Thank God, and let’s get going!
Note: This is a year-end message from our executive director, Linda Post Bushkofsky.
Our presiding bishop, Elizabeth Eaton, challenged the Women of the ELCA in her keynote address to our Triennial Gathering last summer. She said:
We have already been given everything that we need, by the Holy Spirit, to be the church in the world. We have everything. Everything. So when people start saying “there isn’t enough” and “we can’t” and “yes, but,” just say “Thank God, and let’s get going!”
Her words echo in my mind as I go over the hopes and plans of the churchwide women’s organization. “We have everything. Everything.”
Women of the ELCA is almost entirely supported by your gifts and the gifts of women like you throughout our church. Thank you for your faithful generosity!
Bishop Eaton’s inspiring words remind me that as a churchwide community of women, we have an abundance of gifts – vision, money, time, talent, commitment, strength, and ideas. Her challenge calls us to respond by giving thanks for all that we have – and to get going by putting those gifts to work in ministry!
Will you join me by clicking here and making a generous gift to Women of the ELCA today?
A few days before Bishop Eaton spoke, the Ninth Triennial Convention of Women of the ELCA set priorities for the next three years. Among the actions taken, we committed to:
- raise awareness and prevention of human trafficking
- work against bullying and be champions for the safety of children in congregations
- support the initiative of the Northeastern Minnesota Synodical Women’s Organization to provide solar power to Phebe Hospital in Liberia.
- make our congregations places of hospitality and pray for guidance in responding to the humanitarian crisis of unaccompanied children entering the United States
- continue our ongoing programs of leadership development, Bible study, scholarships, grants, and published resources that equip women in thousands of congregations to carry out bold and creative ministry.
Thanks be to God, we have work to do. Thanks be to God, we have everything we need to do it. Your gift today will equip Women of the ELCA to step boldly into the work before us. Thank you for your generous support. Thank God, and let’s get going!
Linda Post Bushkofsky
Executive director
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