The easiest thing in the world to talk about is a trip seven South Carolina volunteers took to South Asia to host a retreat for Christian women serving there.
South Carolina volunteers Irene Murphy, Carole Johnson, Dona Lea Fanning, Pam Plunkett, Debby Akerman, Gail Hodson and team leader Evelyn Blount arrive in South Asia ready to minister to Christian women serving there.The retreat theme, “Linger,” provided many opportunities to examine how you linger with the Lord, what you do when you linger, and what you should do in response to lingering. These and studies on women of the Bible fed all of us. However, this was a small part of the retreat.
Conversations, coffee and chocolate better describes what happened as we talked in small groups, shared one to one, and listened to testimonies. Any time you talk over coffee and chocolate, you are more relaxed and open.
As volunteer Debby Akerman said, “It was a beautiful experience to be with the women in South Asia. They came to linger a bit, to rest beside still waters, and to have their hearts, souls and minds refreshed. They came for a brief time to linger over coffee, chocolate and conversations, and to have their needs met for communicating and worshiping in their heart language. They left the retreat exalting God for his fresh anointing and strengthening for living out their missions call.”
As one woman said, “I had forgotten what it was like to talk with a peer.”
Imagine having no one around like you with whom you could share and laugh.
Another woman commented that she gets together to worship with only one other person on Sundays.
Carole Johnson and Gail Hodson lead the women in a time of worship during a retreat that focused on the theme, “Linger.”Imagine the way the soul was thrilled when music of praise and hymns were offered to God with a whole group of fellow believers singing.
Things we often take for granted mean so much to those who live, work and worship in different cultures.
The trip to South Asia was so special. Spending quality time with the ladies and seeing them interact among themselves as they moved from acquaintances to friends, even becoming confidants, was wonderful.
“They have the same problems that we have in the States, but they have to depend on the Lord in ways that we cannot imagine,” volunteer Dona Lea Fanning said. “Talk about hands-on missions, this was it!”
We called part of our time each day “spa time.”
“There is a bonding of women when we are bare faced,” volunteer Irene Murphy said. “Several felt free to share personal concerns, and we continue to stay in touch.”
The trip to South Asia offered more than just what happened when we were all together for the retreat.
“The trip opened my eyes?to actually see the poverty and lost people,” Pam Plunkett said.
Volunteer Gail Hodson added, “The work is hard, the odor is strong, and there is a frightful awareness of the absence of Jehovah God in the faces of the people.”
The diversity of the people struck Carole Johnson.
Evelyn Blount chats with women during a retreat in South Asia.“Their faces reflect strength and determination to survive,” she said. “Many have to choose begging as their only means of surviving.”
Transportation is so thick that one can hardly pass. Hodson told how tears streamed down her cheeks as she watched a crippled toddler left alone in the median. The toddler was crying, and no one came to hold her, to comfort her.
Sights include religious people who answer the call to come hear readings of their holy book, to pray, to give, to wash away sins, to do all that is required in religions without hope. Yet, the commitment is there. And I wonder, is this not the most disturbing part of the trip? Is this not the reason to go? Are we who have hope, who have the Light, as committed?
When asked, every volunteer responds in the same way: “Yes. I would go back if called. I will never pray in the same way for our missionaries and for the people with whom each works.”
It was a life-changing event for the volunteers who went and for the women who participated.
Coffee, chocolate and conversations are soothing for the soul and provide the atmosphere for life-encouraging, life-changing experiences.
Blount recently retired after 23 years of service as executive director-treasurer of South Carolina Woman’s Missionary Union, an auxiliary to the South Carolina Baptist Convention. To learn about the South Carolina Baptist Convention’s service opportunities planned for South Asia in 2009, visit http://www.scbaptist.org/international/article158733c1594414.htm.
South Carolina volunteers Gail Hodson and Pam Plunkett take a brief ride on a camel during their visit to South Asia.