Women's conference

Chat and I participated in a women's conference today. There wer nearly 40 women from near and far who came for the conference. Some women traveled an hour or more... partially by foot, partially on the back of a bike and finally on a matatu ( van that holds 11-14 people) They were young, they were old. Many carried babies on their backs.

Evelyn is the women's leader for Kenya. She spoke on intamacy with God.  She also talked about tribalism and that it has no place in a Christian's life.I wish I could give you a great synopsis of all that was said today, but I could not give it credit.  Other women spoke about the differences between men and women and how we deal with that. We could have been in America. But I wondered how many would have traveled that far and under the same circumstances if we had been in America.

It was incredibly funny too that Len and Bill and Peter made and served our lunch today. They could not believe that a man would /could and serve that way.

In the afternoon, we introduced the ladies to BINGO. What a hoot! At first it took a bit. Every time the ladies got one they screamed BINGO so we went on a little more about the idea of 5 in a row. We played in teams of two. There were two shoshu ( grandmothers) who were a HOOT. Everyone was laughing because they were so joyful and just having the best time.

Chat ended the day talking about how important it is to be a unit. That we are powerful by ourselves because the Holy Spirit gives us that power. But if we work together, we can accomplish much more.

My personal favorite part of the day was when the ladies washed their hands for lunch. Traditionally, when you go to a Kenyan home, a bowl is brought to you with soap, and then the Mama of the house poors water while you sit and wash your hands. Today, while nearly 40 women came through, my job was to poor that water over their hands. I looked straight at their hands ... praying a prayer of blessing over each hand. There were old hands, soft hands, wounded hands. There were small hands and large hands. I will remember each of those hands for a very long time. Bless them all....