women's conference

We mentioned this briefly in our August newsletter, but I wanted to share in more detail so that you would know how to be praying for our ministry to these women. This post is taken in part from an email I wrote to a friend.

Each year (usually twice a year) Covenant College hosts a conference for the wives of our students.  This conference is one of the vital ways we can reach out and minister to these women, encouraging them in their roles as wives and mothers and offering practical, Scriptural, and medical instruction.  It also gives them an opportunity for fellowship because many of these women travel quite a distance to reach the College, and if they meet a new friend who is also a student's wife who lives in their area, then they have an opportunity for mutual encouragement in the future.


The women arrived here on Thursday morning, 1st August.  They travel by bus or taxi or pay for a lift on a passing lorry.  They travel in any way they can.  After their arrival, they had time for a cup of tea and a bun, before the program started at 10hrs.  Since it was a Thursday and the students still had their usual 7:30 class that day, we asked the students to stay after class for the start of the conference, so that we could speak to the students and wives together in a special talk.  Heinrich spoke from 10-11 on the topic of being created male and female in God's image, from Genesis 2.  Then David spoke from 11-12 on the topic of Christian family life (the importance of teaching your children the Scriptures, family worship, etc.) from Deut 6.  After lunch, the students left the College and traveled home for an extended weekend (all except for a few weekend students who camped out in the small classroom) and the women moved into the dormitory.

In the afternoons  (Thurs and Fri) we had three items on the program: a health topic taught by Mercy (a trained nurse from Katete who is also the wife of one of our graduate students), teaching the women some of the Nyanja Psalms, and a craft led by Marjanne.  Acklas Banda, one of our graduating students this year who often leads the singing during the students' morning worship, kindly delayed his travel home on Thursday afternoon to teach some Nyanja Psalms to the ladies, which we then reviewed throughout the rest of the conference.  The women LOVED learning new Psalms.  They requested that we please teach them new ones at each conference in the future!

This was the second women's conference I had the opportunity to assist with, and this time I had a much bigger responsibility - to lead one of the Bible studies!  On Friday morning I led the first Bible study of the conference.  We started at 8am to study the story of Mary and Martha (from Luke 10) and the importance of seeking fellowship with Christ and not being distracted by our daily labors.  Then from 9-10 they broke into small groups to discuss the questions I had written about the passage.  After tea break we had another hour and a half to discuss the questions together, and then I finished my Bible study with some practical suggestions of how to find time in a busy day to spend in God's Word seeking the Lord.  The ladies asked if they could have copies of the Nyanja discussion questions about the Bible study to take home and lead their own Bible studies.  There must have been 25 women at the conference because that's how many copies I printed and each woman got one!

On Saturday morning Jacomien led the Bible study from Genesis 2, about Eve and the role of women in marriage and family life.  It was the same program - an hour of Bible study, an hour of small group discussion, tea break, and then the remainder of the morning was spent discussing all the questions together. The women had so many questions about marriage and family life that the session didn't end until 12:30 and their lunch was late!

Marjanne was in charge of crafts each afternoon.  She helped the ladies use clean baby food jars to create candle-holders or salt shakers.  They decorated the outside of the jars by gluing pretty stones and beads and gems.

The first afternoon, Mercy, the nurse, spoke to them about puberty: how to understand the changes in your child's body, why they are happening, and why it is important to communicate clearly about these things without embarrassment.  She dealt with the cultural issues which require that the parents do not speak to the children about these things - only the grandparents or another relative can speak to the children.  She had two helpful pamphlets which explained things simply so that the women could understand what is happening in the male and female body.  The women had SO many questions!  In fact, after dinner that night they requested that Mercy please teach them more.  So she spent another TWO HOURS teaching them late into the night, and they could ask her many questions.

The second afternoon, Mercy spoke to them about family planning - simply outlining the options available. She then asked Jacomien, Marjanne, and myself to say something about what to do if you have a choice of birth control which will kill a fertilized embryo (baby). So we all had a chance to share with the women the importance of remembering that God sends children as a "heritage," the importance of making all decisions with prayer and searching the Scriptures to see what would God want you to do (not just what do you want to do), and the importance of choosing a method of birth control which will not abort a newly-conceived baby but will simply prevent the bodies from functioning properly to create a pregnancy.  The women said that they
were very satisfied with our answers and very thankful for the teaching.

It was very encouraging to see how excited they were about learning and also fellowshipping together.  We heard them singing and praying and sharing Bible study late into the night.  Whenever we saw them having tea break, one of them would have her Bible open and they would be discussing things from the Scriptures!  On Friday morning they were all assembled in the classroom 15 minutes earlier than we had asked them to be, so that they could have a longer time for singing Psalms! It was a joy to behold.

Throughout the conference, we were helped with translation by Edah, Mercy, and Veronica - the wives of three of our students.  Amazing women, as always!  Able to facilitate discussion and communicate clearly with the other women, they served as our 'group leaders.'

There was such a good atmosphere about this conference, the women were so eager to participate and of course that is the key for a successful conference.  It was so encouraging to have them so willing to answer
questions, participate in the discussion, ask questions, and keep discussing things among themselves!  That willingness to participate makes all the difference and it is very encouraging to those of us who are teaching!

The ladies left after lunch on Saturday 3rd August after an uplifting conference. We shared a photo of the group in our August newsletter.  Unfortunately I've not been able to upload photos on Blogger recently - for some reason it has refused to work properly.  I will attempt again at some point to put a few photos up on my blog for you all.  In the meantime I hope you are okay with just posts!