Daughters of the King Women’s Conference (21 – 24 November)

One of the new Peace Corps trainees was in Apia during the week of the conference and wanted to go to the conference, so I asked Charlotte to pick her up for the opening evening. When we registered they had cute little purses with coconut oil soap, insect repellent, tissues, candy, notebooks and pens. Mabel Magalei, the woman from White Centre Assembly of God in Seattle Washington welcomed the women of the conference while encouraging us to be hungry for God and to never be satisfied at where we are at – always pushing for more. We then had a parade in which each church that had members attending the conference got up, said a bit about their church and then got prayed for. The trainee and I took a taxi home and I didn’t have any cash on me, so I asked him if I could quickly run inside to grab money and he told me not to worry about it – I paid with a pani popo - one of the many ways that God took care of me during the conference.

I missed the morning session of the conference as I had to help with Peace Corps training – a model school in which the trainees taught classes at my school. Before the evening session started, I had great excitement. Debbie Katina gave this session and she talked about being rooted in the Word of God. She demonstrated what it looked like to be “engraphted” so that when the storms of life come, you will not be shaken so much that you fall. She then asked us to raise our hands if we were sure that we would go to heaven if we were to die that night. After that she asked everyone else if they weren’t sure and wanted to make a decision to start following Christ to come up to the altar. At least 30 women came up! Fila and I went to the counseling room and talked with one of the ladies that came up to the altar. We talked with her and then prayed for her with her.

On Thursday I took the day off of school and went to the day session to help the women's committee. I greeted people at the door and then helped prepare the morning tea. I had such an awesome time serving with and getting to know some of the women of the church better. They are truly beautiful women with big hearts!! After morning tea I had the opportunity to sit and listen to Debbie preaches again. I love the way she speaks - she is so down to earth and says it like it is. She was talking about how us women are not only princesses, but are warriors, in fact we are princess warriors! We have to have courage to finish the journey even when we are afraid - we feel our fears, but we press on anyway. That night it was Holly, Robin, Sally and I all from the Peace Corps. Pastor Mabel finished up the conference talking about the story of Ruth and how the road between Moab (the world) and Bethlehem (the house of praise) is humility. She talked about keeping your eyes focused on the field (God's Kingdom) and don't look for Boaz (your husband) because when you are committed to the field, Boaz will find you! One of her quotes that especially stood out to me was "do not make a permanent decision based on a temporary situation"

Friday night was the royal banquet in which women were to get dressed up and be ready to be treated like the princesses that God has created us to be. We all looked like and felt like the princesses that we are! The men of the church were all dressed up like servers and served us so well. We had a lovely dinner and then watched a production about Esther done by the youth of the church. It was incredible - I can't even begin to tell you how talented and anointed the youth of Peace are. At the closing Pastor Samoa announced that we are going to be hosting "Daughters of the King" every 2nd year, so the next one is in 2008.