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Dorfweil Report Look – Go – Encourage
- in the Name of the Lord! Meeting of the German Baptist Women’s Union in Dorfweil, February – March 2009. Approximately
80 women from the Baptist Women’s Union in Germany met for four days at
the end of February 2009 in a little village named Dorfweil, nearby
Frankfurt.
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| Christina Bombeck |
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We
gathered to sing & pray and to encourage each other by the story in
the Bible of Ruth, Naomi and Orpah. And we discovered that all three
women found their own way – very differently but honestly. God wants us
to find our special way in the different sections of our lives – each
way is unique and special - independent from our age and our good or
bad life situations. God is near and with us in every situation even
when we are not sure if this way is good.
We exchanged
information about our work in the different places of Germany and voted
a new Board: Dagmar Kersting (1st Chairwoman, on the picture left) and
Anne Koerner (2nd Chairwoman) finalised their service after more than a
decade in the board. Also Barbara Tomaskowitz and Doris Allgaier left
the Board. Barbara will work in the management of her church and Doris
will be moving together with her husband to a mission station in
Zanzibar.
Elisabeth Kapsreiter, Board member with
responsibility for the finances for the last six years, took over the
seat of the 1st Chairwoman of the Board. Gisela Bullermann is the
2nd Chairwoman and Cornelia Nikesch is the Secretary. Elisabeth
Deschner is our new Treasurer.
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Newcomers
to the Board but experienced in women’s service are: Edith Becker,
Elisabeth Malessa and Bärbel Völker, Annegret Drüke, Gaby Löding and
Herma Theeszen remain working in the Board.
Wies
Dijkstra, member of the European Baptist Women’s Union Board and
special guest in Dorfweil, blessed the new German Board members and
‘forced’ all attendees at the conference in a very humorous and
emphatic way to buy the EBWU scarves she brought with her.
Please
pray with us that God may send His strong blessings to these courageous
nine Board women who will lead our Union for the next years.
Founded
in 1927, the German BWU was built by a few women on the basis of the
first sentence of 2. Corinthians 5 verse 14: “Christ’s love compels
us.” These few women saw the poverty of other people and started a
group to support them practically and financially within their small
budget. Especially after the 2nd World War a lot of women’s groups
arose in the churches to support the people around them, and the
women’s work internally, but also in the neighbourhood, cities in
Germany and around the world. In the Sixties and Seventies more than
800 groups were active to bring God’s love to the people and spend a
lot of money to make HIS love visible. Now, more than 80 years later,
the time has changed: women’s groups become older and young female
Christians are busy in day to day work and not really interested in
those “older” groups. The number of women’s groups has now dropped to
less than 500. |
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Two
years ago the Board members of the German Baptist Women’s Union started
to work with an external Christian consulting firm to find new ideas
and ways for future Christian women’s work.
Several
representatives of other Christian Churches and Unions were invited to
the Union’s meeting this year because networking will become more
important in the future.
The Board of the German Baptist Women’s
Union got a new vision on the basis of 1 Timothy 2: 4 – let’s see
around and go to those who need help; encourage them with all the gifts
and talents we have received from our Lord! They presented this
new vision at the Union’s meeting in February. It may help us to
evaluate the work and to follow our dreams to reality:
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We dream:
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of women discovering and appreciating their holy uniqueness and
dignity, revealing their gifts and activating their talents in an open
atmosphere.
- of building places where women can find answers to their searching for God.
What is impossible with men is possible with God
- of founding oases where women from all generations can recover through God’s love.
- of communities giving orientation through the Bible and prayer, teaching the whole person (body, spirit, heart and mind).
- of women naturally finding their places in their churches where God will have them.
- of a strong network within our own and other churches and between the cultures.
- of a strong power for both, men and women, to change together our society in the name of the Lord. |
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We
pray and hope that we will take the next steps on these new ways and
establish structures to bring Christ’s love to the majority of German
women who neither know the Bible nor have any idea of God. Please pray
for Germany!
Christina Bombeck
Editorial office of “Miteinander Unterwegs”
Journal of the German Baptist Women’s Union.
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Board of “Frauenwerk im Bund Evangelisch-Freikirchlicher Gemeinden” Germany:
Second line: Bärbel Völker, Herma Theeszen, Annegret Drüke, Cornelia Nikesch, Claudia Deppner (full time representative)
First line: Elisabeth Deschner, Elisabeth Malessa, Gisela Bullermann, Gaby Löding, Elisabeth Kapsreiter (Edith Becker is not on the picture). |
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