Covenant News
CWM Group Returns from Visit to Russian Provinces
CHICAGO, IL (October 17, 2003) - CHICAGO, IL (October 17) – A 14-member group representing Covenant Women Ministries returned this week from a CWM-sponsored cross-cultural visit to three different Russian provinces.The October 1-15 trip, co-led by Executive Minister Ruth Hill and Jenya Haps, area director for the Colorado-based Children's HopeChest, included a three-day rally for women graduates of Russian orphanages. Hill gave the opening address on the role of family and woman in today's world and also explained CWM ministries. There were 10 seminars at the event, which attracted 110 orphanage graduates and 40 others to Vladimir.
Other travelers included former CWM Executive Director Deirdre Banks,
Betty Eddy, Rebecca Hammer, Janelle Johnson, Kimberly Miller, Karin
O'Connor, Grace Pederson, Phyllis Semmes, Lynn Murray Smith, Bonnie Dean
Smith, Sandra Warren, Natasha Westerhoud and Donna Wright.
Along with the rally and visits to four orphanages, a foster family ministry and two family centers, the team toured Moscow (including the Kremlin) and attended the Georgian Festival Gala at the famous Bolshoi Theater. The group brought toiletry items, school supplies, baby clothes and other basics to Russia and gave gifts to those they met - girls received a gift bag containing two plates, a cup and a tea towel. The CWM contingent later paid for dishes that they gave to the girls at the end of the trip.
CWM's interest in the Russia orphanages grew out of a relationship with Children's HopeChest, which was founded in 1994 and offers practical aids to orphans throughout the world. It was the recipient of monies from CWM's Project 2003: Our Next Step. The CWM project addresses the needs of those leaving Russian orphanages. Children must leave orphanages at age 18 and it can be difficult to make a smooth transition into Russian society. The CWM project will help organizations offer key life skills training.
Hill and her husband, Brad, were visiting professors at St. James Bible College in Magadan, Russia, in February 2001. She discovered that a CWM "My First Bible" project (the distribution of Bibles via International Bible Society) in 1995 served as a catalyst for the development of orphanages in the region. Banks was part of the 1995 trip. So was Haps, a Russian translator for the International Bible Society tour. She now travels back and forth to Russia from her home in Wheaton, Illinois, as a U.S.-based staff member for Children's HopeChest.
"The tour enabled the team to appreciate the harsh conditions in which the orphans live and the difference Children's HopeChest was making," said Hill. "It also underscored the necessity to address the needs of the orphanage graduates so they can live independently and be productive members of the society."
To learn more about CWM, the Russia trip and other CWM ministries, call 773-907-3332 or visit the Covenant Women Ministries link on the Evangelical Covenant Church website at www.covchurch.org.
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