.

"(Friends) would say, 'Just get over it'," Mrs. Huffman remembers, "but you can't. And my husband said he didn't want to hear about it anymore."

On one particularly fitful night, she jerked awake and couldn't breathe. She remembers thinking she needed to go to another room so her husband wouldn't know about it. She grabbed the television remote, with hands shaking, and flipped through the channels.

It was Sunday morning, she remembers, and soon a man came on the TV who said, "Jesus can change your life."

"And this is the honest truth," she says, admitting the story sounds unbelievable. "When he said this, the pendulum clock stopped, the TV went off, and a gray mist came down from the ceiling and filled the room. My first thought was 'I'm dying.'"

Then she heard a man's audible voice in the room. The voice was not like any voice she had ever heard, she says - gentle and very powerful.

"At that moment, I had no doubt who I was listening to. It wasn't scary, it wasn't creepy; it was so peaceful," she says. "And for the first time in my life, I was out of a panic attack."

After the voice talked to her, the mist lifted, the pendulum started ticking again and the TV came back on by itself. And what the voice promised to do is help her get well if she would do four things. One of the four was to help others. She wasn't immediately cured, but as she gradually took charge of her life, she formed the plan for Women Encouraged.

"We've all gone through stuff. A lot of hurtful rejection kind of things," she says. "And there's usually nobody there to encourage you. They'll sit and listen, but there's not a lot of encouragement. And you can get down on yourself so bad."

So in 2000, with two other women and $23.78, she held the first meeting of Women Encouraged in her home. When the group grew too large for that (averaging 30 to 60 women a meeting), they started meeting at Alice's Energy Connection. Then finally this year, they leased office space to create the WE Place. Using her talents as an interior designer, Mrs. Huffman has given it a cozy but elegant look, refinishing mostly donated or bottom-dollar furniture with the help of the other members.

Women Encouraged does have a spiritual slant, with prominent Bible passages displayed on its Web site and newsletter for inspiration such as "Proverbs 16:3 Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed." But members are from all faiths, Mrs. Huffman says, and some do not attend church at all.

"Our goal is to encourage and strengthen women physically, mentally and spiritually," Mrs. Huffman says. "To be all God intended them to be. And to encourage women to take responsibility for the choices in their lives."

Amy Kendall, a member of the Women Encouraged advisory team, says the group helped her when she moved back to St. Joseph after a divorce. Starting all over again and particularly being single, was hard for her.

"I felt so insecure," she says. "I didn't even want to go to a restaurant for fear of being 'singled out,' and asked 'Is it just you?'"

Even at church, she says she never felt welcomed as a single person. But support from the group has changed all of that.

So much so, that Women Encouraged recently began SOAR, (Singles on fire for God, armed for battle and ready to grow) just for single women, and Ms. Kendall is the leader. There also are plans for expanding the resource area where they keep computers for members to use and inspirational books to loan at no charge, as well as opening a retail area at the WE Place, where women can sell things they make without a high overhead expense.

"It's a place where you can be comfortable," Mrs. Carroll says, "where you can talk about women issues and just be women."

Women Encouraged meets the first Saturday of each month. For more details on all the activities and meetings, visit womenencouraged.org or call 364-2233.

Lifestyles reporter Sylvia Anderson can be reached at sylviaanderson@npgco.com.