Women’s Conference

One of the things I wanted when Verna and Ron committed to come to India was to have Verna speak at a Women’s Conference. I asked her a couple of months ago what she would be speaking on and she said Esther. I relayed this information to Nupi and to Verna’s complete surprise, the theme of Esther was carried out in the entire program.

It was Flag Day, a national holiday so we had started the day by attending the flag rising on the lawn of PBI.

I had Alishiba put a sari on Verna for the program.

Then we walked over to RGI at the designated time and of course, were the only ones on time with the exception of the RGI girls. Nupi has always had time as a priority with the girls.

About 200 women registered to come, but in fact, we ended up with about 250 girls and ladies. Nupi is so clever as to know who had paid the pittance of a registration fee (free has no value) in that she had a ribbon tied on each lady’s wrist for identification. No lunch plate was given to a lady without a ribbon.

There was a huge Welcome sign and as the program began we were garlanded. This makes about the fourth time we have had garlands.

When I introduced Verna as speaker, I said, “Today is really not the perfect day to have a conference because of the holiday, but when you have the perfect speaker you do not worry about the day.” Truly, it is such a blessing to have my sister communicate such a wonderful, uplifting talk to our women.

There were songs and a dance by the RGI girls, a song contest with about 50 ladies,

and a skit about Esther, by one of the church’s ladies,

and finally the most amazing Bible Quiz on Esther.

We didn’t know it was to be on Esther, but even though it was in Marathi, we could understand a few words and realized the topic was Esther. Later we found out that all the 40 or so ladies participating had MEMORIZED the entire book of Esther for this event. Can you imagine???

Not often do the women of the larger Nagpur Christian community meet to fellowship together. There is a little dissention between the denominations. I feel that they NEED to fellowship together, so our conferences are for all.

It was about 3 o’clock before the catered lunch was served.

I was about to have a hypoglycemic attack before I got food. Dumb me…should have brought a power bar with me.

Verna says it is her “favorite day.” It seems that every day is becoming her favorite.