Sanyati Women's Meeting

This past weekend team member Ramona Beam traveled to Sanyati to be a guest speaker at a women’s conference held at Lozane Baptist Church. About 130 women from the area came together for a weekend of worship, fellowship, and study of God’s Word. Here is her report.



The trip to Sanyati from Bulawayo is a five hour journey, partly over roads that are interesting, to say the least. The final leg of the trip is a 70km stretch of 1-lane pavement that is so full of pot-holes and broken places that many times it is much easier to drive off the pavement on the side of the road. At one point, we had to detour through a village because the road was practically impassable.
We arrived safely at the Sanyati Mission Station late in the afternoon on Friday, and spent a great evening with Angie Byler, the wife of Dr. Mark Byler, the doctor at Sanyati Baptist Hospital.
Then, on Saturday morning, we traveled to the church to join the conference. As we drove, we met many women in their purple and blue WMU uniforms, walking to the conference. Of course, we stopped to pick them up along the way, so by the time we arrived, my van was filled to capacity with women, joyfully greeting each other, catching up on news of families, and just enjoying being together.
Upon arrival, we were escorted into the pastor’s house, where all the pastors’ wives were gathered, having their morning tea. Angie and I were invited to take tea with these ladies, and introductions were made all around.

Shortly it was time for the morning session to begin. We all went into the church, and oh, what singing. There is just something about African women raising their voices in worship of our Mighty God that is so very awesome. And the dancing. These women really do know how to worship.



After a time of worship, we went into our break-out sessions. I had been asked to speak to the widows, being a widow myself. As we gathered outside, under a tree for shade, with the songs continuing as we went, I just prayed a silent prayer that God would speak through me and that the words I spoke to them would encourage and uplift these precious ladies. As I looked out over the group, I saw that so many of them were young women. The ravages of HIV/AIDS and other diseases are so evident here, with so many widows—about 40 of them in this group of just a little over 100.



I was able to share with them that God has a special place in his heart for widows, showing them the many stories in Scripture where He provided for widows and orphans. I also encouraged them to live holy lives, and to be examples in their homes and villages of what it means to live in purity and holiness.



Our time together was over so quickly, and when I had finished speaking, one precious lady stood and said, “We have heard what you have said to us today, and I thank God for what you have brought to us. Many times as widows we are made to feel that we are worthless, and that we have no value. When something bad happens, the widows are blamed. You have shown us that God loves widows, and that He will provide for our needs if we follow Him.”
God is their Provider, Jehovah Jireh. As we were leaving, Angie and I both had the same thought. I had brought with me several boxes of exercise books provided by Baptist Global Response, intending to leave them with Angie for her to distribute as needed at the hospital. Why not show these sweet ladies an example of God’s provision by giving these books to them? All of them care for children and/or orphaned grandchildren, and money for school supplies is many time hard to come by. So, we drove back to the mission station, loaded up the books, and brought them back to the church, distributing books to each widow. How joyful they were to receive this small gift. Please pray for these ladies, that God will continue to show Himself faithful. Life is difficult where they live. Pray that the joy of the Lord will be their Strength.



I can’t end without telling you about another adventure we had. We discovered that, since more ladies came than were expected, there was not enough food to prepare for their evening meal on Saturday. So, we loaded up and drove to a nearby village to purchase chickens for them to prepare for dinner. Ok, so, when we in the states think of buying chickens, we think of going to the supermarket, heading to the meat counter, and buying nice oven stuffer roasters, or chicken parts already cut and prepared for cooking, right? Not so here. When we went to the village and asked the farmer for chickens, they were brought out to us in a box, still clucking and flapping their wings! I’m just glad they stayed in that box on the drive back to the church.