Joined by Botswana President Festus Mogae and other national leaders, 2,000 women, members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in 13 African nations, met for a five-day women's ministries congress at the University of Botswana.
Joined by Botswana President Festus Mogae and other national leaders, 2,000 women, members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in 13 African nations, met for a five-day women’s ministries congress at the University of Botswana.
The congress, a first for the Southern Africa-Indian Ocean region of the church, featured an international roster of speakers, including Pastor Hyveth Williams of the Campus Hill Seventh-day Adventist Church in Loma Linda, California; Ardis Stenbakken, director of women’s ministries for the world church; Heather-Dawn Small, associate director of women’s ministries; and Dr. Pardon Mwansa, regional president of the church.
The emphasis on developing the talents and capabilities of women in the church had a major impact on President Mogae, according to a Botswana Press Agency report.
“It is important for the church to be seen as strongly advocating the self-evident reality that all people, male and female, are created equal in the image of God,” the news agency quoted Mogae as saying. “The ability of the church to provide the necessary spiritual and intellectual inspiration to boys and girls, but more especially, [girls], to value themselves as God’s creation, pursue worthwhile goals and see themselves as capable of making valuable contributions to society cannot be overemphasized,” he added.
In turn, Adventist church leaders visiting from the world headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, said they were touched by the determination and capabilities of the delegates.
“It was an awesome group of ladies,” Small said. “Even though things have been extremely difficult for women in Africa, they are on fire. They inspired us more than we inspired them.”
Small said that some of the women attending the event were survivors of a horrific train wreck a year earlier in Tanzania (see ANN, July 2, 2002; http://www.adventist.org/news/data/2002/06/1025622458/index.html.en), which killed 280 people, including 61 Adventist church members, part of a group of 360 who had attended an earlier local women’s ministries retreat. The world church has been raising money to build a women’s training center as a memorial to those who died. Four of the survivors shared their stories of the event.
A key feature of the event was three daily messages from Williams, a popular speaker throughout the church. Her messages seemed to especially impact President Mogae and members of his cabinet, Stenbakken said, noting that the assistant minister of health in Botswana is an Adventist church member.
Stenbakken, who, together with Small, led leadership development seminars during the event, said that women’s ministry in Africa faces a variety of challenges, including a rumor that another church organization had persuaded the Adventist world church to rename the Dorcas Society as “Women’s Ministries.” Loss of that longtime identifier has upset some members, she said.
“There’s not a shred of truth” to the rumor, Stenbakken said; the name change was made to reflect the widening scope of ministry to a segment of the church population that now numbers 70 percent worldwide.
Another major element of the meetings was lectures by Dr. Alexis Llaguno, an Adventist physician who talked about AIDS and stressed the need for preventive measures and greater education. Stenbakken noted that one in three Matswana carry the HIV virus.
