Women in crusade

Women from across the Caribbean, United States and Jamaica, gathered at the Hilton Kingston Hotel for Word Alive 2001, a women’s conference which is part of the Fourth Annual Word Alive Crusade Tour.

The conference with its team, Global Women in Pursuit of Destiny was held October 18-20 at the Hilton Kingston Hotel and Church on the Rock, and was hosted by Daughters of Rizpah (New York) The Call Foundation (Jamaica) and Greater Mount Calvary Holy Church (Washington DC).

Daughters of Rizpah is a non-profit organisation with noted singer/songwriter Rev Jackie McCullough as its founder and Executive Director. McCullough through Daughters of Rizpah has, for the last five years, hosted the Word Alive Crusade, a humanitarian effort in which over $1 million in food, medicine and clothing have been donated to people of Jamaica’s inner city.

The Call foundation is of a similar thrust, but instead of hand outs to the needy has sought to establish and foster empowerment to economically-challenged communities, especially women, to develop sustainable livelihoods.

The conference was co-hosted by the Greater Mount Calvary Holy Church, through the church’s co-pastor Susie Owens. Greater Mount Calvary is located in Washington DC and has an adult membership of over 6,000.

The first day of the seminar was, according to many participants, simply awesome. Several delegates from the United States told All Woman that they thoroughly enjoyed the sessions and learned a lot from the presenters.

Friday morning’s sessions were hosted by the Call foundation’s chairperson, Bevon Morrison to an all-female packed Grand Independence Ballroom at Hilton Kingston. Her topic was, The 21st Century woman in Pursuit of Destiny.

Bevon who worships at the Church on the Rock, is also executive director of Recycle for Life, and sits on many committees directly relating to environmental issues. She is former environmental advisor to the Ministry of Mining and Energy, technical advisor to the NWC and former Chairperson of the NRCA’s air quality standards committee among others.

It was while doing work for the Organisation of American States (OAS) on the role of Science and Technology in Poverty Eradication with special emphasis on Trinidad, Mexico and Jamaica that she came face to face with real poverty.

However, during her research, she found that women in poor communities in all of the countries studied, could change and shape the future by developing sustainable projects to improve their standards of living.

Thinking that she could assist some of the women in her own backyard, Bevon formed the Call Foundation, ‘because’, she said women can change the face of their destiny.

In addressing the conference, Bevon defined destiny as the future marked out for a person. She told the women that in order to achieve their destiny, they had to look past their circumstances, to see what their destiny is and to strive to achieve it.

Women, she said will have to look past the batters and bruises, to look at their situation and say, “this can’t be it!” Quoting from the a song “battered and broken, yet still I rise.” She continued, “You must be able to say, I can defy the odds, I must achieve this destiny that is set out for me. Destiny is larger than the imagination she said, however, in order to achieve this destiny, there are four things that you must have,” she said, “vision, courage, wisdom and determination”.

“It takes vision to see that path that is set out for you, courage to pursue it and determination to finish it. Wisdom is also important she said, as with good understanding and the right strategy we will fulfill our destiny,”

She told the gathering of women that they have to invest in their families as that is the only way they can change their families, communities and by extension their countries. She entreated the mother and sisters to invest in their sons and brothers as they were very powerful agents of change. Shattered and broken, yet still I rise to change my painful circumstances, is the watch word she encouraged them to adopt.

“Defy the odds” she entreated, “save your families, save your communities, save your nation. This is the time for the 21st century woman, there are now more opportunities available to you, embrace them, but do not be distracted, keep focussed,” she said.

Other presenter at the Women’s conference included Pastor Susie Owens who spoke on Women and their identity. There were also several break-out workshops which ran concurrently exploring the themes Bruised but not broken (Can you be bruised by the pain of divorce or abuse and still remain whole? Where should a woman minister? Women and their Health, Prosperity/Poverty – Two sides of the same coin. Bruised but not broken, Dealing with Crime and Violence in Communities and Women and their Spirituality.