"More Than a Standby"

Sharing Personal Experience Encourages Openness

Austria | EUD WM news | Luise Schneeweiß | March 30, 2023

A diverse group of German-speaking single women bond through fellowship and spiritual nourishment.

Single women of the Austrian Union gathered in Mondsee in the Salzkammergut for a weekend retreat in mid-March 2023 with the theme “More Than a Standby.” The participants and speakers came from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland and were between 21 and 72 years old.

We had the Youth Hostel in Mondsee practically to ourselves and enjoyed not only good food and the proximity to the lake, with walks in the great weather. Above all, we will remember the good fellowship. Although some of us knew only one or two people when we arrived, the ice broke quickly through activities that included laughing together about caricatures on the bulletin board and identifying with characters in a skit about being single. We continued bonding together by playing games, singing, praying, studying the Bible in groups, and creating handicrafts.

In addition to profound spiritual and practical impulses, we also had enough time for personal conversations.

After two speakers had given a moving personal testimony on Sabbath afternoon, some of the participants also contributed their own personal stories. A mood of great solidarity arose with an encouraging openness which one rarely experiences in everyday life. In the end, we were amazed at how much God had given us in these few hours together, and how such a diverse group could experience something so special together.

Photo credit: WM Austria
As reported by Luise Schneeweiß, originally posted by EUD WM news

Published in Mosaic newsletter, 2023 Q2