Impressions from EBWU conference
May 15-18, 2008,
Dalfsen, the Netherlands

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Dedication prayer for the newly elected president, Livija Lame

    
Fragment from the invitation letter:Janny Kingma

Dear sisters,
It is my privilege to invite you to the European Conference which will be held May 15-18, 2008 in Dalfsen, the Netherlands.

The name of this conference centre is ‘De Bron’, which means ‘the source’ or ‘well’ in English. The name ‘De Bron’ inspired us to choose as theme for our conference: Jesus, our Source of Inspiration.
       
The Bible verse connected to this is Isaiah 58:11b, where it says: "You will be like a garden that has plenty of water, like a spring of water that never runs dry".

Our prayer is that this conference will strengthen our faith so we will spiritually grow and become more equipped to continue our women’s work.

In His service,
Janny Kingma

Dear sisters,Livija Lame

My heart is full of gratitude to our Lord for a blessed conference. He has answered our prayer we asked of Him. “Dear Lord, fill this conference with your presence and love, that each of us could experienced how deep God’s love is. Refresh our life as we drink from the Spring of Living water.” And it happened!

I’d like to express my gratitude to the wonderful Netherlands team for great input and organization of this conference. Thanks to worship team whose heart service made us experience God’s presence in special way.
          
Thanks to Ewa Gutkovska and Janny Kingma for their faithful, powerful and humble ministry for 16 years. As a new committee we want to continue this ministry and to serve the Lord and the women in Europe.

Thank you everyone for your trust, support, prayers and cooperation in His ministry.

May God bless you richly in your own country as you serve Him with a humble heart!
Let’s “love each other” as Jesus has commanded.

Livija Lame
EBWU president

Impressions from the conferenceDagmar Kersting

- collected by Dagmar Kersting - Germany

I was looking forward so much to this conference, to meet the sisters I knew already from the last time. I enjoyed the warm greetings and hugs, but  also to become acquainted with many other sisters.
 
My heart was touched from Blanca Vekas and her "song". Again it was a good experience to here, in which ways sisters serve all over Europe.
    
The fact that the sisters from the Middle East couldn't come,  although they would have so enjoyed to take part, has me made sadly.

The appeal of Wies Dijkstra to write picture postcards to the sisters  in Papua New Guinea, and her testimonial about this action has cheered up and motivated me.

The Bible study by Jona Pusey  brought me to contemplation.  Specially her account about the pollution of the coasts by our refuse of the affluent society.
I like the song "bind us together Lord" and again I felt, that the love of Christ did it in a special way on this conference.

Dagmar Kersting - Germany
-      

My heart was touched about the community between the women. When the women from Ukraine heard, that  my father came from this country, they took me in their middle and sang a special song only for me. This kindness was like medicine for my soul!
Doris Allgaier - Germany

It is my privilege to be part of EBWU. I had loved every moment of this conference. May God bless each one of you!’
Grace Gabriel Nakka – India

It’s my first conference. I am amazed, what women can do together. I have known it already, but this conference gave me a new experience, because I realised in how many ways women serve all over Europe. My heart is filled with joy and longing to find new ways for Danish women to serve.
Susanne Andersen – Denmark

One impression is enthusiasm.
Another one: here are so many women and without knowing each other you feel, that we are sisters in Christ. It seams like you know each other already. That’s great!
And it is a joy to see, that you like to sing. In this conference there is a time for everything.
Agnes de Houdijker – member of the music team

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The impressing part was for me to meet so many women from west, east, south and north and to feel the unit, also to talk about personal things. I was the first time in such a conference and it was amazing, that the women loved me and showed me their love.
Asya Vasileva - Bulgaria.

In the conference I wept when I saw Blanca, the deaf and dumb daughter of Elisabeth Vekas, how she "sang"  with her motions. Also I wept when the Lord showed me through Dorothy Selebano, that we are so rich in material things and also healthy - but we are so often passive in our service. Dorothy Selebano said, that she knows so much people who serve the Lord within their physical problems. The Lord will say something special to me, that I have to carry my family, church and country.
Irena Markevica, 48 years old, married, 6 children - Latvia

To have the privilege to be a part of this conference is an experience which I wouldn't like to keep for me.
Thursday morning I became  encouraged and been fortifying and  confirmed  in important points very much by the workshop "crisis"
The testimonies of the women during the sequence "What can women do?" were also very impressing and encouraging.
Waltraud Blaschegg – Austria
Ewa Gutkowska (former EBWU president)
It is a great privilege to take part of an EBWU´s Conference. You can get enriched enormously in spirit and friendship. It helps you to grow in knowledge more and more of our sister’s activity from around the world. Without such information we would be very poor. I would like to encourage every sister in Jesus Christ to use these opportunity. You will never forget it. May God bless all of you.
Julia Gero(Hungary)

We found it a privilege to play at the EBWU conference. It was very special to play worship songs with you and to praise the Lord together for his great love. We were surprised that there were women from so many countries. Despite of all the different back grounds we felt we were all similar because we are all sisters (and some brothers) in the Lord. Stay tuned at the source.
God bless.
Filip, Michel, Agnes and Miranda - The Music Group of the Baptist Church in Heemshenk (The Netherlands)

I liked the authentic in the expressions of feeling. The women know how to create an open, friendly and encouraging atmosphere. They are very creative in preparation of different details of the program. I liked much the moment with the flowers, when the representative from different countries explained their work with the flowers.
Ryszard Gutkowski (Poland)    

Dorothy Selebano, BWA Women's Department president    
Why going to this conference? I went to Croatia and the experience there 'forced' me to go again. The meeting with other sisters the feeling of the spirit amongst us goes on, the recognizing of problems and blessings in sisters of countries so different and still the same. I felt so deeply touched and blessed to see the love of God in and amongst all of us. We could 'talk' to each other, without words. By what I was touched most deeply was the singing of the deaf and dump lady, praising the Lord with her body language.
Praise to the Lord!!   
Gerda Prins (The Netherlands)

So many women from different countries with different cultures meet each other and come together. The women do a lot of work without payment. They do it for the honor of God and they get so much encourage, power and faith for their personal life. Some women, for example in the Ukraine, take their own special place in working with other women where men can't afford.
Impression from the workshop Bibliodrama: Even when the women speech different languages they understand each other because they open their hearts and trust among themselves.
Linda Shippers (The Netherlands)

We are interested to discuss with women from other countries, telling about their life and their situation. It is also interesting to hear what women can do in their own countries. Worth mentioning was the workshop about prostitution and trafficking, and for example the bible study with Yona Pusey. where she told about the water in the bible and specially about the living water given by Jesus Christ.
Eivor, Sisko, Ulla from Finland (Swedish speaking)  

Newly elected EBWU committee (left to right) Erzsebet Vekas, Romania, Aniko Ujvari, Hungary, Livija Lame, Latvia, Margaret Brown, Scotland, Susana Mefford, Spain, Margun Warem, Norway, Wies Dijkstra, Netherlands
Why do we need the EBWU conference? We don't want to lose the contact to the leader team. We want to know what God is doing in other countries. It is for us a wonderful enrichment to be with women from other cultures in touch.
What has impressed us? The atmosphere is natural, open and joyful. The women of the leader team are living what they say and believe. We feel a strong unity in this cultural diversity in Jesus Christ. We are again challenged to serve Jesus in our lives and to give testimony. We are especially impressed by the women, visiting the prostitutes!
Ursi Nithaus and Marianne Wabel (Switzerland)

During this conference many sisters inspired me through their testimony! I learned how important it is to pray for everything and to give all of my life in the hands of the Lord. I often forget to do that and go my own way. I want to change my thoughts and trust in the Lord again!
Marianne Keuzenkamp (The Netherlands)

Music team

Bible study leaders and workshops of the conference - here

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Yona Pusey, Wales	Yona Pusey, Wales and  Julia Gero, Hungary
Erzsebet and Blanka Vekas, Romania	Interview with country representants
(from left) Janny Kingma, Erzsebet Vekas, Ewa Gutkowska, Julia Gero	Jannes Hofman, Dutch Baptist Union President
Toma Magda, EBF president
Some more Pictures
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