Women’s
Ministries Emphasis Day 2004
RESOURCE PACKET
“Show
Us the Savior”
Southern
Africa-Indian Ocean Division
Women’s Ministries Emphasis Day Resource Packet
Table
of Contents
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Contents |
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Introduction |
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Featured
Divisions and About the Author |
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Worship
Service Outline: “Show Us the Savior” |
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Responsive
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Children’s
Story: “A Cry in the |
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Sermon:
“Show Us the Savior: Stories for Reflection” |
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Sermon
Outline |
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In
Closing |
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Introduction
Thank you for your interest
in creating a special worship experience for Women’s Ministries Emphasis Day
2004. This Resource Packet is exactly
that – simply a resource. You can use
any or all of the suggested materials -- or do something completely
different. The packet has been designed
to encourage maximum participation of women of all ages -- from adolescents to
grandmothers. Feel free to be creative
as you adapt its contents for your own culture and congregational needs.
One
of the beauties of ministering as women of God is that we have something unique
to offer during all of the different “seasons” of our lives. I hope that you will use WM Emphasis Day as
an occasion to highlight the women’s ministries activities taking place in your
church, union or in one of the featured divisions. This could also be a terrific opportunity to
recognize and encourage women of service in your congregation.
Before
presenting this program, please consider organizing several special meetings
with the women who will be participating, both to practice and for prayer and
fellowship. This would be a time to mold
the program to any particular concerns or gifts your women may have, but most
of all to pray together -- that His name and purpose would be glorified through
this worship service.
I hope and pray that these resources will be a
blessing to you and your church!
In His Joy ~
Kimberly Baldwin Radford
kbr@radfordimages.com
PS: Please
note that where specific example materials have been enclosed (the responsive
reading, children’s story and sermon), optional
presentation ideas have been included at the end of that piece.
Featured Divisions 2004
The four church divisions
highlighted this year are:
·
North
American Division: Bermuda, Canada,
Johnston Island, Midway Islands, St. Pierre and Miquelon, United States of
America
·
Southern
Africa-Indian Ocean Division: Angola, Ascension Island, Botswana, Comoro
Islands, Kerguelen Islands, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique,
Namibia, Reunion, Sao Tome and Principe, Seychelles, South Africa, St. Helena
Island, Swaziland, Tristan da Cunha, Zambia, and Zimbabwe
·
East-Central
Africa Division: Burundi, Democratic
Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia,
Tanzania, Uganda, Zaire and Zanzibar
·
Western
Africa Division: Benin, Burkina
Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Cote d'Ivoire,
Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali,
Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo
About the Author
Kimberly Baldwin Radford is
an American who has lived abroad for most of the past 17 years. Kim and her Australian husband, Colin,
presently reside along
“Show
Us the Savior”
Call to Worship Isaiah 55:6-11
Opening Song Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal #265 “Breathe
on Me, Breath of God” ~or~ #266 “Spirit of God” (select
one)
Pastoral Prayer Please keep in
mind the special needs of women in the highlighted church divisions, your local
congregation, and Women’s Ministries in general.
Offertory Reading You choose, bearing the theme in mind.
Special Music You choose, bearing the theme in mind.
Children’s story “A Cry in the
Scripture Reading John 4: 39-42
Special Music or
Hymn You
choose, bearing the theme in mind.
(Optional hymn: Seventh-day
Adventist Hymnal #493 “Fill My Cup, Lord”)
Sermon “Show Us the Savior: Stories for Reflection”
(enclosed)
Closing Hymn Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal #321 “My Jesus, I Love Thee” ~or~ #330 “Take
My Life and Let It Be” (select one)
Closing Prayer
“By Her Example…”
Responsive
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the women we find in Your Holy Word, women whose
stories give us insight into Your character.
Please help us to learn from their examples and apply them to our daily
lives…
1)
May we
have the courage of Ruth, daughter-in-law to Naomi…
Who followed You into unknown situations, trusting that You would
provide.
2)
May we
have the fidelity of Hannah, mother of Samuel…
Who remembered the promise
made amidst her pain, and dedicated her son to Your
service.
3)
May we
have the trust and sacrificial spirit of the widow of Zarephath…
Who willingly gave the last
that she had to Elijah, both a stranger and a foreigner.
4)
May we
have the discernment of Esther, Queen of
Who recognized that You had called her “for such a time as this.”
5)
May we
have the enthusiasm of the Samaritan woman at the well…
Whose past reputation did
not deter her from telling others about Christ, the Messiah.
6)
May we
have the humility of Mary, sister to Lazarus and Martha…
Who offered a fragrant and
costly sacrifice, disregarding the scorn of those around her.
7)
May we
have the sincere faith of Lois, grandmother of Timothy…
Whose positive example
reached across generations.
Lord, thank You that You
have given us so many diverse examples, reminding us that no matter what our
circumstances, we have a unique role to play in Your
Corresponding scripture
references:
1)
Ruth 1:16, 17
2)
1 Samuel 1:27,
28
3)
1 Kings
4)
Esther 4:13, 14
5)
John 4:28-30, 39
6)
John 12:1-8
7)
2 Timothy 1:5
Responsive
This reading can be done in several ways. Here are a few options to consider:
1. Using two people: One person reads the
lines in regular print and a second person reads the sentences in bold print.
2. To involve the congregation: One person
reads the lines in regular print and the congregation joins in with the sentences
in bold print. The entire
responsive reading would need to be copied and distributed to the congregation at
the start of the service.
3. Using up to fifteen people: If you would
like to use a number of people for this reading, have a
narrator read the beginning and ending paragraphs, while different pairs
of women alternate reading the regular and bold print of each
numbered section. However, if you are
planning to involve a variety of women in the sermon, it may be best to keep
the presentation of the responsive reading simple (options 1 or 2 above, or
another variation of your choosing).
“A Cry in the
Children’s
Story
This story is from
Late one afternoon, a woman named Pascaline was
walking down a narrow trail in the forest.
In her basket was the money that she had made from selling fruit in the
market that day. The sun was beginning
to set and the forest was growing dark.
Pascaline needed to rush home to begin making rice for supper. Her baby boy, Rivo, was tied snugly to her back
with a wide cloth. He was getting fussy
because he wanted to eat, too.
As Pascaline hurried along, she was surprised to hear
footsteps behind her. Her heart began to
beat very quickly. Just last week, her
neighbor’s house had been broken into.
Was the person walking behind her a friend or a thief?
Rounding a turn in the path, Pascaline decided to
hide behind a big tree to let the person following her pass by. If it was someone that she knew, she would
come out and they could walk home together.
But if it was a stranger, Pascaline would wait many minutes so that the
person could get far ahead of her and her little boy.
Quietly Pascaline crept into the bushes at the base
of the tree. The footsteps on the path
slowed down and then stopped. She was right. Whoever was out there had been trying
to catch up to her! She held her breath
with fear and stayed very still.
But Baby Rivo did not understand that they were in
danger. All he knew was that his tummy
was very hungry and it was time for mama to feed him. Buzzing mosquitoes began to bite his tender
skin and he started to fidget and whimper.
Pascaline knew that soon he would begin to cry and her hiding place
would be found out.
Unbeknownst to Pascaline, on a branch far above her
hiding place sat a dronga (droon-ga),
a handsome bird with black shiny feathers.
He had a proud curly feather on the top of his head and his longish tail
was split like an upside-down “V.”
Drongas are not only good-looking, they’re very clever. They can sing like many different birds and
even “meow” like a cat.
The footsteps started again and as they came closer,
baby Rivo began to cry to be fed, “Waaa! Waaa!” Pascaline bounced him gently to calm him, but
nothing worked. “Waaa! Waaa!” Rivo cried,
louder and louder.
Pascaline could hear the footsteps hurrying now. She grew cold with fear and almost leapt out
from her hiding place to run away.
“Waaa, waaa!” howled baby Rivo.
“Waaa, waaa!” echoed a voice above their heads.
What was that?
Pascaline looked up. She could
barely see the bird sitting amongst the branches until she saw its black beak
move. “Waaa! Waaa!” the dronga cried again. Why, he sounded just like baby Rivo!
Pascaline didn’t know whether to laugh or cry,
too. If baby Rivo’s wailing didn’t give
away their hiding place, the noisy dronga would. Through the bushes, she saw a flash of red
shirt as a stranger came around the bend and stopped near the big tree. From where she hid, Pascaline could see the
man’s sweaty, angry face – his eyes were bloodshot and scary-looking. “Please
protect us, God!” she prayed silently in her heart.
Before she could do anything, Rivo started again,
“Waaa! Waaa!” he screamed. The dronga
answered, “Waaa! Waaa!” Pascaline froze as the man suddenly looked
around. If she tried to reach behind her
now to cover Rivo’s mouth, the moving bushes would give them both away.
The chorus continued louder and louder, first from
the bushes, then from the tree, “Waaa! Waaa!
Waaa! Waaa!” The confused man spun around and around, trying
to find where the noise was coming from.
“Waaa!
Waaa!” came an especially loud wail from the
tree above. He looked up and spied the
crying dronga.
“Oh, I don’t believe it!“ Pascaline heard the stranger mutter in
frustration. “All this time, I’ve been
following a BIRD.”
The dronga let out another loud, “Waaa!” as if to
agree. Shaking his head, the man
stumbled off down the trail, back in the direction he had come from. After several minutes, Pascaline stepped back
onto the path. She untied her hungry
baby boy and hugged him tightly to her chest.
As she continued walking, she praised God for sending a clever bird to
save her and her little son.
Did you know that we are like that dronga bird? God has given each of us our own special
voice, but it is our choice to use it for good or bad, kindness or
meanness. We can use our voice to pray
for others, or we can complain and whine.
We can sing praise songs to Jesus, or we can make fun of someone with
hurtful words that sting.
How will you choose to use YOUR voice this week?
“A Cry in
the
Children’s Story Presentation Notes
It
would be helpful to begin by showing where
The
bird in this tale is called a “crested drongo” in English (Dicrurus
forficatus),
but has several different regional names in
If
you are interested in having a visual aid of the bird, this is the best photo
of a crested drongo that I could find on the Web (the bird is much more
handsome in real life!):
http://bibliofile.mc.duke.edu/gww/Berenty/Birds/Dicrurus-forficatus/
“Show Us the Savior: Stories for Reflection”
Sermon
Text
Narrator: This year’s Women’s Ministries Emphasis Day features women from the North American Division and the three newest African Divisions -- the Southern Africa-Indian Ocean Division, the East-Central Africa Division, and the Western Africa Division. We invite you to journey with us today, reflect upon these true stories, and catch a glimpse of the lives of some of the women who live where our church ministers.
We are women who want to find meaning in all the seasons of our lives – young, middle-aged, old, single, married, with children, without children, divorced, widowed. We are women who love our families and countries – broken and imperfect as they may be. Some of us are professing Christians; some of us have not yet seen the light and love of Christ.
Will you be the one to show us the Savior?
Narrator: “Now Jesus had to go through
Oh, how I can relate to a woman who comes to draw water in the middle of the hot noonday sun, trying to avoid her neighbors who are uncomfortable and embarrassed to see her! I do the same when I go to our village pump – collect water very early or very late. Some days I send my younger son in my place, but a full bucket is hard for him to carry alone.
My name is Bernadette and I have Hansen’s disease. You haven’t heard of it? Well, it’s a nice way to say leprosy. No, no…. Please don’t back away. You can’t catch anything from me – technically, I’m cured. There’s just nothing much that can be done for my disfigured hands and missing toes. I’m sorry if they upset you.
Do I go to church? Well, occasionally. There’s a small one near our village that was built just for lepers, but it doesn’t interest me much. Sometimes I send my boys to a Saturday church, but lately things have been just too hard. My husband – he was also a leper -- died when a leg infection turned into blood poisoning. He supported us by begging, hobbling five kilometers (three miles) everyday into the center of town. He made just enough money so that we could get by, but now I have nothing. No money to send my three boys to school – they’re healthy, you know. I can’t read. I have no skills.
My daughter-in-law is 20 and wanted to work during the last harvest. Ha! In a good season, you can make four times a monthly wage in just a few weeks if you don’t mind sorting fruit all night. It seemed like a good idea, having her work and all, but her baby wasn’t weaned yet. We decided that I would take care of the baby and we would get by. But something went terribly wrong. The baby wouldn’t drink the sweetened tea or eat the gruel that I gave her…. Then she got a terrible case of diarrhea. By the time we took her to the hospital, she was too weak to suckle again and the diarrhea just wouldn’t stop. And she died. My beautiful little granddaughter died. All of the money her mother earned went for medicines, so we didn’t come out ahead at all, and we lost our lovely baby girl besides.
What did you say? Would I like to come to church this weekend? Will I be accepted, do you think? I look different. I can’t follow in the songbook or read from the Bible. Even if I could, it would be hard to turn the pages with these fingerless hands. I’d like to come…maybe. I just have all of these hungry sons to feed, you see…. Did I mention that they’re healthy boys?
Narrator: “There came a woman of
Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God and who it is that
asks you for a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you
living water.’
‘Sir,’ the woman said, ‘you have nothing to draw with and the well is
deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father
Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and
his flocks and herds?’
Jesus answered, ‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’
The woman said to him, ‘Sir,
give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to
draw water.’ He told her, ‘Go, call your husband and come back.’ ‘I have no husband,’ she replied.
Jesus said to her, ‘You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.’”
Greetings from sub-Saharan
There are many reasons that I came back:
I love my country, my husband already has an established career, my parents are here….
But one of the main reasons that I have chosen to return is because I
will be a mother soon. Congratulations,
you say? Well, I won’t be a mother of
just one, but five! No, it’s not
quintuplets! You might call these
children my inheritance. Let me
explain: I am the only girl in a family
with three boys, and two of those boys – adults, really -- are already
dead. One brother had two children, the
other had three. The children range in
age from an 18-month-old baby boy to a 6 year-old girl. They’re great kids, but I don’t mind telling
you that they will be a handful!
I sigh when I hear the story of the woman at the well. If that were happening today in my country, our Samaritan sister would not have even made it to her fifth husband or sixth “partner.” She would have been dead much sooner from a disease that has deeply touched my family and many others around the world: AIDS. Is that a word that you don’t hear much in your church? Well, we hear it in my community whether we want to or not: It’s in the wailing of the women as they march to yet another funeral for a relative or friend in his 20’s or 30’s. It’s etched on the faces of the grandparents as they struggle to raise the generation of children that was supposed to support THEM. It’s reflected by the empty desks of missing teachers, too sick to come to school. AIDS is not someone else’s problem, it is our everyday reality.
Since I have the most stable job and the
best salary, my brothers’ orphaned kids have fallen to my care. My two sisters-in-law – as many women do –
died first from the disease. My own
parents are old; my youngest brother is still in school.
So – wish me well and pray for us, please! The first two children arrive this weekend. It’s been a long time since they have seen Aunty Flora. Do I complain? No! Why should I? I have a future, and now maybe these children will, too. We are family and family helps each other. I am confident that God will be with us, but I am equally sure that there will be many rough spots along the way. I’m so grateful to have my faith to see me through, but how I wish sometimes that our brothers and sisters overseas REALLY understood what we are dealing with. We need to know that we are not alone in our struggle. After all, aren’t we all part of the same extended family of Christ?
Narrator: "’Sir,’ the woman said, ‘I can see that you are
a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the
place where we must worship is in
Jesus declared, ‘Believe me, woman, a time is coming
when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in
The woman said, ‘I know that Messiah’ called Christ
‘is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.’
Then Jesus declared, ‘I who speak to you am he.’”
Salaamalikum! Greetings from
We didn’t know anything about Adventists until our little boy Youssouf got sick one evening. There was a man visiting our neighbor and he offered to show us how to use charcoal and a simple solution made from salt, sugar and water to treat our son. We accepted his kind assistance. After examining Youssouf, the man asked if he could also pray for him and we said, “Yes.”
The next morning Youssouf was feeling much
better. I asked the neighbor’s wife who
the helpful stranger was. She laughed
and said that it was some Adventist – a type of Christian -- who bought things
at her husband’s store whenever he passed through that district. My friend said the Adventist liked her
husband’s products because he knew that nothing sold in the shop had pig meat
or lard in it.
I couldn’t believe it! A Christian concerned about not eating
pork? When I told my husband, he was
also surprised. In fact, I don’t think
that my husband believed me because he also began to question our neighbor
about the stranger’s beliefs. Then the
story became even more complicated: Not only did the man not eat pork, he
didn’t drink alcohol AND he worshipped on Saturday.
It was many weeks before we saw the stranger
again. When my husband met the man at
the village market, he invited him to our home for a meal so that we could
thank him for his past kindness. The
stranger graciously accepted and arrived that evening. Imagine my surprise to hear that the
stranger’s name was Abdul Karim, “Servant of God.” Here was a Christian man with an Arabic name
who had not abandoned all of our traditional ways.
Over supper, Abdul told my husband that his wife
would soon be teaching a five-day course on the prevention and care of simple
diseases. The class was to be held in
our local school building, which was available because of the school
holidays. Would I like to attend? I was very pleased that my husband had no
objections.
So, here I am. It’s day three of the class and I am learning so much – not just about creating a healthy lifestyle for my family, but by watching this gentle Adventist woman. Fatou used to be Muslim and continues to wears a head covering. She doesn’t try to preach to us, but when she talks about the great healer and prophet, Jesus, she respectfully uses his name from the holy Koran: Isa al Masih. She must be very confident in her faith because she told our class that she has destroyed all of the charms and amulets that her children used to wear to protect them from the evil spirits we have been brought up to believe in.
I am very curious about my new friend, but I will
watch and wait. And maybe I will ask a
few questions.
Narrator: “Just
then His disciples returned and were surprised to find Him talking with a
woman. But no one asked, ‘What do you want?’ or ‘Why are you talking with her?’
Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to
the town and said to the people, ‘Come, see a man who told me everything I ever
did. Could this be the Christ?’”
Who am I and where do I come from? I live in
I am the poor neighbor who cannot afford
decent shoes or Sabbath-only clothing. I
am the wife whose husband has left under questionable circumstances; the
daughter who has embarrassed her parents.
I am the one who struggles with alcohol.
Who has been abused. Who has had an abortion. Who has been in prison.
Does my presence make you
uncomfortable? Maybe judging me reminds
you of the log in your own eye. All I
want is for you to get to know me. To see me as a person and not a category of “them” -- an “outsider”
to your inner circle. Who
knows? We might even end up as
friends.
Think
of me as your own personal encounter with the “woman at the well.” Jesus, a man – and not just any man, but the
Son of God -- took the time to stop and talk to ME: a woman of questionable
reputation from a different nationality, different race, different
religious beliefs. Why, just drinking
from my water jar was grounds for being declared unclean! Yet Jesus looked beyond all of that to start
a conversation about what was most familiar to me – wells, drawing water, my
Samaritan history. He used the everyday
in my life to explain to me what He had to give – eternal life. He didn’t attack the differences in our
doctrinal beliefs; didn’t ridicule me for my promiscuous lifestyle. He didn’t turn away from me when His
disciples arrived -- men who were embarrassed that their beloved teacher was
talking to a woman and a Samaritan one at that!
Christ
looked into my heart and saw that I had more to offer His work than a mere jug
of well water. By treating me as someone
worthy of attention, he got MY attention and my life has never been the same
since. Listen to what happened next:
Narrator:
”Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to
the town and said to the people, ‘Come, see a man who told me everything I ever
did. Could this be the Christ?’ They
came out of the town and made their way toward him…. Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in Him because of the woman's
testimony, ‘He told me everything I ever did.’
Do you not say, `Four
months more and then the harvest'? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the
fields! They are ripe for harvest.’”
“Samaritan” Woman Alone or
All Four Women in Chorus:
Will you be the one
to show us the Savior?
______________________________________________________________________
Sermon Presentation
Notes
·
Headings and
scripture references are for outline purposes only and are not intended to be
read aloud.
·
The sermon was
designed to include five women: a narrator and four “speakers.”
·
Clothing
suggestions have been added within if the speakers would like to try and dress
somewhat appropriately for the region of the women they represent.
·
As noted in the
introduction, these vignettes are true, although identifying details have been
changed. The Muslim woman is a
compilation of several stories from
·
Practice makes
perfect! The sermon will flow much
better if all of the presenters have had the chance to practice together and if
each woman is very familiar with “her” personal story.
“Show Us the Savior: Stories for Reflection”
Sermon Outline