Moritzburg, Germany Part 2

If you are reading this post, and have not read the one posted yesterday, I would suggest that you start with it (Mortizburg, Germany Part 1--there's a link in the sidebar on the right) and then read the continuation of the story here.

In Part 1, I gave you a pretty good picture of the schedule and what the women do all week. There are a couple other things that are very important to CBW that happen throughout the week. The first is gifts.

I mentioned the personalized bag they receive when they check-in that is full of goodies. When they arrived at the first session (where we welcomed them, etc.), there were 3 gifts sitting on the table for each of them from Brazil. (I promise to explain Brazil in just a minute). Every morning when they arrived in the meeting room, there was another gift. And each evening when they went to dinner, there was a gift at their places in the dining room. Gifts included: a bracelet, a watch, a book, a CD, homemade soap, a jeweled pen, a kitchen towel (from Brazil), lotion, bookmarks, and a frame (from Mexico). The gifts are all things that are donated to CBW for the women (or purchased with donated money). One of the goals of CBW is to be lavish with these women who so seldom get to experience lavishness. That's why we try to find a location that is extra nice and that's why they are given gifts at every turn. One missionary said, "Man, I'm not gonna know what to do when I get home and I go to breakfast and there's not a gift there." Several have said, "It's like Christmas." They are so touched by this simple act. And it is so fun to give--Jesus was right, it is more blessed to give than to receive.

The next piece of the CBW puzzle that needs to be explained is where the name comes from. In 2 Timothy 4:21, Paul urges Timothy to "do your best to come before winter." We believe that winter can come in many forms, especially for missionary women. It may be lonliness, homesickness, depression, language frustration, culture shock, etc. And what we strive to do is get there before winter arrives and to try and bring renewal. We have had women say, "You came at just the right time because the snow had already begun to fall."

Earlier in that same chapter (vs. 13), Paul asks Timothy to bring the cloak that he left in Troas. Before the first renewal in 2001, Come Before Winter acquired a cloak. The cloak was taken to Brazil (the location of the first renewal). There one woman was chosen to be a missionary ambassador, to travel with the team to the next renewal and to bring the cloak with her. While she has the cloak, she puts something on there from the host nation (in this example, Brazil). At each renewal since then, a missionary ambassador has been chosen to travel to the next renewal as part of the team as the cloak-bearer. And at each stop along the way, a flag or a piece of art has been added to the front of the cloak.

Here is the travelogue of the cloak:
Robin Dutton carried it from Brazil to Greece
Liz Crittenden carried it from Greece (she works in Bosnia) to Italy
Jennifer Williams carried it from Italy to Siberia
Nelly Yevgrafova carried it from Siberia to Thailand
Gigie Caranza carried it from Thailand (she is from the Philippines) to Mexico
Kim Solis carried it from Mexico to West Africa
Louise Koonce, carried it from Togo to Brazil
Gail Heiderich carried it from Brazil to Germany
And now Tonia Lastilla will carry it from Germany (she is Italian) to Singapore.

In Germany, we had a rare privelege of having 4 cloakbearers in one location. Two of the participants had been to renewals before and had then gone on as cloakbearers to other locations. This is a picture of Tonia, Jennifer, Liz & Gail.


Before Gail came from Brazil, she emailed all of the women who had attended the renewal earlier this year and asked them if they would like to send a gift to the women in Europe. So, on behalf of all the missionaries in South America, Gail brought 2 keychains (from 2 different cities in Brazil), a bookmark (from Chile), a bracelet (from Brazil), and some lace (from Paraguay)as gifts for the missionaries in Europe. This was such a sweet blessing.

This is a picture of Gail handing over the cloak to Tonia who will be travelling to Singapore next June. After giving her the cloak, she also blessed her in Portuguese which was a very sweet moment.

I think now, I have officially covered all of the highlights of Come Before Winter. If you still have questions, please do not hesitate to ask. I will be happy to divulge any more information I have. :) Love to all and thanks for reading this.

Here's the team outside Martin Luther's home in Wittenburg (our excursion the day after the women left)