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APRIL 2002
Focus on Young Women's Ministries Division Highlights: Euro- Asia Division KEEPERS PAGE — Small Group Ministries International Women's Day of Prayer 2003
VIEW ORIGINAL LAYOUT OF THE NEWSLETTER USING ACROBAT.PDF News from the World of Women's Ministries is published monthly by the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventist Department of Women's Ministries for the purpose of communicating news and information about Women's Ministries. Director: Ardis Stenbakken Associate Director & Editor: Heather-Dawn Small Asst. Editor & Layout: Iris Stovall
You may contact the editor by writing: General
Conference Department of Women's Ministries Phone:
(301) 680-6608 |
EDITORIAL
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" 'For I am with you and will save you' declares the Lord," Jeremiah 30:11 Abuse is something that has long affected the women, children, and men of our church; now our church is speaking out. On September 26, 2001, members of the General Conference Executive Committee voted, by an action of the Annual Council, to designate the fourth Sabbath of August 2002 as Abuse Prevention Emphasis Day. Promoted by the General Conference Women's Ministries Department in cooperation with Family Ministries, Health Ministries, Youth Ministries, Children's Ministries, Education Department, and Ministerial Association, this year's theme "Breaking the Silence" focuses on awareness and prevention. The Abuse Prevention Emphasis Day committee has produced a packet of materials to help church leaders initiate and maintain an abuse awareness and prevention program in their congregation. This material is available through your conference, union, or division Women's Ministries or simply by logging on to our website and clicking on "Abuse Prevention Emphasis Day Resource Materials." There are many
issues to address regarding abuse. This emphasis day is only a beginning!
We pray to expand on these issues in the years to come with future
Abuse Prevention Emphasis Days, to be held each year on the fourth
Sabbath of August. Join us on August 24. Together, we can help break
the silence about abuse and stop the violence in our homes. by Fabiola
Jacqueline Vatel Focus on Young Women's Ministries The Good Book says that church leaders are to "teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live" and they can "train the younger women..." (Titus 2:3, 4). How do we do this? After all, it is a direct command. While many are worrying about what women could and should do or not do, are we doing what we are told to do? This is something we think about many times here in our office. This is the reason we talk so often about mentoring because that is what Titus was supposed to teach the older women how to mentor the younger women. Please note that it says older women, not old. And we are all older than someone and can and should be involved. While Lynnetta Hamstra was here as Associate Director she spent quite a bit of time on the issue of mentoring and has done a number of seminars on the topic. She has written the seminar that will soon be coming out with the first phase of the Women's Ministries Leadership Certification program. I hope that you will become actively involved in finding a mentor for yourself, in being a mentor, and in having a mentoring program in your church. Even the young women who are being mentored can mentor the younger women! Another aspect of this is having young women directly involved in Women's Ministries. How do we make the programs relevant to them? How do we get them to participate? What are their needs? Do we know what they want? We are fortunate here in our office to have two young women working on a part-time or temporary basis. I have asked them to help us develop some ideas for a young Adventist Women's Ministries. They are excited and coming up with good ideas. Heather-Dawn Small has been tasked with this area of ministry and is passionate about it. We would like to hear from you too. If you are a young woman (about 13-30) we really want to hear from you! All suggestions will be taken seriously. And if your church has developed a program, a ministry, an outreach, a support ministry that is particularly successful with young women, we want to hear about it. We want to pass the ideas on and get everyone involved. Write us, call us, e-mail us, let us hear from you. How can we best fill our mandate? It is in scripture and it is in our Mission Statement. Let's just do it. by Ardis
Stenbakken, Director, GC Women's Ministries Division Highlights: Euro-Asia Division Euro-Asia division was established in 1990, and reorganized in 1993 - 1994. The area of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Russian Federation, Tadjikistan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine is subdivided into West-Russian Union, Moldavian Union, Ukrainian Union and Southern Union, East Russian Union Mission, Caucasian Union Mission, and Belarus Conference. A total of 160 nationalities live on the territory of Euro-Asia division, in which there are 1,792 churches and 142,572 church members. Women's Ministries began in the Euro-Asia Division in 1992. All unions, missions and conferences have elected WM directors. At present, Raisa Ostrovskaya is a director of ESD WM. Statistics: From 1995 to 2000 WM ESD held 10,632 training seminars, 17,441 retreats, and 54,178 other meetings. The women organized and conducted 5,978 evangelistic meetings, and 11,458 people were baptized. Praise the Lord! 2001: According to the statistical data, ESD accounts for 93,294 women as church members, of which 2,802 conduct Bible courses and 478 are missionaries-volunteers. Women are taking an active part in the program of aesthetic education of children and youth. 3,366 of them are responsible for Bible study groups, and 2,200 for prayer groups. Our Lord hears prayers of the sisters and blesses their work and those who require their support. The women work in educational institutions, attend patients in hospitals, visit children in boarding schools and convicts in prisons. They participate in charitable events, for example, in planting of trees and gardens in their cities. The women arrange charitable dinners for children in needy and large families, and organize "feed the hungry" actions, doing their best and sharing God's love with people. WM evangelism is carried out through small groups, home churches, literature evangelism (organizing outdoor libraries), and public evangelistic programs. In 2001 1,106 persons were baptized due to the WM efforts. In 2002 they plan to work through small groups and train the leaders/supervisors to serve for each category of women: lonely, widows, etc. Let us keep
praying for our sisters in this division. KEEPERS
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International Women's Day of Prayer 2003 The program packet for the International Women's Day of Prayer for March 1, 2003, has been sent to the divisions and should soon be distributed to the unions and conferences for duplicating and translating. The theme for 2003 is "First Person Singular," focusing on Bible women and their individual responses to prayer. The packet was prepared by Céleste perrino Walker. Walker is a professional writer and editor. In addition to the many articles she has written, she is well known for writing 8 books: Eleventh Hour (with Eric Stoffle) Guardians; I Call Him Abba; Making Sabbath Special; Midnight Hour; More Power to Ya; Prayer Warriors; and Sunny Side Up (with Eric D. Stoffle). Walker lives in Rutland, Vermont, USA, with her husband, Rob, and children, Joshua and Rachel. Prayer requests from the three divisions that are featured, as well as information about those divisions, is also included.
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