Lausanne World Pulse – LAUSANNE REPORTS – Women Who Can Change the World

By Elke Werner

“These women can change the world!” The East German tour guide in the Wartburg, the castle where Dr. Martin Luther translated the Bible into German, was impressed with the international group of women who had come together 9-16 June 2007. “I have never ever seen a group like this,” she commented. “I can feel the energy in this group. These women have so much power! What is different about you?” The words of a non-Christian woman from the former GDR expressed what all of us also felt: God was present in our midst.

What Kind of Group Was It?

During the sixteen years Robyn Claydon, vice chair of the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization, travelled around the world to build the women’s network of Lausanne, she had met most of us in our home countries. She soon became our mentor, encourager, promoter and friend. She helped most of us see the potential God had given us, potential which we ourselves could not yet see. In 2000, she invited most of us for our first Lausanne Women’s Network meeting in Berlin, Germany. We got to know each other and kept in touch. Some of us met again at the 2004 Forum for World Evangelization in Thailand and at the 2006 Lausanne Younger Leaders Gathering in Malaysia. Claydon has kept in touch and has seen us grow in our ministries and personally.

Now that I have been given the position as Lausanne Senior Associate for Women, Claydon and I decided to invite the same group of women to meet up in Germany. A few new contacts were added, as was a small team of German supporters of the Women’s International Network in God’s Service. It was a wonderful reunion and the new members of the group soon felt right at home.

The Program

Each morning started with a short Bible study led by Claydon (Australia), Noor van Haaften (Netherlands), Juliet Thomas (India), Kathy Oppenhuizen (USA), Gerda Schaller (Germany), Olga Zaprometova (Russia) or myself (Germany). Most of the day was spent listening and sharing about our families, ministries and plans for the future. After each report, we prayed. Although we serve in very different fields, we all share the same passion for reaching this world with the gospel, be it by working as a Bible-school teacher, building schools in slums, planting churches among lepers, helping refugees in Sudan, pastoring a church, building a network of women or leading an international prayer network.

Elke Werner is the senior associate for women in evangelism for the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization. She is the co-leader of a vital interdenominational church fellowship (Christus-Treff) with centers in Marburg, Berlin and Jerusalem. Elke resides with her husband Dr. Roland Werner in Marburg, Germany.