As our West Africa team returns tomorrow, we thought you would enjoy this short update on their final days of training—the amazing way God worked among them—and prayer request for their journey home.
Women in the Window is known as a field-driven ministry. Just what does that mean, you might ask? It means that we are directed by the needs and dreams of our ministry partners as they envision God’s plans for their own communities and nations. During this training, women leaders requested and then had an opportunity to learn and teach practical and life-changing skills that demonstrate the Love of Christ with words and actions in health and business. The women practiced student teaching among themselves in preparation for the lessons they would teach in the village outreach on Friday. They had the opportunity to teach nutrition, hand washing, facts about menopause, and acted out the story of the woman at the well and her conversation with Jesus found in John 4. One of them is a public health worker who taught on malaria. They led a demonstration of how to construct a tippy tap from the local resources. The tippy tap (top left photo above) is a hand washing station made of simple material and allows each village family to access running water to wash their hands. This idea came from one of our participants and is being used in villages in the northern areas where poverty and diseases are common.
Our African sisters organized prayer teams to pray with the village ladies during the outreach and a worship team who led in song and dance. It was exciting to see the women take ownership of every aspect of this outreach. Several local women came forward to receive Christ as their Savior. Many people in this village were healed from leprosy and now experience the joy of personally knowing their Divine Healer.
As we prepare to leave Africa, the following 3 points are our biggest take-aways:
- There is a clear need for intensive preparation of a select group of local women trainers to continue to lead and multiply trainings. Pray for this to be included in our follow-up planning with our ministry partners here.
- Praise God that previous WiW trainings have multiplied in health and economic development in their communities; with many women now leading outreach to rural areas.
- We were strongly encouraged by the feedback the women had regarding the village outreach, how it impacted them in confidence, and how it can be multiplied as they return to their own communities and even other nations.
We greatly appreciate of all your prayers on our behalf throughout this trip and training, and ask you to continue to pray for our 24 hours of travel home. You are a vital part of this team and we simply couldn’t do this work without you!
P.S. for more photos and even videos visit our WiW Facebook page.
