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Welcome
Welcome to WomenToday.International, a resource provided by the Women’s Service Team of the International Churches of Christ.
First, a little background: The mission of the Women’s Service Team is to provide additional support to the leadership within our international family of churches in order “to inspire and train women servant leaders around the globe to grow spiritually, to connect, and to advance the gospel in a powerful way.”
In our efforts to fulfill our mission statement, with this website our priority is to provide resources by and for ICOC women to use in ministry. We also want to provide more opportunities for our sisters who are interested in learning and growing spiritually to be able to access articles and resources in their native languages, and to connect with the international women’s ministry around the world.
For those of you who regularly pour yourselves out in service to your congregation and your community, we want you to know that you’re not alone. Our aim and vision is to help keep you refreshed in your walk with God, to encourage you, to provide inspiration and resource material you can use in your ministry, to facilitate an exchange of ideas and ministry tools, and to strengthen our circle of sisterhood as we continue to proclaim the good news of Jesus throughout the world!
From the Women’s Service Team, again we say, “Welcome!”
WOMEN'S SERVICE TEAM MEMBERS
Womentoday.international InfoParty 2020
WomenToday.International InfoParty Celebrates its First Year
In December 2019, just a few months before widespread COVID-19 lockdowns began to occur around the world, the ICOC Women’s Service Team soft-launched www.womentoday.international. Built separately from the global ICOC web portal, www.disciplestoday.org, the vision was to maintain intimate connection to Disciples Today and the legacy Women Today page on that site, and from that noble beginning create a Christian women’s website exclusively by and for ICOC women and our loved ones, particularly highlighting the diversity and international nature of our women’s ministries for Christian women around the world.
By October of 2020, almost a year into this effort, site users grew from zero to more than 8000. The volunteer team decided to use the occasion of an all-team meeting to celebrate, inform, update, and inspire -- not just our own volunteers, but also invited guests, which included Regional Family Chairwomen, Regional Communication Directors, and prayerfully potential new volunteers.
Embedded in this hour-long recording of the event is some real inspirational treasure: notably, worship leader Tina Crawley’s moving personal testimony; recently widowed Jeanie Shaw’s motivational vision for women’s influence; H.O.P.E. Director of Volunteer Services Nadine Templer’s compelling charge to use our unique gifts of compassion to imitate Jesus in service to the poor.
For your convenience, time markers are noted below, so you can view the sections of this resource which are of greatest interest to you.
60-second promotional video introduction 00:00:00 – 00:01:04 (thanks to Sam Peickert, Jam3spike on TikTok)
What’s the Website Task Force and the Women’s Service Team? 00:01:04 -00:02:39 Tammy Fleming (Kiev, Ukraine) explains the website task force and the mission statement of the ICOC Women’s Service Team
Meet the Core Team volunteers 00:02:39 – 00:08:51 Sharon Gauthier (Chicago, USA) introduces the Core Team of website volunteers: Manju, project manager; Jenelle, graphic designer; Sarah, back end; Clara, social media. Meet these inspiring women and hear from them what they love about their role as volunteers on this website task force.
Foreign Language segment and content editors. 00:08:51 – 00:15:38 We’re proud to present content in the original Chinese, French, Russian, German, and Hindi. This section highlights Portuguese (Leslie de Morais, Brazil) and Spanish (Clara Escudero, Ecuador), and the group of women who regularly volunteer as content editors.
Jesus’ ministry to the poor. 00:15:38 - 00:25:20 Introducing a brand-new feature to the site: Loving our Neighbors, highlighting Jesus’ ministry to the poor; with editor Rachel Louis (Singapore); short video introduction by Nadine Templer, Senior Director of Volunteer Programs, H.O.P.E. Worldwide (Katmandu, Nepal).
Special guest Jeanie Shaw. 00:25:20 – 00:33:27 Jeanie (Boston, USA) is a Women’s Ministry Leader and recently widowed elder’s wife; author, blogger; and has been hugely influential in many lives and women’s ministries around the world in many ways, including her role as editor of the original Women Today page on DisciplesToday.
Women in Worship, moving testimony by Tina Crawley. 00:33:27 - 00:41:05 Launch of another new feature, Women in Worship -- a video playlist of ICOC women leading worship and spiritual music. Special guest: R & B hit artist and worship leader Tina Crawley (Chicago, USA)
User Personas. 00:41:30 - 00:47:25 Morgan McClellan, Product Designer (Chicago, USA) explaining our exploration of user personas
Google analytics stats. 00:47:25 - 00:52:42 A brief look at the Google analytics for the site: zero to 14,500 users in 13 months! Sarah Peickert (Raleigh, North Carolina, USA)
Want to volunteer? 00:52:42 – 00:57:30 We’d love some more additions to our volunteer team! Here’s what’s needed and how you can get involved and get in touch with us. We’ll even train you.
Concluding segment. 57:30 – end Brief final thank you’s to the volunteers, closing prayer.