The joy of being together!
The REACH WOMEN Conference 2023 took place this past Saturday in Cape Town.
950+ women arrived at St James Church for an incredible morning of solid Bible teaching, amazing praise and worship and wonderful connection.
God provided us with a beautiful, sunny day. As the women arrived, there was a coffee truck to greet them, for those that needed an early morning caffeine fix.
On entering the foyer, there was a warm welcome from our team of ushers. Besides offering their beautiful smiles, the ushers checked tickets and handed out bottles of water, brownies and beautiful bracelets.
For women, by women
The bracelets were made by a ministry called BESIDE YOU. This ministry seeks to build up women economically and spiritually, and is run by a team from CROSS CENTRAL CHURCH in Parow.
More info here - https://christchurchtygerberg.org.za/ministries/partnerships/cross-central-church.html
The chocolate brownies from Khayelitsha Cookies were utterly delicious (https://kcco.co.za). Khayelitsha Cookies is a local bakery, supporting women and run by women.
Did we REACH WOMEN from across Cape Town?
The week before the conference, we asked our delegates to tell us where they were coming from. How encouraging to learn that women were coming from all across Cape Town to join us!
From Fish Hoek to Franschhoek; Bantry Bay to Betty's Bay; Wetton to Wellington; Kuilsriver to Constantia; Tokai to Tableview; Somerset West to Sunset Beach. Just amazing!
Here's a word cloud image of the responses:
Living by faith in a broken world
Our first session started with a wonderful time of praise and worship. Hearing 950+ women singing on the tops of their voices has to be one of the highlights of the conference. It's hard to describe how incredibly emotionally evocative that experience is!
We then heard the first talk from Habakkuk chapters 1 and 2, from our conference speaker, Jo Taylor.
Our second session included a beautiful SPOKEN WORD POEM by the talented Unati Manyela who attends Hope Community Church in Pinelands. Unati wrote the poem for the conference, in response to the teaching from the Bible talks.
The second talk focussed on Habakkuk 3, his response to God. It was so challenging to experience how Habakkuk ended by rejoicing in song, at who God is.
We ended the conference with an interview with Sandy Lyons. Sandy shared some of her own struggles and how she had also cried out to God in a time of intense difficulty. She spoke about how she had lost the song in her heart.
It was encouraging to hear how her relationship with God had grown through her suffering. Not only had the song in her heart returned, but she is now able to rejoice in how God was at work in that season.
The hymn of heaven
We ended the conference by singing THE HYMN OF HEAVEN with great joy!
Please pray with us!
We are so grateful to God for the opportunity to REACH WOMEN as He spoke to us all through His word on Saturday.
Please join us in praying that the seeds that were sown and watered at the conference will bear much fruit for His kingdom in the weeks and months ahead.
