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| Pamela Smoak Missionary to Tanzania |
Babies crying, lots of babies crying…must be an African women’s conference. For every two women attending the conference there will be at least one baby making it a 2 to 1 ratio. It has always amazed me that African women can repent, receive the Holy Ghost, take copious lesson notes, be healed or “shout the house down” all the time carrying a baby on their back; but, I have seen them do all these things. According to the United Nations ranking of the number of children born per woman of childbearing age, 35 of the top 50 countries are in the African Region. (Wikipedia: UN TFR Ranking)
African women’s conferences are an exciting experience filled with worship, praise, anointed teaching, deliverance from demon possession and great surprises. In one conference after hearing teaching on witchcraft, a woman asked what to do about witchcraft charms that had been imbedded under the skin of her chest when she was an infant. She wanted to know how to rid herself of the witchcraft articles.
In another country, while I was teaching, one of the attendees had a baby in the Bible school dorm. A regional ladies’ leader became a grandma during a lesson on holiness!
The women of Africa make great sacrifices to attend these conferences. They travel many hours or even days by bus, foot or bicycle to reach the venue. Their beds are straw mats or thin blankets on the floor of the church. Food is shared with all participants equally. In one country they only eat fruit and drink tea for meals so that none of the women have to miss sessions to cook.
I have taught women’s conferences in large auditoriums with electricity, PA systems and pews, in crowded upper rooms as the women sat on the floor for hours, under trees and under large yellow and white striped tents.
All the sacrifices are worth it when the presence of God breathes newness of life, healing, salvation and deliverance across the gathering of women.
So let the babies cry! When African women come together, there will be babies, lots of them; but, that is part of the African life, the African church, the African woman and the African women’s conference.
