October 19, 2005

by Lyndsay Fejeran

Kit Watts, founder of the Women’s Resource Center and “Women and the Word.,” has planned the eighth annual Women and the Word beginning Friday, October 21,2005 at 8:00 am in Matheson Chapel.

Women and the Word is a two-day event that began in 1998 with “the purpose to give women a forum to structure their lives around,” says Penny Shell, Detail Coordinator of Women and the Word and Director of the Women’s Resource Center at LSU. This annual program is typically held out of state but for the first time it is going to be held on our very own La Sierra University campus.

Friday’s events include an opening devotional by Carla Gober of Loma Linda University, reports from Chris Oberg, new Senior Pastor of Calimesa, and Yami Bazan, Southeastern California Conference Associate Youth Director, homilies of two young women preachers, graduates of Oakwood College and La Sierra University: Andrea Trusty King and Marlene Ferreras, and special presentations by some outstanding scholars. You can register for $65.00 at the WRC, space is limited.

However, Saturday’s event is free of charge and begins at 8:30 am at LSUC with Hallie Wilson, homilist.  Followed by special guests; Ginger Hanks-Harwood, Patty Cabrera, and Sheryll McMillan.  At  2:30 p.m. many of the ministers who participated in ordaining women at Sligo, La Sierra University, and Victoria Adventist Churches in 1995 will be present along with all of the ordinands and Joel Haldeman standing in for his mother, Madelynn Jones-Haldeman.

Women and the Word previously partnered with the Association of Adventist Women and this year it has partnered with the La Sierra University Church.  According to Shell the purpose is to not only to give women a forum but  “…fill a need for women scholars to share some of their research and for women and men of the Adventist church to hear some of the research that the women have done.”  With many more educational goals and some great events the WRC expects this years Women and the Word to be a historical occasion.