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GC Women's Ministries Newsletter July 2001 |
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Reconciliation is the big word in Australia. In the "down under" we are constantly reminded that we need to be reconciled to our indigenous brothers and sisters. There have been many lost and alienated children in our Aboriginal communities. Thousands of Australians march across the Sydney Harbour Bridge every year to encourage the nation to be reconciled to each other. Karen Williams is the first Aboriginal young woman minister to be appointed to work in Sydney. She has came from the deserts of Australia where kangaroos and wallabies roam. This is the same "outback" where the Adventist minister's baby had been taken by a dingo in 1980. Karen had been running from trouble for so long. She had run from her abusive partner with two children but then found others with whom she could drink and drown her sorrows. Eventually she found an escape from this running when she read a Bible which her drinking friend had given her. It was here that she found peace and the real reconciliation she was desperate for. She attended the ATSIM (Aboriginal & Torres Straight Islander Ministries) training school in Perth, graduating in 2000. She is one of very few Aboriginal woman pastors ready to help people be reconciled to God. The inner city of Sydney is a desperately needy part of the world. It is the oldest city of Australia, first settled by officers and convicts from England 213 years ago. In the old suburb of Redfern, small children now play in the gutters and will sometimes prick themselves with discarded needles. Mothers wander the streets, looking for work, money and food. An understanding woman of the same background will be an enormous blessing in this spiritually barren area of Sydney. Karen will have the support of a committed small group of people who have gone before her in preparation for this ministry. This is a new day and opportunity for Australia. Karen is bringing the message of the Lord Jesus Christ to the people who desperately need to know it. She has been given the ministry of reconciliation just as every woman in our church has been given. Women's Ministries will support Karen and the women who need to know there is hope and reconciliation. "Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has commited to us the word of reconciliation." 2 Corinthians 5:18, 19 NKJV. |
News from the world of . . . Euro-Asia Division: Several congresses were conducted in the cities of Nizhney Novgorod, Tagarog, Kishiniey, Ekaterinburg, and one is planned for Zaoksky very soon. Usually at congresses there are health food exhibitions with tasting tables, arts and crafts exhibitions. Most include plays by professional theatrical groups formed by new Adventists. In Tagarog, they presented gifts of fruit, clothes, or books at a home for the disabled and some Bible studies have now begun there. In an orphanage in Saratov, WM supplied 200 pairs of new, hand knitted socks after women in their congregation responded to a request to this critical need. At an old peoples' home in Chernovtsi-Sadgora, women of this SDA congregation continue to bring clothes and food and conduct Bible studies. Six have been baptized. The women also bring hot meals on Sabbaths to these new members and conduct spiritual programs for all interested. The Moscow "Na Stremyannom" congregation's WM has organized 12 prayer groups that gather every Friday and Sabbath to pray for families, friends, and the church. A telephone prayer group is also working. They even have an SOS prayer plan in place for urgent problems.Through their faith they personally have seen the power of prayer. Inter-American Division: In March 2001 the Women's Ministries Department of the Cayman Islands Mission of SDA sponsored five days of prayer and fasting for the entire nation. Following a pre-arranged schedule, church members and the community at large prayed daily and prayer services were held in every district on the island as well as on Cayman Brac. Southern Africa Union Conference: Evelyn Nkhethoa, director of Adventist Women's Ministries for the Lesotho Conference, coordinated evangelistic campaigns in remote, unentered areas of the mountain kingdom of Lesotho. Five women who were given R60,000 (US$10,000) supervised, planned, and provided for the needs of workers and those attending. 142 baptisms resulted. In one area where there were no roads, the evangelistic team carried a tent and portable PA system piece by piece to the top of a high hill to broadcast nightly meetings to over 20 villages. Evelyn is now planning to acquire land to erect a resource and care center for foster-care AIDS orphans. She launched her proposal at a meeting with chiefs, local and government officials, community care-givers, conference leaders, and an enthusiastic audience of about 600. Evelyn tells everyone Jesus is coming, we must be ready and working while we wait. Trans-European Division: Jane, a bright, talented, young refugee from the southern Sudanese conflict, has been living in northern Uganda for three years and runs the local sewing school operated by WM in South Sudan Field. The attendees are taught basic principles of sewing. What they make finds an easy market locally nd bring a small income for the ladies. The only SDA in her family, Jane "radiates happiness to those around her" according to Valerie Fidelia, WM director in the Middle East region, "not only spending six hours in teaching each day, but leading out in choir, assisting in WM activities and translating when the need arises." As a refugee, Jane must grow her own food to survive, rising before dawn, walking 2.5 km to work 3 or 4 hours in her field, then back home to shower and walk 3.5 km in the opposite direction to teach sewing class. She washes her clothes by hand, by moonlight, after carrying water in a jerry can, sometimes from a borehole up to 2 km away. Truly Jane, who is in her mid-twenties, is a wonderful example to other young women through her life of love, service, and sacrifice. |
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