Weeping with our
Sisters
On Saturday 1st July,
2000 the first Day Conference for Women was held in the Mount Zion Pentecostal
Church, Bangalore, where 200 women attended. We were not only grateful for the
experience gained at our weekends in England, but even more that God had been
using us mightily during the previous 2½ weeks while we had been in
India. We had seen around 600 people come to salvation, and had witnessed many
miracles of healing and of people set free by the power of God. Our faith had
been increased to expect him to do mighty things amongst the women also,
therefore we were boldly confident that he would use us again.
The morning session began
with worship and what a marvellous experience that was - although we couldn't
understand the words, our spirits were singing with the Indian women. They are
a wonderful worshipping people.
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Then I spoke,
through an interpreter, a message about Hannah, from the book of Samuel. As I
spoke I could see that women's hearts were being touched through this story of
Hannah's desperation to have a child, how she poured out her heart to the Lord,
how He heard her cry and gave her a son.
Following a short
coffee break, Rachael taught the women an English song which caused some
amusement as she'd asked Terrie and I to do the actions involved, which
included raising our hands and dancing. Indian women are quite reserved in
their worship and it is not very often that you see them dancing. Some of the
women had brought their children with them so Rachael also led us in singing
"Blessed be the Name of the Lord", which most of the children knew and they
enjoyed joining in the actions. |
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Flora then introduced
Mary from the local church. Mary leads the Women's Ministry and she shared a
message from the Bible. We were unable to understand as she spoke in Tamil but
we could see by the women's faces that God was speaking to them through his
word.
Terrie then shared an
encouraging and inspiring message from the book of Esther about how God chooses
us, prepares us and uses us for His glory, about how much He loves us and how
precious we are to Him.
The day concluded with an
appeal for those who didn't know Jesus as their Saviour to come forward and
receive him (I had been told that there were one or two non-Christians
present). What a joy it was when seven women responded and what a privilege to
lead them in a prayer for salvation! Two other women were led to Jesus during
the prayer-time afterwards. Hallelujah! Following this, I spoke out several
words of knowledge that God had given me while Terrie was speaking. This was
really stepping out and trusting God.
Finally, we offered
prayer to the women and were instantly swamped! Indian people are not shy in
responding for prayer - they're hungry for God and desperate for him to move in
their lives. I found that many of the women have similar problems to women in
the west, but there are many big differences. Some of them are so poor they
cannot afford health care so look only to God for healing. There is no social
security or benefits to claim, so they trust in God to be their provider. We
prayed for many women who could not have children - like Hannah they poured out
their hearts, often with tears, pleading with him to give them a child. We
counted it a privilege to weep with these women, to feel their pain, to wrap
our arms around them and comfort them in their sorrow.
It was a joy to have
spent the day with our sisters in India, to worship with them, to pray for them
and have them pray for us and to experience the joy they display amidst their
many problems and sorrows, to witness their tremendous prayer lives. There is
much we can give to them but also much we can learn from them - we are Women
for the Kingdom wherever we live and we look forward to many more opportunities
to visit India in the years to come.
Tina Pawsey
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