 |
The
Committee members
from
left to right:
Erzsebet Vekas
Janny Kingma
Aniko Ujvari
Ewa Gutkowska
Margun Warem
Livija Lame
Olga
Mocan is missing
|
The
six of us were hosted in a convent. Can you imagine, six Baptist
women staying in a nunnery. But we really felt welcome and were
surrounded with warm hospitality. And beside the mother-superior
of the convent also Hilda Dorado De Simarro was present, together
with her husband to meet all our needs.
And in this peaceful surrounding we could talk about all the items
on our agenda, share personal news, show pictures, sing and pray.
Our
president Ewa reported on her visits to Armenia, Moldova, Russia
and the USA, where she had been present at several conferences,
gave lectures and met many people. In the meantime she has received
more invitations from other countries which she will try to visit.
The other officers gave reports too, vice-president, secretary
and treasurer. Elisabeth showed us how much money from the Day
of Prayer offerings of 2003 had been received till then, how much
from the membership fee and gifts. Half of this DOPmoney is to
be send to the Women's Department where it will be used in our
world wide women's work. We are grateful for all the money raised
for this purpose.
We
decided which projects to sponsor in Europe with the other part
of that money. We try to do this in good stewardship and to use
this money wisely. We chose to support the following projects:
-
Part
of a scholarship for two students at IBTS at Prague and one
at the Christian University of Kiev,
-
A
chaplain project to Russian soldiers in Dagestan by our brothers
and sisters in Belarus and the support of pastor's families
in their country,
-
A
Portuguese missionary project in Mozambique,
-
Transportation
to a women's conference in Lebanon.
In
Latvia we'd like to sponsor families' camps, a pastor's family
and a childcare project of the church, and in Romania a camp for
single women with children. Of course we still continue with our
Chernobyl project.
Every year the Day of Prayer programme is the responsibility of
one of the continental unions. Next year it'll be Europe's turn,
so we had to start working on ideas for the programme during this
meeting.
Aniko
told us about her experiences being the editor of News and Views
for the first time and the ideas she has to continue with this
job. Do you know we are very up to date and actually have a webmaster.
The committee members, except the president and the secretary,
are responsible for several areas in Europe. They try to keep
a closer contact with these countries. It is a big challenge how
to realise this and we have to admit it isn't always an easy task.
Beside
all those reports on the work that has been done, we have to make
plans for the future. I told you already about the DOP programme
for next year. The theme will be 'Seeing with New Eyes', which
will also be the theme for the BWA Leadership Conference in Birmingham
next year.
We also hope to realise a mini conference in the Middle East.
This still requires a lot of work and a lot of prayer!
Let me assure you that we have been praying for you all and we
certainly hope you will join us in prayer for all the work that
is done in our continent.
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| Meeting with the Spanish
sisters |
When
we received the invitation of the Women's Union of Spain to have
our meeting in their country and to take part in one of their
conferences, we couldn't know that we would come to them in such
a tragic time like after the event of March 11. But as we expressed
at their Leadership Conference, held in Madrid, where we met several
of our Spanish sisters, it is easy to be together in happy times,
like in Rabac, Croatia last year, but it is good and important
to be together in sad times, because we are one body in Christ.
And when one part suffers, the others suffer too.
When
we were shown something of Madrid, we also saw the terminal where
the victims of the train bombs were commemorated with candles,
flowers, pictures and texts. It made a great impression on us
which we'll never forget. In their Conference we were able to
share about the work of EBWU and have closer contact with the
Spanish executive. These contacts are very important to us and
we are happy that we were able to be in Spain. We are grateful
to Rosamary Lopez De Simarro, the president of the Spanish Women's
Union for their invitation, for making all the arrangements for
a wonderful stay in their country and for their loving care and
their faithful support of the work of EBWU.
Janny
Kingma
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