More than 80 women gathered together in Canada recently for the ALIVE women’s conference. Hosted by Wesleyan Women’s Movement, ALIVE was held Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, two weeks after the flagship event was held in Nashville, Tenn. Women from churches in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia attended the event.
Band, Deep Water, led worship and participants heard from keynote speakers from the ALIVE Nashville event, via recorded simulcasts: Dr. Jo Anne Lyon, General Superintendent of The Wesleyan Church; Bianca Olthoff, writer, teacher, and chief storyteller for The A21 Campaign, an anti-human trafficking organization; and Jo Saxton, director of 3DM, a movement/organization with a vision and passion to change the world by putting discipleship and mission back into the hands of ordinary people.
Robin Churchill, a recent, retired member of the Royal Canadian Mountain Police (RCMP) and a member of a Wesleyan church, was interviewed about human trafficking, an important component of the conference since Halifax is a “seeding ground” for the atrocity. A follow-up, informative human trafficking awareness event was held days later at a local Wesleyan church. RCMP officers formed a panel and the public was invited to attend in order to ask questions and learn more about human trafficking. The following Thursday, a gathering was held with other RCMP officers and officials who are working in combatting human trafficking. The purpose of the event was to provide further awareness and education about human trafficking. Fifty people attended the event.
“At ALIVE it was so encouraging to be with many other Wesleyan women,” said Pastor Sharon Guptill. “My favorite parts to the weekend were the ALIVE stories–real people sharing their lives with us. It was moving, and the speakers were very motivating.
Pastor Marilyn Mansvelt of Hammonds Plains Cornerstone Wesleyan Church (Nova Scotia), Amanda Oicle of Halifax Deep Water Wesleyan Church (Nova Scotia), and Pastor Sharon Guptill of Dartmouth Hillside Wesleyan Church (Nova Scotia) all led the event.
