August 2009 Steering Committee Meeting

GWP Semi-Annual Retreat Global Women’s Project Steering Committee met at the end of August in N. Manchester, Indiana. We welcomed new board member, Kim Hill Smith, from Minneapolis to the committee and heard from Yvonne Dilling who shared insights she learned from working with development projects in Central America. We happily began our collaboration with a new project in the US., Growing Grounds, Wabash , IN (see below for information on Growing Grounds). Also, we received over $3000 between our Mother’s Day Project and Lenten Calendars. Thank you for all you have given to the work of Global Women’s Project! We are grateful for the donations that are coming in. The GWP steering committee will meet in March, 2010 in Indianapolis.

Can we get Fair Trade in our Districts?

Carrie Eikler, co-pastor of the Morgantown (WV) Church of the Brethren/Mennonite Church, has a vision and a challenge…to get Fair Trade goods into all the Church of the Brethren district conferences!  Some district conferences already support SERRV sales…does yours? (Don’t know about SERRV?  Then check it out here)

If your district conference hasn’t sold fair trade products before, this is a great opportunity to host a mini-SERRV sale!  Carrie approached West Marva district about hosting a mini-SERRV sale during their district conference in September.  They happily agreed and profits from the sale will be given to Global Women’s Project.  What better way to connect people with women around the world, than seeing, touching, and bringing art into their lives…art made by economically empowered women.

As a supporter of Global Women’s Project, consider hosting a sale to benefit the work of GWP.  Perhaps your congregation, a group of committed GWP supporters, or any number of district commissions could join you in organizing your sale.  SERRV makes it really easy to begin.  Click here to begin the process of organizing your sale. (And if your district conference has come and gone, then tuck this idea away for next year).

Let Global Women’s Project know if you will be hosting a sale!  Also, let us send you GWP information to go alongside your sale, or for a GWP table of its own.  We are working at weaving a web of education and knowledge about women’s empowerment, and district conferences are a great place to start.

So let the count begin!
Districts Conferences that have SERRV sales: 2
SERRV sales benefiting GWP: 1

Mother’s Day

Thanks to everyone who is giving the gift of women’s empowerment this Mother’s Day! We are delighted to offer the Mother’s Day project for the third year in a row.  We send beautiful, handwritten cards to the women you want to honor. Women honored in memoriam are:

• Anna Baker
• Barbara Alley
• Louise Erbaugh
• Louie Rieman
• Verda Gibbel
• Vinna Helstern

International Women’s Day Worship Resources

Sunday March 8 is International Women’s Day!  Consider planning a worship around this theme using the following materials created by Global Women’s Project.  If you can’t plan an entire worship, perhaps use certain items, or celebrate in worship on another Sunday.

The theme for these resources is  ”Hearing the voices.”  This calls us to recognize that we are called not only to be a “voice for the voiceless” but first must recognize and hear the voices that have been silenced throughout time-through gendered, economic, and racial oppression, as well as the suppression of Biblical stories highlight the strength of women, as well suppressing the critical analysis of biblical stories that speak of violence towards women.

Remembering Louie Baldwin Rieman

Louie Baldwin Rieman

We remember Louie Baldwin Rieman, former GWP steering committee member and life-long proponent of global relationship-building and a shared journey of empowerment.

Louie and her husband Phil were killed in a car accident on December 26, 2008. Their children, Ken, Tina and Cheri, as well as thousands in the Church of the Brethren and all walks of life, all around the world, are devastated by this loss. All who knew Phil and Louie are also inspired by the ways this couple met the world with hope and love.

Sister Stella, Organizer of SITEAW, Shifting Ideas Through Education for African Women, a GWP partner project in Uganda, wrote of Phil and Louie Baldwin Rieman, “Everyone of us had been touched by the deep love they shared. The challenge is on our side to keep that fire of love burning.”

Share your own memories of Louie, and of the Baldwin Rieman family, here.

New GWP logo!

Thanks to Jane Robinette for our new logo! Click here to see more of Jane’s artwork.

Our new logo!

Nan in Sudan!

Nan in Sudan, 2007

Thirteen people from around the country boarded planes this afternoon.

They’re headed for Sudan.

Nan Erbaugh, GWP steering committee member, is traveling with New Community Project for this learning tour – her 4th trip to Sudan! Nan looks forward to seeing familiar faces and places, meeting with GWP partner projects, and returning to a land that has captured her heart.

New Community Project is one of GWP’s most important partners as we work with women around the world. Read more about their learning tour to Sudan here.

Prayers for our partners and sisters

Bethlehem: The holiday lights were taken down and the only glow came from the candles spelling out “Gaza” on the cobble stone.

Please be in prayer for our sisters around the world:

• Esperance Nyirandayisenga, coordinator of “Life is Expensive,” our partner project in Rwanda, as she battles malaria.
• Rana Al-Arja, coordinator of a (partner project) women’s radio show in Palestine, and all in Palestine, especially Gaza, throughout this recent escalation of violence. Rana writes: “To us there is no celebration with the horrible aggression going on in Gaza; our hearts are full of pain and sorrow. Everything is canceled in Bethlehem and with this situation I don’t think any more tourists will come to Palestine.” Unemployment is overwhelming throughout Palestine and the West Bank, and Bethlehem is fully dependent on tourism.
• Please pray for all suffering in this world, and thank God for the blessing of the work these women are doing in their communities! May this new year be more peaceful than the last!

Give a gift to someone you love, and to women around the world

Eimani Rebecce in Maridi, Sudan

As you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Eid, Solstice, or Kwanzaa, God comes to us in many ways. Global Women’s Project sees God in the lives of women and children all over the world! Join us as we work with women seeking justice through grassroots projects in Rwanda, Nepal, Sudan, Palestine, and Uganda.
This holiday season, who really needs more stuff? Instead, we invite you to make a donation to Global Women’s Project in honor of someone you love.

Cards are available highlighting each of our partners, for your convenience.

What are YOU thankful for?

In this time of Thanksgiving, we on the GWP steering committee are grateful:

• for Ruthann Knechel Johansen, whose speech 30 years ago inspired Church of the Brethren women to start Global Women’s Project
• for all of our sisters around the world who are standing up for themselves and their daughters, reaching for justice
• for the dozens of women in the US who have served on the GWP steering committee
• for all of the women and men in the US and around the world who thoughtfully live simply, that others may simply live.