I watched as eighty women filled the seats of the conference room at Genesis Farms, land for planting farmers started by the Dutch. Eighty daughters of the King. Whether they had accepted and began a real relationship with the Father or not, the work of Jesus Christ had already been completed over 2,000 years ago – it’s our decision day, our moment of arrival at the Truth that matters. All of us, precious, costly daughters of the one true King.
The day began with prayer and worship in song. They sang a song about how God is our protector; we’re never outside of His eye, and asking to protect us like we are in His eye. The Word of God was shared by a fellow missionary. Her time of sharing was limited to one hour since many of these moms are the only ones available to watch their children after school, so we were on a tight schedule to have them on the bus in order for them to be home by the time their children arrived.
After a coffee break, the women were separated and placed into four groups. We had four different sessions set up and had time enough for the women to join two of the four. The first session, “Proper Hand Washing”, was led by Sheila Lamb who showed the women what bacteria looked like on their hands after washing via black light. Despite some minor technical difficulties, the session went well. The second session was simply called “Crafts” and was led by Peggy Kohut. The women learned to cross-stitch, some for the first time. The third session, “Fun Times,” was led by Jamie Wallin. There was a scavenger hunt for the women and whoever found the most items within a five minute time frame won a prize. The idea of a scavenger hunt was very new to these women and it required some memory work as we translated the list of items but they enjoyed it, especially watching the winner wear the prize for a quick photo! The last session, but certainly not the least, is where we got our theme and calling for it – it was called “Daughters of the King” co-led by Stephanie Hastings and Sonja Ward. In this session, salvation was explained and the women made friendship bracelets.
When the sessions concluded and the women were dismissed for their lunch – a traditional spicy Ethiopian meal – each of the women was given a balloon to pop. These balloons had a bible verse and 1, 5, or 10 Ethiopian Birr. The big winner got a 25 birr phone card. Before the conference ended, we handed out gift bags to every woman and they each got a greeting card signed by all of us as a token for them to remember who they are in Christ: Daughters of the King. On the face of the greeting card was the conference’s theme “Daughters of the King” and on the inside was the second half of Isaiah 51:11. The gift bags contained various items such as lotion, wash cloth, soap, hand sanitizer, finger nail polish, etc.
“They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.”
As they were leaving, each lady received a single rose and were told they were “Konjo”, beautiful in Amharic. The women thoroughly enjoyed themselves and we hope that each and every one of them left the conference feeling valuable, worthy and beautiful. We focus a lot of attention on the children, their needs and helping them but it is so important to reach out to the mothers who have given up their own lives to care for these children, in the good times and bad. We are so glad we were able to provide this special time for the women, the mothers, and hope we can do it again soon.
You can see more pictures below and view a video of the women singing here:
Blessing the Children International 