Women Reaching Women
Inter-Mission Training
for
Missionary Women on the Field
Supporting the Larger Kingdom Team for Women-to-Women Discipleship, Training and Mentoring
Women Reaching Women is an inter-mission ministry of Entrust that is designed to encourage, resource and equip missionary women on the field. Our goal is to enable them to continue in love for the Savior, persevere in hope, and grow in confidence, ability and passion to serve the women on their fields, for the sake of healthier churches around the world. We do this by:
- appreciating the sacrifices women make to live in another culture, learn another language;
- understanding the benefit of ongoing personal enrichment and relationship, and how hard it can be to find;
- realizing that ministry needs become apparent after spending time on the field that the missionary is sometimes not prepared for in their training beforehand;
- recognizing that women cannot usually leave the field to get the training they feel a need, and need opportunities they can access geographically; and
- valuing the wider network of missionary women in a geographic area to multiply our efforts and resources together.
As we have worked to serve national women in the fields in which Entrust works, we have noticed a need among other missionary women to be personally refreshed and professionally equipped. In line with our mission values of partnership, life-on-life mentoring, and interactive learning contexts, Entrust works with missionary women in various geographical locations to develop small group, relational training opportunities that are relevant to their needs and opportunities.
How did this develop?
Entrust has been assisting the global church since 1979 by offering accessible, transformational, biblical training. In 2003 we began an experiment in Europe and Russia to resource women missionaries with training in developing ministry to women in the local churches and communities in which they served. Because of the blessing it was mutually to all involved, we desire to expand this opportunity to women missionaries on every continent. To read testimonies from various women missionaries regarding the value of their Entrust training, personally and professionally, click here. Consistent themes of encouragement and hope to fulfill their callings were experienced by:
- personal and spiritual refreshment through time with other women around God's Word,
- relational connectedness and friendship in wider networks of like-minded women, and
- discovery and/or affirmation of gifting and abilities with growth in confidence to exercise them.
How does it work?
At the request of interested missionary women, we begin to consult together on how to best organize training opportunities around them. Various scenarios are possible, such as:
- accessible geographic locations on ministry fields, served by consistent mentoring teams;
- regular training modules stateside for furloughing missionaries; and
- recommended relationships with sending churches to train mentors and strengthen the active commitment to their own missionaries. This can be accomplished as follows:
1) Groups of missionary women are established in a given area for peer-discipleship and learning.
2) Mentoring teams are designed to work with them throughout the experience.
3) Both missionaries and mentors commit to the determined training experience, done together in person at a specific location, and are give the freedom of contact between modules in possible ways that best support them (email, Skype, telephone, other visits).
Curriculum
Though curriculum decisions are part of designing a training situation, Entrust has four training segments that continue to be requested as valuable foundations for ministry to women, written by women for women. Though format is flexible, each course has about 12 lessons that each require about three hours of homework preparation and three hours of interactive session to complete. For example, this can be done one session monthly, three sessions quarterly for a whole day, six sessions semi-annually for several days, or twelve sessions annually for a week.
- Course #1: Facilitating skills and perspectives toward good adult education practice in interactive, small group discipleship training. We use the Entrust course entitled Walking with Christ, a study of basic Christian life issues, as the practice material. The ladies also consider models for implementing training in their situations.
- Course #2: Discovery Bible Study - basic Bible study skills, writing lessons and messages, leading small groups, and lots of practice!
- Course #3: Developing a Discerning Heart - deeper personal sanctification and peer-helping.
- Course #4: Women Serving Women - discovering spiritual gifts, temperaments, team building, identifying needs and creating ministry to women, and various issues related to leading ministry to women.
Other courses are implemented as necessary, in collaboration with the missionaries. We would like to see more missionary women who are experiencing the need for accessible, relevant training, receive that training in creative ways. And we would like to see more missionary women encouraged personally in their spiritual lives and callings!
Who Do I contact?
|
Wendy Wilson |
Liz Loeffler Entrust Administrative Coordinator |
| Testimonies from Missionaries |
| Name | Size | Type | Last Modified |
| WRW Brochure | 703 KB | PDF Document | 12/28/2009 11:25:48 AM |