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 Habesha. We limited her time of sharing to one hour. 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 time enough for the women to join two of the four sessions. The first session was originally titled "Food Safety" but changed more to proper handwashing, 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" led by Peggy Kohut where the women learned to cross-stitch, some for the first time. The third session was "Fun Times," my group, where we held 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, because we ran out of time during "Fun Times," as they were dismissed to retrieve their lunch - a traditional spicy Ethiopian meal - each of the women were given a balloon to pop. These balloons had a bible verse and either birr in denominations of 1, 5, or 10, or they had a 25 birr phone card. This went well, that is, until men from the street wanted to join along and I had to tell them these were only for the women, a risk one takes if ever doing something outside where others can see.
Before the conference concluded, we handed out gift bags to each 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. The gift bags contained various items such as lotion, wash cloth, soap, hand sanitizer, finger nail polish, etc. On the face of the greeting card was the conference's theme "Daughters of the King" with a crown and on the inside the second half of Isaiah 51:11.
The women seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves. Each lady also received a single rose and were told "Konjo" as they left the building. (Konjo is Amharic for beautiful as they are beautiful daughters of the King). After joining together for a group photo the ladies boarded the bus and headed for home as we waited for the bajaj. My ride back to the guest house was quite phenomenal as seven of us crazy soldiers piled into one bajaj with Kristi Bennik's (logistics and gift bag extraordinair) tote lids covering the heads of the gentle ones of us in the back seat. We made it back safely and I just know it was because of the prayers I (perhaps you) had been praying. While the day may be tiring as we gave it our all, it was a great day and so glad to see women show up in praise to Jesus. Glory be to Him, as He has called us all Daughters of the King.
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