Women Rooted in God

Fast forward 2½ years later. The Jewels Ministry of the Tshwane Church organized a Southern Africa Women’s Conference for the mature sisters in the church who have always been single, are widowed, went through a divorce, are single mothers, or whose husbands aren’t part of the church. The conference was held on 15^th and 16^th of August, 2020. Over 300 sisters from across Southern Africa joined for an inspiring weekend of lessons, classes and workshops on being “Women Rooted in God.” YouTube and Zoom allowed us to meet virtually and really, for the first time, bring together all the churches across the 11 Southern African countries.

Saturday morning, we were welcomed by our hostess, Tshidi Tlale-Malao, who shared a beautiful poem depicting who the Jewels are, after which we sang in different languages and danced in our living rooms along with the song leaders. We were inspired by Keynote Speaker Dee Fontenette from the Dallas, Texas church.

Dee has visited the churches in South Africa and Mozambique personally,  and as a disciple, has been married, divorced, a single mom, and is now married again.  She called us to anchor our hope in God alone, inspired us with her vulnerability about the struggles she has faced and overcome. She helped us see ourselves as God sees us and shared her list of self-esteem Scriptures.  She closed by calling us to have vision for ourselves and showed multiple vision Scriptures to inspire us. 

Zamalinda Xulu, Women’s Ministry Leader in Tshwane, closed out the first part of the conference by sharing Psalm 68:3-6 and Isaiah 61:3: how God has a vision for each one of His children and sets us all in families – His Church. She commended the approximately forty women in the Jewels Ministry for being a refreshing place where people are able to use their gifts and stories, not only to heal but to do all the work of God.

In Part Two of the conference, we broke into five Zoom groups. Two sisters each shared on “Unrelenting Faith;” “Mental Health;” “Grief & Grieving;” “Single Parenting,” and being a “Christian Wife,” followed by Q&A.  Here, too, we were inspired to listen to women who have walked and are literally walking in our shoes, and to be reminded that we are not alone in our phase of life.  

The second day of the conference started on Sunday afternoon, when we related to, laughed with and learned from 5 sisters sharing about “Caring for, Recognizing and Meeting Our Needs.”

A panel discussion followed where sisters could get practical, Godly advice on particular situations such as how to inspire our (grown) children to want to know God, dealing with bullying, how to have open-ended discussions on difficult topics with our teens, and forgiving ourselves so we can move forward for God.