They came by bus, train or ferry " some even flew across the country " but the 3,000 women who journeyed to the Equip conference at Darling Harbour on Saturday were there to hear home-grown speakers tell hard truths from the Bible about what it means to live a life of faith.
This simple strategy of women preaching to women is proving a winning formula for a group of Sydney evangelists.
"The talks were hard hitting and a definite nudge of out my comfort zone," says Nicki Powell, who travelled from Queenscliff on Sydney's Northern Beaches to attend the evening session.
"Faith without deeds is dead " we can say with our mouth we have faith but if it is not accompanied by actions it is useless."
For the past two years the Equip conference (formerly the Young Evangelical Women's Conference)) now in its eighth year, has worked through the New Testament book of James.
Held at the Sydney Convention Centre, the conference is popular with Christians and church groups keen to strengthen their Bible knowledge and build friendships.
It is organised by a group of Sydney women and administered by the Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students.
Organiser Louise Keun says the model of "women teaching women straight from the Bible' is attractive to evangelical women.
While mainly from Sydney, attendees also travelled from the ACT, Queensland, Tasmania and Western Australia.
"There's nothing else like it interstate," Mrs Keun says. "There is a stack of room for growth."
Fellow organiser Isobel Lin says the central, modern environs of the Convention Centre mean it is a welcoming location for women to bring their friends who are not Christian.
"A lot of people bring their friends who are not Christian or nominally so," she says.
"We've been lucky to go there."
For the first time, the conference was divided into two " "daylight' and "twilight' to manage the numbers and provide more options for the attendees.
One hundred ushers were needed to manage the large numbers.
Men trained in being godly
Having recognised that thousands of women descend on the city for Equip each year, St Andrew's Cathedral held a men's conference called Train to run alongside the women's event.
Up to 250 men attended the inaugural conference to hear Sydney author and evangelist John Chapman on the theme of "training in being godly'.
Organiser Andrew Lim, pastor of the Cathedral's Asian Bible Church, says the conference aimed to give the "nuts and bolts' of what it means to be an effective Christian man.
"We want to inspire and encourage Christian men to be godly and plant the seeds of men's ministry in their local churches," Mr Lim says.
Along with encouragement for men to read their Bibles and witness to their friends, prayer was an important part of the day.
"As men there is a worldly pressure to be independent and self-sufficient. We want to reinforce our dependence on God," Mr Lim says.
Equip 2007 will be held on Saturday May 12. Claire Smith's series of six Equip talks on women in the Bible " Different By Design " is available from Matthias Media for $30 ($18 for MP3). Visit [url=http://www.matthiasmedia.com.au]http://www.matthiasmedia.com.au[/url]
The date is still to be set for Train 2007. Visit [url=http://www.cathedral.sydney.anglican.asn.au]http://www.cathedral.sydney.anglican.asn.au[/url] for more events at St Andrew's Cathedral.
