Arise Women of God

A foundation team member for Dove Northland Tai Tokerau has just become the new president of Dove Catholic Fellowship for Women, Wellington.

Dec07DoveWN.jpg Dove Catholic Fellowship for Women, Wellington, has a new president, Sandra Kinney.

In 1994 Sandra was a foundation team member of Dove Northland Tai Tokerau. However, after serving on the team for only a year, she was called for five years to serve, with her husband John, as a lay missionary in Papua New Guinea. On their return they settled in Wellington.

The Wellington fellowship, at their final meeting for the year on Saturday, 17 November, honoured and thanked Eileen MacKey for her commitment as president for the past three years, and Diane Andrews from the Dove National team prayerfully placed the mantle of leadership on Sandra.

The meeting was a thanksgiving for the past year. The women were entertained by Liz Curtis Higgs via her ‘Mary Magdalene’ DVD followed by praise and worship to the Lord for all his blessings throughout the year. The afternoon ended with afternoon tea and gifts for each of the women.

We are now looking forward to 2008. An event to mark on the calendar is the Dove April-May 2008 retreats to be held in Taupo, Auckland and Christchurch the theme being Arise Women of God.

Dove has been established for well over 20 years and we have our own foundation of faithful women of God. Four of these women will be our retreat speakers. They are past national presidents, Mary-Rose Webb, Helen Reinen, Shaaron Arnold and Carleen Walshe. The scripture prayed for the retreats is: But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will walk and not faint Isaiah 40:31.

The vision for these weekends is to inspire, encourage and challenge women through the stories of our speakers’ faith journeys to rise up in their lives as women ‘bonding together in the power of the Holy Spirit, to become instrumental in building up parish and family life, providing effective support for each other’. An aim at the retreats is to provide a time and place to ‘lead women to a personal and ongoing relationship with Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, enabling them to become fully immersed in the life of his church and to become effective evangelisers’. This is the foundational vision of Dove and continues to be the vision in every fellowship throughout New Zealand today. The retreats will be at Taupo 25-27 April, Auckland 16-18 May, and Christchurch 23-25 May. For more information go to www.dove.org.nz