“I’ll trade these ashes in for beauty. And wear forgiveness like a crown- Coming to kiss the feet of Jesus. I lay every burden down at the foot of the cross.” –Don Moen
The Place:
We left Jackie’s house at 5am -> due to the road conditions it took about ten hours to arrive in the village of Patauke
I suppose Petauke was a fairly normal village. The men had regular wild boar hunts and the women provided food in large barrels over the fires. Town was a good hour away in any direction and toilet paper was a foreign concept. Of course there was always the “high.cobra.alerts” or the “wild.dog.warnings” but, what village doesn’t have that?!
It was a quaint little place.
The People:
The best part about the village was of course the people. They’re not your everyday “nine.to.five folks.” Nope, they’re your sun-up-to-sun-down workers, and they only have to call it quits at sundown because that’s about when they run out of firewood. In the most respectable way I can describe it, the women in the village had the most spectacular, lumberjack.ish hands I have ever seen. They would lift these burning hot, iron pots to move them off the fires and not even be phased by the temperatures. They were fantastic women.
These women that cooked and prepared everything for us were also the women who participated in our seminars.
The Process:
The Beauty from Ashes project started in Swaziland with a group of AIM missionaries (Adventures in Missions) who felt burdened by the lack of value and worth shown to women in that culture. Ever since, the retreat has taken flight. Beauty from Ashes is geared towards allowing women to share their story and find healing from past pains and a deeper relationship with Christ through vulnerability. Beauty from Ashes has been held in countries around the world. So, when Pastor asked my World Race team to host a woman’s retreat, the first thing I thought was, “ohhhh yeah! We are bringing Beauty from Ashes to Petauke, Zambia!” …and we did just that!
We held sessions with about 25-30 women ranging from 13-80 years old. We started each day with a message about various topics pertaining to our testimonies. Then in the afternoon we shared our testimonies and allowed the women to see how we have walked though hardships so they could really relate to us. Then we held breakout sessions so the women could have more of an opportunity to share and be personal in smaller groups.
I suppose you’re thinking what we thought at first- what could six, 18-25 year old women have to say that could possibly relate to these village women? But, we learned quickly how much we actually have in common. You see, maybe I’ve never lost a relative to malaria… but, I have lost a relative… maybe I’ve never starved… but, I know hopelessness. I know depression. I know heartache. And at the root of each one our stories whether village woman or American, we all found pain. And pain is pain.
So, as we shared our stories we also shared how God was in the midst of the trial, fighting on our behalf and waiting for us to walk in His victory. Some of the women needed prayer because sharing what they experienced was difficult or embarrassing. You see, society never deemed them as important so they were abused or mistreated and that was the cultural norm, but through sharing their stories they realized quickly they were not alone. We were also able to share how God views His daughters. We shared about how abuse and prostitution were not what He has for them and they are not normality’s.
At the end of the retreat we had a fire and allowed women to throw in pieces of paper with lies they believed about themselves. They were now willing to walk in the new truths that God gave to them through His word. To signify their new walk and their restored beauty through Christ, we finished by washing their feet. As the ashes fell from the fire behind us, and we washed their feet, the woman sang a beautiful song in their language.
The Prayer:
-thank you for praying
-during the retreat I was pretty sick. I had parasites and worms of sorts, and an ear infection plus a cold! But God gave me the energy to persevere daily! Thank you for praying for health and please continue to pray for healthy and safety daily
-pray for our team and unity
-please pray for Daisy, Maureen, Rita, Mercy, Matilda, Ann, Nary, and Freeda ; women who were in our seminars
