The Gelatinous Blue Moon Scoop : Equip Women Conference 2013- Women Meeting Jesus

I could not believe myself that I did not have the urge of waking up on a cold Saturday morning. I set an alarm but then I kept on snoozing it until it was 7-ish. There is an annual women conference today in the city and we could not afford to be late.

Took a shower and this was probably the first time I shivered in coldness endlessly. Winter is just around the corner and I have no clue what I would be like during then. Ate a quick breakfast of muesli and greek yogurt and the three of us left the house to the bus stop. And city, here we come.

In the bus, met up with the Maroubians (just learned a new term from Ci Icing in which all the people living in Maroubra are called that) while us (I'm not sure if I am counted as well, wait, I think I do, along with Ci Icing and Cim) are called the Kensingtors.. Met Sapi, Ci[Fefe, Hilda, Copin, Yenli, Tika, Grid, Lily, Fen2] and I think that's it. Not sure if I am missing someone else.

Waited for Ci Frida too and together met up with the others at Starbucks, Darling Harbor.

After a while, we went inside the convention center of Equip Women Conference. This year's title is about Women Meeting Jesus.

convention centre bayside with ci tika and ci copin's back..

had to print out these tickets from the email we received.


people were just arriving. the conference hasn't started yet

The conference was divided into about 3 sessions. There were a total of five talks and one elective. So for the first session there were 3 talks brought by 3 different speakers. Then, morning tea. Followed by another 2 talks and an elective (Following Jesus, Serving Jesus and Questioning Jesus) with a lunch break in between.

I picked Following Jesus as my elective. And I would tell more about it later on in this post.

Let's glance through the talks!

As the title is about Women Meeting Jesus, we looked through all the women biblical characters that met Jesus.

Talk one was presented by Lisa Thompson. The first woman encountering Jesus was Mary (Luke 1:26-55). Yes, virgin Mary who gave birth to an extraordinary son, Jesus Christ, the saviour of mankind. The speaker illustrated Mary's lives like a bunch of flipping photos in a photo album. Where there is a loss, there is a gain. Likewise, Mary had her ups and downs of being a mother. Mary's loss includes that a sword will pierce Mary's heart, she struggles to keep being reminded that her son is also the Son of God and death of Jesus. However, coming to her gain, Mary is rejoice of Jesus's ascension, she used to be delighted of being the mother of God but now she is delighted to be the child of God.

Talk two was brought by Kelly Landrigan. The second woman was a sinful woman where she came to a Pharisee's house where Jesus was dining (Luke 7:36-50). She brought an alabaster jar of perfume with her and started to wet Jesus' feet with her tears, wiped them with her hair and kissed them, and poured the perfume on them (Luke 7:38). The sinful woman knew very well of her unrighteous state for she had sinned too many. However, this woman knew that her sins could be forgiven through Jesus just before His crucifixion. As we are all sinners, we should therefore be like this woman to treat God extravagantly and kneel before him for him to forgive our sins.

Talk three was brought by Annabel Nixey. The third woman was a sick woman (Luke 8:40-56). She had suffered bleeding for 12 years and no one could heal her. But then, she touched Jesus's cloak, her bleeding immediately stopped. On the contrary, Jesus suddenly shouted "who touched me" while walking in the crowd. Everyone was in fact touching him as it was really crowded. However, this cornered the woman out and she confessed why she had touched him. Jesus told her that it was not by the power released when someone touched him or something, but her faith has healed her. It was not the touch that healed her but her faith in Jesus.

We sang a couple of songs before break. What I find interesting about the surrounding that day was that even the deaf were singing along using sign languages. That literally moved my heart. I almost shed a tear but then I held it in. I was actually motivated to sing even more though.

Then there was morning tea! A bit shocked with the portion size though but it was all good. I was stuffed with the snacks provided!

Yes, like any other posts, I would usually mention all the names here. But let's play a game.. Time to guess.. Put down the answers down in the comment section below. The winner gets the prize of something really great and extremely special that is me congratulating you via a reply comment. HUAHAHAHA *EVIL LAUGH*, But seriously, guess the names.. -_-.. although i guess most probably would already know the name and when i see the comments below, they'll be no one answering the trivia i'm giving now.

morning tea!

Talk four presented by Anna Moss about Martha and Mary (Luke 10:38-42). Martha was trying so hard to serve but she got all the point of serving all wrong. There was a problem in her heart. Her rage immersing under the surface. She even told Jesus what to do, "Lord, don't you care..". Her serving stopped her from listening to Jesus. It is easy to give what we want to give for others. Most of the times, we want to show and give our abilities to Jesus. But Jesus does not want that. He only wants us to be needy of him. He wants us to open up ourselves to God. We should urge ourselves to stop being busy and listen to Jesus. Beside, Jesus comes to the world not to be served but to serve (Matthew 20:28). Likewise, while he was dining in Martha and Mary's abode, he was trying to give out the good portion of life that is salvation.

Talk five brought by Carmelina Read about the resurrection women. It is our duty to worship and praise God. We cannot be called anything other than we are. Jesus is worth living for and dying for.

After the last talk, there was a lunch break. Ci Fen2, Cim and I went to take a look at the bookshop. Cim and I bought three books: Lost, Truth and Sex is not a problem but lust is. Then we went to buy lunch. This moment, we were separated from the other girls. But then we met one another up again while eating our lunch.

Stopped by at a Photobooth too.

Photo Booth

Bought lunch!

lunch! kebab!

bon apetit aka afiyet olsun (in Turkish)

Cim's ricotta with spinach.

Subsequently, we returned for the elective we had chosen! I chose Following Jesus. And the elective was a little bit like a talk show involving six different women sharing how they follow Jesus. It was merely a great inspiration and motivation for all of us. They love Jesus so much that they are ready to sacrifice everything to serve Him.

After the conference of 2013 was over, took some more photos in the Photo Booth and then me, Cim, Ci Tika and Kriska decided to go back home. Well, we decided to make a quick stop at a macaroon shop called the Blackflower located near Chinatown to redeem the free macaroon coupon I got during orientation week.

ibises are everywhere in sydney. And it appears that these birds are actually taken care by the government. You can see that each bird has a green tag wrapped on one of its feet.

super cool street musician.

I chose the Thai milk tea flavored macaroon! It was really delicious. Cut it equally into quarters and shared it with Ci Tika, Kriska and Cim. Should have taken a photo of it. grr.. How I regret it.

blackflower! kyaa. adorable little burger and watermelon macaroons.

LOL Thainatown instead of Chinatown. How creative

Walked to the bus stop. I have got skin peeling off from the shoes I was wearing. There were blisters everywhere but I managed to survive. While waiting for the bus stop, I talked with Kriska about animation videos! Super fun. I thought me and Vivi were the only ones watching animation videos on youtube. We are not alone.. LOL.

Went back to Ci Icing's place. Read a book that Ko Sui and Ci Grid lent us. It's called God's Big Picture. Read it together with Cim. We read aloud this time to avoid being sleepy and dozing off. We should hurry in finishing the book as Ko Sui and Ci Grid were getting ready to pack up, as they're leaving to Indonesia for good.. TT_TT.. I have only known them for like 11 weeks. And now, they are leaving.

Oh yeah, ate some porridge cooked by Ko Jeffry! Delicious! Then after reading, we went to have dessert outing to Bondi to Max Brenner! Chocolate galore!