Women's Weekend Event with Heather-Dawn Small on May 7 and 8, 2021, via Zoom.

Finally, after waiting for a year, we were able to hold the weekend event with Heather-Dawn Small, the Women’s Ministries Director of the General Conference, that had been planned long in advance. Of course, only via Zoom, but after a year and a half of abstinence due to Corona, who would not be happy to at least meet via the screen? Women from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, but also France, Belgium, Turkey, Norway, Namibia, and the USA participated in this meeting.
Under the theme "Longing for God" Heather-Dawn led us through the experiences of her own life of faith, accompanied by wonderful stories and incidents that she or other women of faith have had with God. It was a delight to listen to her! In her joyful and happy way, she made us understand what really matters in the life of a daughter of God: that is to say God's love for us and our love for Him.
Using the Bible, she showed us the longing that God has for His children and how we can maintain in our lives the love that we experienced when we first came to know Jesus. She explained how we can keep and strengthen our connection to God through the study of the Word of God. She also showed how this promotes joy. This love relationship is important if we want to enter into the "service of God" – that is, winning people for God. It was certainly not new to me that keeping a journal in which I record my prayers, my experiences, and my concerns can be of great benefit. But the way Heather-Dawn does her "journaling" was very inspiring and made me want to start as well. Also, her report of the ideas that women around the world have taken up in the last year despite distancing rules and contact restrictions, were very encouraging and motivating. It is simply wonderful to be a daughter of God!
I was personally impressed by the sincerity with which she shared about her life. Heather-Dawn is a woman like us, with strengths and weaknesses, passions and sadness. But God does not need the perfect, but the willing, not the all-knowing, but those who give themselves to Him. This weekend left us much strengthened!
Reported by Gabriele Stangl, WM Director Mid-German Conference