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Advocacy for Victims of Abuse (AVA)
Coordinators Connection — Enriching Resources for WomenBright Ideas! — Sharing Your Ministry IdeasDomestic Violence Awarness Month CPR - How to be a lifeline to a flatine world. Sell coffee and use the proceeds to benefit your missions and support groups. Our church uses the money to support local womens shelter and worlwide missions programs. Click on this link for more information: www.missiongrounds.com Domestic Violence Awareness Month I want to share what our church did to recognize Domestic Violence Awareness Month. We held a 5-week Adult Sunday School class. Week one was an overview of domestic violence issues and the AVA Project's history and response to those issues. Weeks two and three we were blessed to have Rev. John Weborg who is a volunteer advocate at Freedom House in Princeton IL come and share more details, materials, video and audio information and a theological basis for being advocates for victims of abuse particularly within the church. On week three we held a panel of Women IN Ministry in which 5 ordained women answered questions and shared the joys and occasional challenges of being women in fulltime ministry. And the final week was an overview of the organizational changes of the past year for Women Ministries and a detailed discussion of what being a ministry means as opposed to an organization. We finished that class with a question and answer session on what our local AVA committee plans to further involve the church to minister effectively to victims of domestic violence. On October 8, we were privileged to host the awards luncheon for the Wellspring Center for Hope in Chicago. That was a very special day of fellowship around the table and hearing the stories of survivors of abusive relationships. And on October 13, we had Kathleen Monahan, Domestic Violence Liaison for the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County come and speak at our church's monthly Fellowship Dinner. She laid it clearly on the line the prevalence of domestic violence in all parts of society and the need for us to be responsive to those victims in our midst. It was truly and inspiring evening! Our local AVA committee is now working with the church's Executive Council on practical methods and plans to be a safe place for victims to come for advice and assistance. The church is being very supportive of our committee's work and the staff is committed to be actively involved in our efforts. We are grateful to God and ask for all prayers as we seek His will in this difficult task to which He has called us. Submitted by: Fresno Covenant had been praying for God's next step for its Women Ministries. We had seen his faithful annointing on our CPR event in 2004 and we wondered where He would have us focus next. After much prayer we sensed it was time to launch a once-a-month Saturday morning gathering for our women. We had attended Anne Graham Lotz' conferance "Just Give Me Jesus" and heard her exhortation to provide our women with a "Green Pasture", a place to be nurtured and to grow. Inspired by this and having asked many questions of other Women's groups, and borrowing some ideas, names, and motivation from the conferance annual meeting at Bayside Covenant we launched Coffee Talk. Desiring to provide a Green Pasture we based our format on Psalm 23. Each month focuses on a new line from Psalm 23. We start with a continental breakfast and short time of teaching on the phrase out of Psalm 23 led by our pastor's wife. Then after a song we hear a personal testimony from the life of one of our women based on that month's phrase from Psalm 23. As we sit in our Coffee Shop atmosphere in groups of 3 around little coffee tables we then dig into a selection of God's Word picked just for that theme. We interact as a group and are touched by the insight of others. We close with each group praying for each others needs and sing a song. As we send out invitations each month we have been blessed to see God at work in an exciting new way bringing out young, old, and in-between! How we praise God for His timing and His faithful direction. Submitted by: CPR - How to be a lifeline to a flatine world. Connecting with other Covenant Churches & together… Preparing women to be Reaching out to women in their churches and community. How to be a lifeline in a flatline world. This event was born in the hearts of the women at Fresno Covenant in the summer of 2003 from the desire to connect with other area Covenant Churches in an event that would not only bring us together but would also provide an opportunity to reach out to friends and neighbors. We were delighted when Kerman Covenant and Visalia Covenant jumped on board with us. We began to work together as a team and watched God inspire incredible ideas of how to accomplish this goal. What transpired was a one-day women’s conference with a medical theme and featured speaker Executive Director of Women Ministry, Ruth Hill. As women arrived for the day they were greeted with a lovely continental breakfast and coffee bar while having a chance to “shop” through many table displays and vendors. They were met with an exciting medical environment as volunteers dressed in surgical scrubs sat at the registration table and handed out medical chart registration packets and clip-on name badges. As they moved into the sanctuary for the morning meetings they walked into an atmosphere complete with surgical table, crash cart, and privacy screens! Following a greeting by our Conference President, Kathy Norman, and a time of refreshing worship we heard what God had to say to us through Ruth’s morning message, “Gods Lifeline to Us”. Women were then dismissed to attend any one of 7 incredible workshops led by a variety of our Valley Women. We met together for a great catered lunch and then attended one last chance at the workshop we just didn’t want to miss. In the late afternoon we all joined together for Ruth’s closing message, “Our Lifeline to Others”, a video replay of our entire day, and worship with communion. When all was said and done we stood in awe of what God allowed to happen through the willing hearts of His people. We know that we experienced a joyous connection with other area Covenant Churches, we heard stories of how women’s lives were touched and how they were prepared for even greater service to God, and we continue to sense that God is not finished…..He wants us to keep on reaching out to the women in our churches and on into our community. We are so thankful for His faithfulness to lead us into and through CPR!! This article was written by Karen Cook of Fresno Covenant Church and submitted at Ruth Hill's request (with permission of Karen Cook) by Carolyn Scott of Kerman Covenant Church CPR – May 8, 2000 The first CWM Movie night was held on July 22 in Fellowship Hall. Seventeen women attended to enjoy each other’s company and watch the movie Chicken Run. A cartoon adventure, the movie tells the story of the chickens at the Tweedy chicken farm - from the point of view of the hens. Led by Ginger, a sweet-tempered but determined hen, the chickens dream up elaborate plans of escape. After the movie, we broke into smaller groups to discuss different aspects of the film. "How does adversity bring us together?" "Misplaced hope" "Leadership" "Forgiveness, consequences, and redemption" With women from 8 to 90, popcorn, Tootsie-pops, and Dots how could we miss? Movie Night was an experiment for our Women Ministries program. We directed some teens in moving Couches and chairs from the lower level junior high Sunday school room came up to fellowship hall. Soft chairs from the adult library moved in. Carpeted risers from the children's library came up too. Rugs, pillows and comforters were brought in. Co-Coordinator Kimberly Shea set up the DVD to the big screen TV. Popcorn was popped in the kitchen, and along with movie type candies placed on a table nearby along with pop, water and a donation box. This was not meant to be a fundraiser – no charge, but we decided if someone wanted to donate for the snacks, who were we to deny them???? This was a multi-generational event, so during the showing, I made lists assigning the women to small discussion groups. Making sure to break up family groups, best friends and have young to old in each group. With 17 attending, we had two groups led by Kimberly and myself. This event had been listed on the church calendar for about 3 months. Publicized in the church newsletter, in the bulletin for 2 Sundays prior to the event, and our Pastor announced it with Sunday announcements the week before. Time frame was: By the way, the men in our church are starting to grumble – How come the women get to do all the fun stuff? The teens who helped move furniture, flopped into it and stayed to visit for a while the night of set-up. Lots of pluses from getting it off the ground. The event was very well received, and we will do it again. The quote of the occasion came from an 80+ woman, “I am so excited! I have not seen a movie in years!” Submitted by: Last year at Annual Meeting. I came into the Women Ministry open house forum for a bit and listened to Ruth Hill sharing ideas. One she mentioned was "Pass the Teapot". I want to thank whoever shared that idea. When I got home I attended our women ministry committee brainstorming session and just briefly mentioned the idea. Next thing I knew our women took off with it by plannning it's introduction at our (almost) annual Christmas Tea which we decided needed to be done in various homes instead of at the church, but all the same day and time. All our women were encouraged to sign up for the Christmas Tea as a hostess, who provided her home plus tea and coffee; or as an assistant hostess, who brought some simple goodies for the event; or as a guest. They were encouraged to sign up friends and/or neighbors they would bring to these friendly events. All the women who signed up were divided geographically into several groups of 6 or 8 for tea. At each home was a special teapot with an attached description of how to be a hostess of another simple tea, recruit an assistant, and invite 6-8 other guests (again encouragement to invite outsiders in). The job of the each hostess was to pass the teapot on to another person to do it again by hostessing a tea in her home with new guests. No one was to be a guest at more than 2 teas (because by then she should be well prepared to be a hostess or assistant hostess for another tea). In May our (almost) annual united spring tea was an afternoon Hospitali-Tea when all the teapots were collected & reports were given about the fabulous fellowship the smaller teas had created among us. We had well over a hundred in attendance with many bringing neighbors and relatives as guests. It was a lovely tea with 3 tiered plates of gorgeous goodies and most of the women and girls in hats they either owned, found or borrowed from the collection one of our women had on display for everyone's use for the event. The men and boys served in a very classy fashion. There were gorgeous purses on sale from our Thai Covenant sisters. There was a display from the local pregnancy center (that same morning was their annual fund raising walk in which many of our folks participate). There was beautiful music and a brief program with a short devotional on cultivating the spiritual gift of hospitality plus a missionary from Ecuador who briefly shared differences in the way hospitality is viewed in South American cultures. There was sharing from each of our 3 small group women's Bible studies and even the fun of drawing for numerous door prizes. The teapots are lined up waiting hopefully to be passed around again next fall. The best of the fun for me was to have Dierdre Banks and Fran Anderson as guests in my home for tea. They winter (sometimes) in Florida and were attending our church and teaching a Sunday School class for us this past winter. God truly blessed "Pass the Teapot" as a wonderful tool for both outreach and knitting our women closer to one another in Christ. Blessings on those who passed the idea on to Ruth and then to us. Submitted by: |