Women’s Sabbath in Bordeaux, France

On Sabbath, October 22, the Women's Ministries leader of the SDA church in Bordeaux, Wendy Tagliamento, invited the WM director of the Franco-Belgian Union, Corina Timofté, to reflect on the women’s mental burdens. During the morning sermon, Corina commented profoundly and practically on Jesus' healing of the woman who had been bent over for 18 years under the weight of life, illness, and humiliation; the Lord, by defending her from hypocritical remarks, gave her back her dignity as a daughter of Abraham (Luke 13:10-17). Then we were invited to lunch in the home of Josiane, one of our team members, in her beautiful property in the countryside near Bordeaux. In the afternoon, Corina presented "case studies" of very young women who had experienced tragedies: we had to imagine the challenges they would face as adults. At the end of the exercise, Corina revealed to us what happened to these people: they left the role of victims and gradually took charge of their lives, acquiring new skills by surrounding themselves with caring people. At the end of the day, we reluctantly took leave of each other because the day had been so full of very warm and friendly moments.