Then a few women from the association put on a funny skit in the form of a fashion show that represented different types of women in today's world.
There was a lazy person, a busy mother, a fashion diva, and a career woman. Most women in the audience could identify in some way with one of these roles and recognize what was taking priority in their life.
Then one of our dear friends from Guadalajara led a powerful session about being a woman in today's world. She talked about where we put our trust and what we allow to become our god(s).
After the session we broke into small groups, each led by one of the association women, to reflect on what was discussed in the session. Some women shared some very painful realities about their past and had some very meaningful, deep discussions.
Later the small groups made bracelets using black, red, white, blue, green, and yellow beads to represent the plan of salvation. As they put them together, the discussed and read verses about each color. They also added a charm in the shape of a crown, representing our value as children of God and our royalty status as daughters of the King.
The women's association delivered tortillas, agua de jamaica, and plates of chicken, rice, and mole to each woman and child at their tables.
Another friend from Guadalajara led our next session about being a woman of God. As she talked about taking off different things that hinder us from serving God, she illustrated this point by removing labeled papers from Adela.
Then Ale (our other guest speaker from Guadalajara) had each woman write one sin or hindrance on a post it note and stick it to a cross, talking about how Christ took all of our sins to the cross, and how we need to leave them there with Him. To reinforce the point that we should not go back and try to retreive them and carry them a bit longer, the post-it notes were then removed from the cross and burned in a bucket.
Finally, each small group held a coronation service, where each woman sat on a chair that represented a throne. While seated there, each woman shared, "When I am gone I want it to be said of me and to be true that . . . ," thus acknowledging how they want to strive to live their life. The group leader knelt before them and "crowned" them by putting the bracelet with the crown charm on their wrist. I found it significant that the sun finally came out during the coronations.
In our closing session, 5 women prayed to receive Christ and many women shared what the conference had meant to them and how it had impacted their life. Before leaving, we got most of the women to pose for a group picture.
We also took a picture of the women in the association who worked to put this event together.
We had a wonderful group of people, including a couple women from the association, Charlie, and the youth evangelism team, who worked really hard all day with the kids to enable the moms to focus on the conference. The kids made team banners, sang, did crafts, played on the playground, played games, and even rode ponies! They also learned from the paint talks shared by a couple of the youth and a taekwondo lesson shared by our firend who has his own taekwondo school.
It was SO much fun for me to occassionally walk through the kid's area and hear those who know me from our weekly studies call out for me to push them on a swing or just come talk to them for a minute. One girl I didn't know started calling me "English" for some reason. We are SO grateful for all God did that day. We know that the weather probably prevented some from coming, but we had prayed that God would bring those He wanted to be there, so now we have to trust that He did just that. Please continue to pray for this new women's association and for each of the women who participated in this conference.
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