Women's Retreat

 These are the pictures from the women's conference I went to last week. I thought this was a beautiful representation of women coming from all over the country to share reports about what He is doing in their communities.

 singing some praise songs

 One of the art forms here is called "mehindi" (or henna)  Henna is a paste that women apply to their hands for special occasions like weddings, holidays or sometimes 'just because'. They make beautiful designs with the henna paste and can really be quite artistic. Someone has created designs that correspond to stories His Word. This is a picture of the women learning the design for the Bleeding Woman story

My poor friend was feeling nervous with all those women looking on!

 The completed story. This drawing tells the story of the bleeding woman being healed by JC

 hanging out with the ladies during a break

 Two Slaps....this women in red gave a testimony about how one time she was telling the Demon Possessed Man story to a lady. It turned out that the lady was demon possessed herself and started saying abusive things about God. The women in red finished the story and then gave her two slaps. "WHY did you give me two slaps", the demon possessed woman asked. The women in red said "one slap  is for the demon and one slap for abusing my Lord". I am not an advocate for slapping people...but I was amazed at this women's courage.

 They also create original songs and dances for the stories they are learning. They enjoy using all different forms of art to express His Word. This is a small snippet of a dance they made to go along with a story.

 In the afternoon, we had break out sessions. The women met in  groups to learn about different skills they can take back with them to their communities. This women was talking about the basics of health care...of course I listened in....:)

 This group was learning about literacy and ways they could teach people to read and write

 This group practiced their henna drawings.

 SWEET FAITHFUL servant of the Lord who has helped craft stories in the D dialect. She was the one who told me "don't stop doing what you are doing sister".

leaving on the train...we were exhausted but happily praising the Lord. These are my "I have been balling my eyes out" eyes.