Monday was the first day of the conference and many of us tired from the journey were a little surprised to find out we had to leave the hotel at 7:30 a.m. in order to arrive at the Conference in time. That meant breakfast/devotions starting at 6:30 a.m. and precious sleep would have to wait. As tired as we all were that is how we started our day, up and ready to go, bags waiting in the courtyard at 7:30 a.m. ready to depart. But wait....where is our bus? Then the call came in to our leader...there is a little problem we were told...the bus ran out of gas and so one of our hosts has to walk home to get his personal vehicle and come to the hotel to get money for gas. Then go get gas in the bus before they can return to pick us up. LOL....well this is all a part of the journey and learning to be flexible...so we worked on one of the dramas we plan to perform on Tuesday while we waited.
We arrived at the conference to be greeted by a host of beautiful Zambian women singing and dancing as they personally greeted each one of us as we got off the bus. What a special welcome. What I didn't share was that early on I the trip I was assigned as the money tracker, keeping track of team funds and providing necessary monies to our hosts as they need to cover costs. Now mind you this didn't seem like that big of a task, until you must do that with two different currencies, but all is good. So when we arrived at the site the leaders had to meet to talk about some unexpected costs which required us to have to go buy water for the ladies at the conference. So as I left with two of the local coordinators to head to the market we no sooner got to the end of the road when we ran out of gas. We started laughing because how do you run out of gas in 2 different vehicles in one day? What are the chances of that? God was good though as across the street was a gas station, and I had the monies to cover the cost! So we sputtered across the road and put in some gas, and off to the market we went to buy water and juice for the ladies for the next 3 days. Well, that was a wonderful experience as my hosts showed me their version of Walmart. Let's say even our gas station convenience stores in America are grander than this little store, but we accomplished our goal. Then I was taken into their marketplace where I saw everything from platters piled high with dried fish,to vegetables, clothing, furniture, many interesting sights to see. So after getting everything loaded into the vehicle we returned to the conference which by then was well underway.
What a special day it was as the team shared their personal stories as they relate to women of the Bible. We sang, we danced, we talked, we hugged, we laughed together and new friendships were beginning to form. Most of these ladies have never in their lifetime ever had such an experience, so this is a very special time for them. Although many in my group of ladies didn't speak English, it really didn't matter because so much can be conveyed through a hug and a smile and a touch. All day long women were arriving and by the end of the day it was packed full of women. Little children were everywhere with there precious smiles.
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| Kathy and Jena with the children - they love to have their picture taken |
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| Ladies under the tent at the WOW Conference in Chongwe |
So as we left the ladies behinds head for dinner and preparations of the day, I pray for these ladies. Most all of the ladies will spend the night in the church sleeping on the hard ground. It really is amazing, and humbling to see how little they have and to hear them share their stories of pain and loss of children and spouses. Lord I pray you would provide for each of these ladies and that your message of hope in Jesus will be conveyed. Tuesday will be a full day as we must make up time lost on Monday and 8 of us will be giving our talks, myself included. Lord bless our words that they will speak to the hearts and souls of these women.
