Women’s conference: What are you chasing after?

The first day of the women’s conference hosted by Northrise University was one with an atmosphere of prayer and anticipation. This is something that was evident before the meeting began as the women joined hands in prayer, preparing for the meeting’s commencement. The meeting started off with praise and worship by a praise team comprised of Northrise University students and women. The praise team led by Mrs. Nshindano sang angelically as the women in attendance settled down in readiness for the conference.

The environment was filled with joyful noise as the praise team invited the women to stand as they began the praise and worship session. Later the assembly was led into prayer in preparation for the second segment of the meeting.

After the praise and worship session, Mrs. Zimba, one of the University’s founders was called to give her welcoming remarks to address the assembly of amazing women present at the conference. “I suppose we all know that today’s theme is centered on answering the question; what are you chasing after? Our aim is to tackle the issue of idolatry as we are often found to be chasing after a lot of things,” was how she put the theme whilst enlightening the assembly on the direction of the conference. She later mentioned that one of the speakers would give a holistic definition of idol worshiping that would change their lives. She later mentioned that another speaker would talk about the lies that the enemy uses to deceive people into worshiping idols and how to live a life free of idol worshiping.

She later introduced the first speaker Debbie Stroupe, a friend of Northrise, as she urged the congregation to be receptive to the word, making emphasis on how this was not about the speaker but the word that was to be received. She introduced the topic with a portion of scripture from Exodus 20:3, “You shall have no other gods before me”. She later emphasized on how God is the only great God. Debbie Stroupe also pointed out a few things that most women hold close to their hearts that tend to become more important to them than God, some of which are relationships, family, career and many other things.

It’s amazing how idolatry can be mistaken for worshiping hand crafted images. Idolatry is anything that we deem more important than God. This Conference was truly a blessing because it was an eye opening experience to how easy one can become an idol worshiper if they lose sight of the glory of God.