Conference highlights family values, role of women

By JIMMY KALEBE
A WEEK-LONG women’s conference at Our Saviour Lutheran Parish at Bumbu in Lae last week focused on family values and the role of women in the family.
The conference involved more than 200 women from local villages and urban areas in Lae.
It was on understanding the needs and wants in the family and areas of responsibility that women had.
The local women were joined by six missionaries from PNG Bible Translation Association and Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship based in Dallas, Texas, USA.
The missionaries were in the country to help local women know and appreciate their place in the family and to teach what the bible said about roles and responsibilities.
Our Saviour Lutheran Church women’s ministry leader Bernadine Seegar said families faced problems and sometimes it was because women were not careful in what they said or did.
“Many fathers abandoned the mother and the children because how we say and do things at home is not to that standard,” Seegar said.
“When the mother and the father do not know about the call that God himself made for us to be responsible, it boils down to our children and their future and that is where problems start,” she said.
Segar said the Government was putting so much into fighting crimes but the origin of problems started in the family level where the mother and father were responsible for the upbringing of their children.
The conference provided a forum where mothers could share their experiences and discuss their solutions. Estella Trostle from the PNG Bible Translation Association said women were taken through topics such as forgiveness, reconciliation, conflict resolution and who they were “in Christ”.
“The conferences encouraged the women to discuss what they hear in church and share that with family members,” Trostle said.
Another women leader Martha Saleeie, while sharing the same sentiments, said many times what
was heard in the churches was never translated to the family at homes.
“We hear of the Good News only in the church and once we walk out of the church it is all gone,” Saleeie said.