Continued topic on Partnering with Women Cross-culturally (earlier post)...
I experienced great joy on the field as I took part in ladies’ conferences. In the first few years of our service, I always dreamed of having seminars for ladies in the Russian churches in coordination with American volunteers. The men would have events together, but I did not see a great amount of activity with the ladies. I was able to participate in a couple of conferences in St. Pete. With much satisfaction I was involved in some of the greatest events in all my years as a missionary. Overall the Russian sisters thoroughly enjoyed the topics and joining hearts with other sisters of like belief. The nationality differences were forgotten and did not interfere with the delivery or hearing of the message. Plus, the brothers were receptive in allowing the ladies to participate more openly in active service, whereas in the past men mostly dominated any activity in the church.
While helping coordinate the conferences, I listed these goals for implementing an effective women’s conference cross-culturally. Having goals for a women’s conference can make a coordinator’s (e.g., on-field missionary or stateside volunteer) job easier. If a person has a desire to do a conference, she can talk with someone who has actually planned and implemented one, thus providing her with personalized understanding. Coordinators have much to gain from both planning and doing a conference, but communicating with someone who has had experience can be very beneficial.
After praying and deciding on desired goals, I made certain conclusions. I organized meetings between Russian sisters, American volunteers and myself (a missionary) that proved to be very useful. Then I reflected upon the team’s thoughts and wishes and compared those to the desires of others, thus giving me the opportunity to learn more how to plan an effective women’s conference cross-culturally. It pays to listen. After all, the conference is intended for them.
I chose to work with the head director of the women’s ministry at a central church in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Also, initially I corresponded by e-mail with the leader of the women’s ministry of a local church in the states which planned a volunteer trip to Russia to assist in a two day conference. Until I began the process, I knew very little about the steps to pursue this task. What I had desired to happen for eight years was very realistic and how it would benefit the churches in this area seemed hopeful, but I was very interested in finding out if the conference would actually be a success. I hoped that a coordinator could combine the two cultures without any hard feelings or unsatisfactory mishaps. I did not have a full understanding of how that would work other than to prayerfully work hard to unite the two over several weeks of collaborating. In order for this to happen, I had to start early. I needed to knit the two together by helping them understand one another better.
Two desires I listed were for the speakers to be dedicated to those attending and to understand the topics that they were to share and sensitively know how to share those topics. The goals need to be healthy, spiritual and productive methods for interaction between coordinators, speakers and participants of the conference. Along with this interaction, I encouraged that the coordinator and speakers improve in relationships with nationals. A speaker in most cases can know her or his participants better by also knowing the nationals’ culture and the relationship that it brings to their topic of discussion.
Desires three, four and five...to be continued in the next post...
-The Chosen Path, L. Burch
