Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Women's Bible Conference 2014

 
 
 
 
On March 28, 2014 God once again blessed me and used me to provide the lovely ladies of Choluteca, Honduras with another bible conference.  A month before I delivered each lady a study guide to go by and prepared for on this beautiful day in March.  I saw what the temperature was going to be for March 28.  A nice cool temperature of 103 degrees.  So I started praying God will provide a breeze for our day together. Well, God did exactly that.  There was a very strong breeze blowing the entire day.  So strong we had to hold down our studies to keep them from blowing away.  Thank you God for providing us with this lovely breeze.  We were to meet at 9:00 AM and start soon after all the ladies arrived.  Some of the ladies came as far as an hour away on a bus and then there was some who lived very close by the church of La Ero  Blanco, pastored by Pedro Martinez.  He was very gracious to allow us to use the church.  Before arriving this morning Pastor Pedro's daughter, Jolene was there cleaning the sanctuary and setting up the what we needed.  We had all the ladies there except for three and these three lived the closest to the church.  So we joked with the ladies who were late about the ones who had to come the longest distance got there first.
We started the morning with songs led by Rosita, our house keeper at the mission house.  Rosita and the ladies sang "He Has Got the Whole World in His Hands" and some very familiar praise songs which are song in the Honduran churches. 
We started our study on "Kindness and Goodness as Christian Women. We shared about the story of Sarah and Hagar out of Genesis.  As women we always try to fix our problems instead of waiting on God to take care of us.  God promised Sarah she would have a baby.  Sarah married to Abraham was up in age and was not getting pregnant.  So Sarah told Abraham to have a son for her by using Hagar.  Well the ladies and all agreed we are always in the business of fixing everything instead of giving to the Lord to take care of in HIS timing.  Sometimes God's timing is not always our timing.  Thank you God for fixing all our messes when we try to be in charge.  God is good all the time and all the time God is good.  This was one of the stories we shared during our study. 
It was a beautiful start to a beautiful day in God's word.  The ladies very obviously came prepared to share the gospel  together.  This made my job as facilitator so easy and enjoyable. 

"The Lord your God is with you, He is mighty to save.  He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with His love. He will rejoice over you with singing."

Zephaniah 3:17  



Lunch break

 
 
After a morning of sharing, crying and laughing we broke for a lunch break.  This was the first time we met all day.  The ladies by popular demand requested Wendy's for their lunch.  So Wendy's it was.  It was enjoyable watching each lady sharing with each other.  Letting me serve them as they are always serving me first.  This was a honor and a privilege to be able to do this for a lovely group of godly ladies.  These ladies are always doing doing doing for others and so today was their turn to be served.  This study was on Kindness and Goodness, as I shared earlier.  I felt like I was preaching to the choir.  But it was a beautiful time of fellowship without any duties or responsibilities on them.  After a relaxing lunch we got together to make our group picture which will hang on the wall in the mission house. 
 
"A friend loves at all times."
Proverbs 17:17
 

Afternoon session full of joy


 
I took a different take on the bible study this time. I borrowed the idea from a dear friend in North Carolina.  I gathered the Honduran baskets and many donated items, bibles, devotional books, hand lotions, and some lady bugs made by the hands of the Honduran folk.  During the day there was an opportune time to give the ladies each one of these items.  The first item given out was a bible to give someone who was lost and needed Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.  I gave them a book mark with the plan of salvation on it.  Later in the morning I gave each of them a daily devotional book.  But the best one of all was in the afternoon when I handed out a tube of hand lotion.  I asked the ladies to pick a partner.  They all looked at me and I could tell they were thinking what is she up to now.  I asked each of them to take turns massaging each others' hands.  I got to sit and be Anna's partner.  So once we got started I immediately took Anna's hand first.  She was very taken back I served her first.  She is always giving giving and giving to everyone.  This did my heart good to finally get to do something special for Anna.  Anna has a beautiful smile which radiates any room she enters.  She is the lady in the brown blouse above.  Enjoy her smile as I always do.  It is times like this when I wish I was fluent in Spanish so I could just sit and talk to Anna and hear her story.  I asked the ladies during the massage had any of them ever had this done.  They all sad NO.  So thank you God for providing me this idea and the materials to do this for the ladies on this special day.  At the end of the day Pastor Pedro's wife, Maria had brought a big bag of fruit all the ladies enjoyed.  Much thanks to Orfilio who helped Mike with the preparations of Wendy's lunch. 
One more item of interest to you all.  We played the white elephant game today and had different prizes for each lady.  I explained the rules and I shared you know we are doing a study on Kindness and Goodness so be careful how you play the game.  Please take your friend's gift from her with kindness and goodness.  During the entire game not one lady took someone else's gift from the other.  Everyone liked Rosa's gift but one not take it from her.  Mike shared this is just how they are.  But at the end of the day , Naomi, Orfilio's wife and Anna were discussing their gifts and they willing exchanged with each other.  These ladies are a true role model of a Proverbs 31 woman.  Thank you God for putting such godly examples into my life.  I learn from these ladies on a daily basis.  Thank you to all the folks who help make this day happen and to be so successful in the name of Jesus.
God is good all the time and all the time God is good.
 
Please read the chapter Isaiah 53 about why we have eternal life!!!
Thank you Jesus for dying for me.