National Women's Retreat - South Africa
By Beryl Marais
On April 26th, 85 ladies from South
Africa, Swaziland, Lesotho and Zimbabwe gathered at the Op’t Hof
Centre in the Maselspoort Valley outside Bloemfontein for the
Women’s Retreat of 2002. It was encouraging to experience the joy of
meeting friends again.
The Durban church worship team, Gill Khoury,
Lorna Laister and Chris Manikan provided uplifting worship leadership
during the three-day conference. Speakers included Limpho Letsela from
Lesotho, who spoke on Best Practice, Cherie Fourie from Passion
Play Ministries International who shared with us her work in
spreading the gospel news of Jesus’ sacrifice, and Shirley Henderson
spoke on Forgiving and how it brings peace to the Body
of Christ. Ellen Roy spoke on The Surrendered Wife, while Wendy
Holladay gave a presentation entitled No Longer an Option – the
gift of choice. She showed how we can be confident in our choices
to follow God.
Priscilla Shunmagam gave a wonderful testimony on
her conversion from the Hindu faith, showing us that God does
heal, and that we can minister both to those in the faith and to those
who do not know the Lord.
Phildré Human spoke on Self-esteem and the
Christian woman, encouraging us to forget our inadequacies and to
love our neighbour and serve God.
Constance Masela had the audience in stitches,
while showing that blessings become responsibilities. We have the
responsibility of sharing our faith.
Maretha Maartens, author and public Christian
speaker, showed us from personal experience, how we can use the bad
things that happen to us to bring us back to God, remembering that
“all things work together for good.”
Shirley Henderson closed the conference by
sharing some moments from her life in a large family (she is one of
eight children). She spoke to us about Martha, friend of Jesus, who
allowed herself to be distracted from the things that really mattered.
The conference was a great opportunity to make
new friends and to renew old friendships as well as to focus on the
mission God has given us to share our faith with others.
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