On Thursday we again went to the Women’s Center for breakfast and greeting the women as they came in. When breakfast was over, Diana led in worship. The liturgy focused more on the Holy Spirit. The meditation was about the Spiritual disciplines of Bible reading, worship and prayer.
Rita led in the Bible Study focusing on Psalm 91 – The Protection Verses. She mentioned the various words for God. God will be with us when we make God the head of our life. We worked on worksheets in small groups and discussed them.
After a break, Rita and Muriel Nelson gave a session on Domestic Violence. After introducing how they would be sharing, Muriel led us in a stretch break called COCONUT with actions spelling it out. Then another woman started a favorite song “The Lord Is Blessing Me Today”.
Several resources were handed out. Muriel talked about examples in the Bible where domestic violence has occurred. Liberia has many problems with domestic violence but not good sources for dealing with it. Because of the dowry system and the exchange of money, some men feel that they own the wife. Some of the women gave testimonies about situations they were aware of and what could be done.
We had lunch and continued to visit with the women.
The afternoon session was on HIV-AIDS education and was led by Linda and Pauline Roberts who worked in Public Health. Pamphlets were passed out about HIV and STDs and were discussed with the women.
Many stories were shared about experiences that some of the women were aware of. More education is needed on many levels.
Most of the time Joseph from the Conference Communications was video taping and taking photographs. He got so caught up in the discussion that he eventually had to share himself.
When the closing began, Linda thanked her team and all of the women for their participation in the workshop.
Alfreda Anderson, the women’s coordinator, and the past and current conference presidents, Ellen Natt and Sarah Nah, gave speeches of gratitude. Gifts were given to the Ubuntu team. Certificates were given to all of the Liberian participants.
Then we shared in the closing worship. We are Ubuntu: My humanity is bound up in yours.
We rested, debriefed and ate half of the supper we had saved from the previous night.
(Sidebar – internet was not accessible over the weekend. We are at the Brussels airport waiting for the Newark flight. More on the weekend later.)