United Reformed Church hosts women’s conference

The executive members of the womens conference, are pictured, from left, Carmen Wessels, Marion Bouah, Lynette Roelfse, a member of the church synod, Winifred Engel, chairperson of the womens conference, Reverend Randall Wessels, Delia Roux, Denise De Koker and Barryan Ludick. Picture: Roshan Abrahams

The Uniting Reformed Church (URC) in Wynberg hosted its annual Christian Women’s Conference, on Saturday April
13.

This URC Wynberg Church recently commemorated its 138th anniversary, and has a rich history, which predates the “old apartheid era”.

About 200 women met with guest speakers who shared the new approach to more integration and topical issues.

The URC Women’s Ministry comprises of women from the eight congregations within the Cape Metropolitan area, including Wynberg, Grassy Park, Retreat, Parkwood, Lotus River, Retreat, Lavender Hill, and Noordhoek.

The purpose of the URC is to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ, provide hope in the community and create greater opportunities for women to seek
their God-given potential though support, programmes, advocacy
and mentorship to other women (and men if needed), among
others.

The Wynberg congregation has been hosting this conference for the past eight years.

Reverend Randall Wessels, who celebrated his fifth year at the church, said he was involved in many community projects as a counsellor. He networked with Badisa in Wynberg, a designated child protection organisation, and he also does outreach programmes such as, feeding
the homeless in the streets of Wynberg.

Reverend Wessels said the biggest challenge they face is poverty with other social ills such as drug abuse also rife. “We do refer them (substance abusers) to rehabilitation centres.”

Lynette Roelfse, had a brainstorming session with the women about possible projects to empower womenandcreateemployment. “We give them guidelines and then discuss the needs
in the community,” said Ms
Roelfse.

The conference also included discussions about housing and general concerns with the focus on the elderly and how to teach them to use technology such as computers and phones.