A Heavy Day

This is Josh Saenz writing.  The internet in Ethiopia is not consistent so Kaitlin and Margie were not able to upload a post today.  I spoke with them today and they asked me to communicate on the blog that what they experienced at the conference was so heavy and emotional.  There is so much injustice that goes on in these women's lives, and as they heard the stories, they were overwhelmed.  Please pray that they get good rest and comfort from the Lord, and that God would allow them to be present with women in their suffering.  They send their love to you all!

Although they had a rough day there were many sweet moments! Here's a picture margie captured!

--Josh

Day One of the Conference!

Margie, Silvia, and Kaitlin at "Rise and Shine"

Words cannot express the day we had!  There is no way to translate what we experienced today, but with that said we will try to share pieces of our day.

This morning we were able to enjoy breakfast with the women from other countries in Africa who journeyed to Ethiopia for the conference.  These women are all on staff with CCC in their countries.  We met this morning and have already started to form sweet friendships!

As we arrived at the conference we were overwhelmed by how many women were there. As we entered the church, we were welcomed by the sounds of women worshiping God with all of themselves.

Just a few of the thousands of women at the conference!

You could feel the presence of God.  He was there and it was beautiful to see everyone worshiping Him.

A worship team of sorts lead us in worship.  They were comprised of a choir, dancers, and drummers.  It was a sight to see! Everyone worshiped with their whole body dancing and singing.

We heard from several speakers who encouraged the women to rise.  Servant leadership was emphasized and the women were exhorted to follow Christ's example as image bearers of God.  The importance of character was proclaimed and the challenge of making heart choices was uncovered.

Judy Douglass reminded that every spiritual gift is ours in Christ as we have been chosen by God and adopted into his family.  Finally, Elizabeth Shenkel spoke about the meaning of taking up our cross, which is to suffer for others to know Christ and to give thanksgiving in every moment.  She shared her powerful testimony of suffering and the women were captivated and moved.  God spoke powerfully through her!

Sunday in Ethiopia

Another amazing day given to us by God!  We had another packed day here in Ethiopia! We started off attending an international evangelical church.  We enjoyed a great time of worship (half way through Margie leans over to me and says, "Hey we are worshiping God in Ethiopia!!").  After church we went to lunch with Tracie, the girls, and CCC staff.  The menu had some great Ethiopian dishes, but at the last minute we chickened out and decided to go with a club sandwich. we could have had a burger with egg on it...still trying to figure that one out!

The best part of the day was when we went with Tracie to the conference site.  We arrived at a church whose sanctuary holds 7,000 people!  We were able to help "decorate" and had so much fun blowing up 1,000's of balloons, putting them in bunches of 6, and streaming them on ribbon from one end of the church to the other.  As we started to huff and puff our way through the balloon blowing, one of our new CCC girlfriends suggested that we ask the women, who had come to meet their host family at the church, to help  blow up the many balloons.  It became a game of sort for the women and they all got into the FUN!  It was a wonderful opportunity to give them a moment of laughter and play while they were waiting for information on their week stay here in Addis Ababa.

Damtew and Tracie treated all the men and women who had come from other countries to join their team for the conference to a delicious orientation dinner at a local hotel.  Each person was given the opportunity to tell their name and share how they hoped to connect in during the week.  The keynote speakers for the week will be Elizaberth Schenkel and Judy Douglass.  Elizabeth and her husband Eric are the new Executive Directors for The Jesus Film Project and Judy is the wife of the President of CRU.

It is now 1:00am and we have to be up at 6:00am!  We will continue to keep you updated and hopeful have time soon to add in more details for you!

A Day of Maggie Baggies

Today we were able to join forces with 5 other Americans who are here with Jesus Film to help the Campus Crusade for Christ (CCC) national staff in their final preparations for the conference.  We arrived at CCC's Great Commission office and were warmly welcomed by Damtew, Tracie, and their two daughters-Hannah and Abby. We were given a tour of the grounds and had a meeting with Damtew.  He shared the excitement that he and his staff have as they head into the Rise and Shine National Women's Conference.  As opposition arises and the business of preparations persist, they are energized by prayer and the Spirit. They are encouraged to see prayers answered in abundance. He shared their strategic plan to have conference attenders be supported by their local churches to come to the conference, so that when they return from the week they can equip and share what they learned with their church body. He shared their love for the local church and their desire to empower the local churches.  We spent some time in prayer and then headed off to work!

As we toured the grounds, we saw that every room had been taken over by conference resource materials.  All of the materials: books and DVDs are produced in house.  Even as we left this afternoon resources were still in the process of being produced. Each book is printed and bound.  Each DVD is burned and then individually labeled by hand.  Imagine 5 books and 2 DVDs per person...the magnitude is huge!  Each woman attending the conference will recieve a "Maggie Baggie" which will contain the Magdalena materials, discipleship materials, and a copy of the Magdalena film and a copy of the children's version of the Jesus Film.

After our tour we were lead to our work room.  Filled with "Maggie Baggie" materials we were split up and put to work.  We each worked a station on the assembly line filling part of the bags.  We stuffed thousands of bags today.  Although there are still bags to be assembled, we helped make a big dent in the process today.

We had a blast getting to know the other Americans as we worked side by side!

Tracie, Kaitlin, Sarah, Marie, Selvia, and Margie