GC Women's Ministries Newsletter                                       January 2000

Editorial. . .Ardis Stenbakken Director, General Conference Womens Ministries
Fabulous, Extraordinary, Caring, Astonishing, Creative, Remarkable Adventist Women!

One of the nicest things about my job is being able to meet so many wonderful women. And our church does have a marvelous number of very talented women. I am so glad that their talents and contributions are beginning to be used to a great extent. But we are only beginning.

Another wonderful aspect of my work is hearing and receiving reports of what is happening at the local level. There is such a variety of innovative programs that are really meeting needs.

When I was in South Africa recently I listened to awesome reports of women doing all sorts of outreach: prison ministries, public evangelism in Lesoto, blankets for AIDS babies, writing, preaching, training and sharing.

I attended the Southern Union's Administrative Meetings (NAD) in November. The eight Conference directors reported on a fabulous array of activities: prayer breakfasts, weeks of prayer, Heart Call, nursing home visits, prayer chains, tea parties, street clean up, pastor/teacher appreciation days, ladies' Sabbath School classes, ladies' night out, divorce care, camp meeting programs (in one conference the women have a whole day!), mother-daughter banquets, Welcome Baby, training workshops the list just goes on and on.

Ann Pendleton, the Union WM Director wrote me that after I left these leaders gave reports to the union and conference officers. She said, "You might have thought the directors had just finished a course in public speaking. I was impressed and so were the presidents." Praise the Lord!

This week's mail also brought encouraging news from Southern Asia. At the year end meetings, Hepzibah Kore reported on training programs, 34 different projects, scholarships, a new newsletter, resource materials, and a wonderful variety of individual stories of ladies who are making a difference carrying out Bible studies and prayer projects. All this led to 544 baptisms.

From Sudan comes a report that 27 Women's Ministries leaders from the great Khartoum area graduated in November from a 20 hour leadership course. Topics covered everything from what Women's Ministries is to leadership skills, public speaking, critical issues facing women and nurture, and outreach.

I gather several lessons from these women:

First, programs like this do not happen without planning. In Khartoum they plan for 150 baptisms in the next five years. I believe they will exceed that!

Secondly, these are ordinary women. But through God's grace they are doing extraordinary things. Every church is full of women just like this. It is up to Women's Ministries to help these women find their gifts and to help create paths for them to be able to use their God's given abilities.

Third, we need to share the good news in our churches, in our conferences, in our union and division papers. We must let the world know that Women's Ministries has made a difference and will make an even greater impact as the new century begins. Jesus is coming soon. A world awaits. Women can and do make a difference. What fabulous women in Christ!

cont. News from the World of . . .

South Pacific Division: Two Adventist women are involved in a joint church domestic violence prevention project in New South Wales. Bronwyn Reid and Ann Campbell have joined with women from seven other denominations to conduct workshops. "The church has been slow to address domestic violence," says Reid, "yet violence is almost as prevalent in our churches as it is in the community."

The first live satellite uplink in SPD featured Women's Ministries and included a presentation by Lynnetta Hamstra, GCWM Associate Director, who was on itinerary in that division. The program coordinator, Ray Coombe said the program was "a professionally produced program that went without any hitches."

Trans-European Division: During the WM retreat held at Newbold College in September, the women raised a very generous offering to help fund literacy classes in Pakistan. They participated in over 20 workshops, saw a slide report of the work being done in North Africa, and shared ideas on successful outreach.

At the South Atlantic Conference retreat in Atlanta, they focused on the theme, "A Calm in the Midst of the Storm." It could not have been more prophetic as the retreat took place in the midst of Hurricane Floyd. During the spiritual calm, teen Danyielle Wilson joined her mother Sylvia to describe how they rode out the storm when their husband and father died. Another feature of the retreat was the presentation of nearly one hundred B.U.D.S. (young girls ages 5-17) at a cotillion. Nearly $4000 in scholarships were also presented.

In the Kansas-
Nebraska Conference, teens came together for the LIFE 101 retreat.   Teenager Brooke Hansen reported that at the breakaways, "We learned about relationships with everyone in our lives, healthy dating, and how to deal with our self-esteem....They were well planned....I certainly gained a lot of useful information."  She went on to say, "I am glad for these weekends, and I hope to be able to continue them, because they really are a blessing to the girls who experience them."

In Kentucky-
Tennessee, sixty young women and nine peer counselors came together for "Beauty for Ashes." Maria Sager, senior Bible teacher at Bass Memorial Academy shared from her own experience as a young person with feelings of inadequacy. One of the participants responded, "The speaker was someone I could relate to in that I've always thought I was ugly and amounted to nothing."

This is an extremely important ministry group no one can reach as well as WM!

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