Road Trip for the Ladies...April 18, 2002
By LaRae Schmidt

The National Ladies Convention was held this year from March 25-28. So, we packed a few things, 9 women, and four children into the truck and went.

To be honest, many things didn’t seem to be conducive to a spiritually enriching time.   The meetings were held under a tent (the temperature being 105 F in the shade). The schedule was packed with three-three hours meetings a day.  To ensure attentiveness, designated women carried small sticks to tap those that may be dozing off. Yet, for the Nigerien women it was a highlight of the year.

Nigeriens love music.  Every group came prepared to sing 6-10 times. Because many Nigerien women are semi-literate, the Scripture in the songs provided a profound source of encouragement to their faith.  Women brought tape recorders in order to savor the songs year around.  The teaching is often the same, “women obey your husbands”.  This year though, the pastor talked about what it means to love and to build trust.

There was also question and answer times.  Nigeriens are taught that to ask questions of a teacher is to show disrespect. It was great to hear of godly women sitting long into the night answering the questions of the younger ones about life and marriage.