DPP #8 OPCU Women's Retreat

It has been an incredibly busy weekend.  Yesterday, we had the kids program and today, the women in the Orthodox Presbyterian Churches of Uganda gathered together for an all day retreat.  I had the privilege of talking on Titus 2 and leading a small group time on Deuteronomy 6 and Proverbs 31:1 & 26.  We had 50 women come from 7 local churches (6 village churches and our church in town).

 

The churches are from 3 different tribes.  Because of this the language barrier is always difficult.  The worksheets that I gave the ladies to work on during small group time were written in English and Luganda, but this group and a few others were having to translate into a third language to help everyone understand.

Here is the whole group!  Such a blessing to be able to spend the day with these sisters.

We had about 5 babies spend the day with us too.  So cute!

This is a picture of Margaret (in blue).  She is blind and her husband is lame.  She loves the Lord so much!  The lady pictured next to her in green, is also a dear sister in the Lord.  She is significantly impaired in her vision, but every Sunday, she leaves her house (which is almost just across the street from the church) and walks more than a kilometer to go get Margaret and lead her back to church.  She is such a servant!  These women challenge me and encourage me in so many ways!

A few of the kids in the village were hanging around outside.  They were just too cute to not photograph.  It is so typical to see sisters from ages 5 to about 12 or more carrying their baby siblings on their backs.  That is a normal task assigned to them.

 

The ladies each paid 40 cents for transportation to the retreat and 40 cents for lunch (a true sacrifice for some of them and wonderful contribution on their part).  The mission covered the rest of the cost.  The church that hosted us prepared lunch for us...a yummy meal of rice, beans and meat.  While the meal was paid for by the women and the mission, the church, of their own accord added extra food to the menu as a gift to their visitors.  It was so thoughtful of them!  They also provided tea and a slice of bread for everyone when we arrived because most of the women had not had breakfast.  Two of the churches arrived singing and clapping in the back of a mutatu (a taxi bus) and two of the churches calculated that the most cost efficient way to transport themselves to the retreat was to hire a truck. 



I'm so thankful that the Lord blessed our day together so much.  It was great fellowship and a great time to study God's word together.  God was truly faithful to accomplish everything involved in putting this together.