Touch a Heart, Tell Southern Asia

Heather-Dawn Small, GC WM director;
Hepzibah Kore, SUD WM director;
Jean Sundaram, Southeast India Union
Section WM director; and Raquel Arrais,
GC WM associate director.

Women’s Ministries directors from all unions/conferences, sections, and regions of the Southern Asia Division (SUD) met for six days in November in Bangalore, India, for training and planning. Organized by Hepzibah Kore, SUD, Women’s Ministries (WM) director the advisory, “Touch a Heart, Tell Southern Asia,” was a wonderful time for training and for planning programs to help the women of the great Indian continent. The advisory provided the women with time to learn, to share experiences, and also to participate in various discussion groups.

Women leaders at the SUD Advisory
in Bangalore, India

Training included 16 topics from Level 3 and 4 of the Leadership Certification program; these were presented by Heather-Dawn Small, General Conference WM director, and Raquel Arrais, General Conference WM associate director. The women’s response to the training was inspiring. These women leaders are sincerely committed to leadership training and are ready to share the information with the women in their churches.

Ministry in India faces many challenges because of the rapid rise of this nation’s importance in the world. Until the last generation, “India was a forgotten country on the far side of the world.” Today it has leaped into the foreground as one of the most important players in world events:

• India will soon surpass China as the world’s most populous nation.
• One of every six people on earth lives in India.
• India contains one fourth (412 million) of the 1.6 billion people on earth who have never heard the Gospel.
• The Adventist church population is over 800,000 members in a country that is majority Hindu in beliefs.

Women touching hearts

Despite these challenges, the women are actively involved in outreach. During the meetings the leaders brought ideas, plans, and strategies on ways to involve more women in outreach programs. Topics such as Small Group Evangelism, Friendship Evangelism, Leadership, and The Key Issues Women Face (poverty, abuse, illiteracy, lack of training, and health), as well as many agenda items brought by the Unions, were addressed during this important advisory.

Leaders receive HIV/AIDS education

For the women gathered at “Touch a Heart, Tell Southern Asia,” this was a joyful time to share and encourage each other. It was also a time of commitment, a time to be thankful, and a time to be optimistic. “God has been blessing the women in India in many ways. Although the challenges in Southern Asia remain, we know that with God there is no obstacle too big for us to conquer,” said Hepzibah Kore at the end of the advisory.