More than 500 women gathered in Sovata, Romania recently to attend the 25th anniversary celebration of BEE/Entrust Romanian Women’s Training, representing the thousands that received training over the years.  Some of the women at the conference were from the first generation of trained women, but most were new students—almost half were under 40 years of age—attesting to the ongoing ministry to the current generation of women leaders.

Entrust’s effort to train women to shepherd other women for healthy churches began in 1985 as an experiment in Romania and continued to develop throughout Eastern Europe and Russia.  What once started as a western initiative has been completely indigenized, as the women’s training ministry is now being led and improved by national women all over this part of the world.

This was more than a celebration of the past—it was a mobilization for the future ministry in these countries, led by gifted and called national women who are giving their time and energy to be links in the chain of new life in Christ. After the general conference, the women who were serving as national directors for their countries stayed on for two days to share challenges, strategies and evaluations of their ongoing work.  By being together in one room for direct communication, these women from Macedonia, Moldova, Russia, Bulgaria, Africa and Romania now see each other as a wider international team, a “giving team” that works together to meet the ongoing needs for women’s training on the Russian/European continent. God will continue to accomplish great things through women training women.