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And
we have done a lot of talking. From the early morning till late
in the evening we talked and talked.
We
talk a lot about the work we do for EBWU, the things we did
in the past year, about the news we heard from others concerning
the women's work world wide. We talk about our plans for the
year to come and even further in time. But we also talk about
our personal lives, our families. We share joy and sorrow. And
we talk about our faith and how we experience His presence in
our lives. For all of us it is a very special time to be able
to be together and work together. Although we speak different
languages, come from different countries, traditions and cultures,
we feel there is a unity among us that can only be a gift from
our Heavenly Father. We feel privileged and blessed to have
been chosen to do this work.
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Margun
had invited us to come to her country and city for our meeting.
We came to a beautiful country, but even more important, loving
brothers and sisters were awaiting us and opened their houses
and hearts for us. We were hosted and fed in several homes and
we always could feel that all preparations had been made with
hearts full of love.
It
is a very special way of getting in touch with the women who
are part of our EBWU. We met with several from the women's group
of AlgÂrd, in their houses as well as in the church. And
we met with the executive of the Norwegian Baptist Women's Union.
But
we also met brothers: on behalf of the Baptist Union their general
secretary came to our meeting and welcomed us and gave us some
information about the union in Norway, there were husbands in
the homes we had our meals and they also came to church when
we had an informative evening concerning women's work in Norway
and Europe.
During
the actual meeting we heard reports of the officers, of the
editor of News and Views and reports on contacts with several
unions.
We
reviewed the mini conference we had at Cyprus with the women
from the Middle East and the big BWA Women Leadership Conference
in Birmingham last summer. These two events were very special
and we have felt very blessed by this. Our treasurer keeps us
informed about our financial situation. From money raised at
the Day of Prayer we can help projects in Albania, Belarus,
Hungary, Latvia, Lebanon, Moldova, Poland, Portugal, Romania,
Russia, Tadzikistan and Uzbekistan. And we realise all this
money has been given with much love and sometimes even very
sacrificially. This makes us very grateful. And we make plans
for the future.
In
October we shall organise a mini-conference for Western European
women, in which also our world president Dorothy Selabano is
going to participate. "Trust the Lord and do Good"
will be the theme.
Next
year our annual executive meeting will be in France, where we
hope to meet many of our French sisters.
The
women of the Baptist Union of the Netherlands have invited us
to come to their country for the next European Conference and
we gladly accepted their offer. So in 2008 the European Conference
will be in the Netherlands. (Details will be given at a later
stage)
It
has been another week full of experiences, memories to cherish
and we have certainly been inspired to continue doing this work
in His Kingdom.
Janny
Kingma
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