The 2010 Annual Conference of the Lebombo Mothers Union

22 September 2010 – Arrival of the Delegates and Evening Prayer.

On 23 September, 2010, the day began with a celebration of the Eucharistic service, attended by 585 participants, and led by Bishop Dinis. Most of the participants were Mothers Union members and clergy who are chaplains (Fr. Gregorio, Fr. Germano, Fr. Francisco Manave and Fr. Elias Muholove. At the end of the service, Mrs. President, Leonor Zacarias conveyed the welcoming words, after which, followed the biblical reflection, based on the image Esther, who was advised to live a simple life. Through Esther, we learnt about listening to God, when speaking to us, and react accordingly. Esther is one of the books where it is not mentioned the word God or Jehovah but it is  contained a great message of a courageous woman, Esther, who like the theme of the current year, “the mother indicating  the tree of life to the whole  family”, she indicated to the Jews the discipline of fasting and prayer.

Mrs. President explained the theme year, which was based on the following readings: Psalm 1, Ezekiel  47:12, Revelation 22:2, whose motivation is to bring about reconciliation in families, allowing them to bear which can last, and provide food for the whole family, like a tree which lies in the bank of  stream. The elder women sang a song based on the theme. Before we heard activity reports from the archdeaconries. At the end of the day the number of participant increased to 680.

On 24 September 2010, there was a debate on the meaning of the strike for a Christian. How should the Christian respond to such situations, where young people appeared to be taking active participation on riots which took place between 1 and 2 of September 2010. This topic was facilitated by Fr. Juliao Mutemba. The discussion created a space for people to tell their stories concerning the topic. After that part, followed another topic on the Uterus, Breast cancer, and Menopause, facilitated by Dr. Elias Wale, a gynaecologist in the Central Hospital, and member of our church. He explained to us how we could read the symptoms of such diseases and ways to prevent or treat, while in initial stage, as well as learning to diagnose ourselves. Then it was the questioning and answering on the topic.

The other discussion topic was the failure of the cerebral and heart system, mostly called thrombosis or scattering of blood. The facilitation team was composed by Mrs. Margarida Buque and Mrs. Isabel Mabumo, both retired nurses. They reminded us that us that those who have high blood pressure have big risk of getting this accident. It was explained how to identify, the symptoms, prevent, and follow-up treatment. These talks are important especially for the rural women, who have weaker access to hospital consultations.

The Archdeacon and Chaplain of the MU in Maputo, Ven. Elias Muholove, led a talk on the marriage sacrament. The essence of this was to encourage families to help young people to value, and give priority to church marriage, rather than marrying in the civil alone, as most people do.

On 25 September 2010, a mass requiem was held in memory the MU members who died between conference to conference.

At the end of the service, it was given time for the ALMA Link Officer to talk on meaning of ALMA Partnership, starting by explain what it means, how it started, what we do, how to become members or how to support, and so on.

In such talk we did about exchange of information and visits, about financial support to specific projects, parishes and school twinning, and all issues of mutual benefit.

While, then, the Bishop introduced the topic on “family as the factory of Peace” or “Family as the field of Peace” within the perception that in our family we have to promote culture of peace, so that, our children or young people can convey the message of peace to our neighbours and society at large.

To mark the event, it was launched a guide to Mothers Union Prayers, to be used in the MU meetings. Then followed elections, where the Vice Presidente, Mrs Hortencia Samuel was replaced by Mrs Graça from Inhambane, and Mrs Leonor Zacarias was re-nominated to the second term of the MU mandate, as the President.

On Sunday I did not attended the closing service because I had to attend the patronal festival of St. Michael and all Angels in Marracuene.