We have now spent a day and a half in our workshop. We had been asked to talk about our connections and many aspects of United Methodist Women and learn more about what the Liberia United Methodist Women are doing. The theme is Living Water referencing John 4:1-30.
The women who were invited to participate in the workshop were leaders in the conference and five district UMW presidents. They were not all there at the beginning. On Monday there were visitors including Bishop Innis and past conference presidents. Members of the Liberia Conference Leadership were in and out to greet us. The Bishop’s wife, Mrs. Irene Innis joined us for the whole workshop.
Monday afternoon our team leader Linda led in an overview of the United Methodist Church using printouts of a powerpoint. She talked about John Wesley and the beginning of the church. She included the Mission of the United Methodist Church, what we believe and how we are governed through the three branches of the episcopacy, General Conference and the Judicial Council. We are a people of the books – the Bible and the Discipline, the book of Worship and hymnals, Book of Resolutions and Social Principles.
A few of the women had been to General Conference and were helpful in talking about their experiences. The women helped us make the connections from Local, District, and Conference. They use similar committees in their churches. They are part of the West Africa Central Conference with 4 episcopal areas, Liberia, Cote d’Ivoire, Sierre Leone and Nigeria.
The four Areas of Focus were mentioned as well as the leadership units of the church. There was a lot of familiarity to all of these.
Tuesday we went to the Women’s Center for breakfast with the women. The Bishop’s Administrative Assistant Awah Cole joined us for the day.
We started the day’s program with Worship led by Diana. Carol and Arlene led the Bible Study about Living Water using various verses from Isaiah. We discussed about various trees and plants that are in USA and in Liberia and the differences in meaning for the image of “streams in the desert.”
We took a break. Then Carol and Diana discussed the Purpose and the Visions of United Methodist Women. We taught them the JoAnn Orthel Purpose song which they loved. We will sing it often. Arlene divided them into three groups to brainstorm and identify mission projects that they could do as a conference UMW project.
After lunch Mrs. Innis talked about what Living Water and the story of the Samaritan Woman at the well meant to her. Then Rita shared with great enthusiasm what membership in United Methodist Women meant to her. She pulled out from the women many descriptions of how they became members. Almost everyone had become a member because someone invited them to join their group.
Throughout our time someone from the Liberia group or from our team would think of a song and we sang.
Then Arlene had the three groups meet again then make reports of where they were heading. Each idea was a different aspect of helping less fortunate women and children. They are very concerned about helping women get more education and children being safe. They will be working on them more each day.
A lot of energy was expended by all. We were greatly inspired by our sisters. We began to become good friends. We look forward to the next two days.
We went back to the Guest House exhausted so the evening was spent in resting and going over what needed to happen the next two days. (Sidebar – Tuesday about 4am the electricity went off. We learned later that there was a problem with the generator. Arlene who uses a cPap machine was all right. By the time we got back Tuesday night all was well. They are being very good to us.)