Jackie Euvrard and Portia Mosia were recently invited to Ventersdorp, a town two hour's drive east of Johannesburg. Invited to accompany them was Brenda Maluleke, a social auxiliary working for the Social Development department in Johannesburg. Brenda was a participant in the Peace Circle workshop at Sunshine Centre last year, an organisation for disabled children.

The occasion in Ventersdorp was a women’s conference, organised by the Soul Sisters. The name came from the group of women who attended a Peace Circle in Tshing, a township adjacent to the town of Ventersdorp. Jackie and Portia report:

'The theme of the conference was Prayer. The purpose of the conference was to see how the women of Tshing and Ventersdorp can work together. Churches from Tshing and Ventersdorp were invited to participate. Among the ladies were traffic officers and police who are part of the Soul Sisters group. In all 100 women attended of which 11 came from the white community, eight of those from the Moederkerk in the town.

'We were asked to address three areas in what we said when we spoke – these were Prayer, Art of Listening and the Power of Forgiveness. Brenda emphasized that as a Christian she had never noticed she had an unforgiving heart until she was given a chance to look honestly into her heart during the Peace Circle's workshop she had attended. She had then realized she still hated her father for not being there for the family. She decided to forgive her father and allow God in prayer to speak to her. She felt her step to forgive opened God’s blessings in her life.

'Portia was able to take the topics further by sharing her traumatic experience bringing in the power of forgiveness, the importance of listening and two- way prayer. It made others realize that forgiveness is more about setting themselves free than it is about the other person. That gave hope to some and something to think about for others.

'We then moved to the Art of Listening. We had divided people into groups. We asked questions - some personal and others had to be answered by the whole group. One of the group questions was: What is the common bridge that can bring both communities together? Followed by a personal question: What needs to change in me to make it happen? Groups had to write their answers on the flip chart paper and give feedback. There were some interesting answers. We believe it stirred people's thinking.

'The master of ceremony mentioned a number of times that Peace Circles came as a seed that grew amongst them. It enabled them to see that with all the challenges they face in Ventersdorp they can’t just sit and do nothing. They need to stand up and make a difference. The workshop helped strengthen the relationships beetween themselves.

'Portia expressed how it had humbled her to stand there and look at what God has done in Ventersdorp. We feel this is a good start and all we can do is pray for the participants and support their initiatives. We are hoping that out of this conference more workshops and more dialogues will be established.' Since then an article about the conference has appeared in the local newspaper, Ventersdorp News.