Bernadette Fogliani, who grew up in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, has been living for forty years in the part of Switzerland where Italian is spoken. She is married, has three adult children and three grandchildren. A massage therapist by profession, she had her own practice until 2018.
Originally a catholic, she came in contact with the Seventh-Day Adventist church in 1981 through a book evangelist and was baptized together with her husband in 1983. From the beginning she was active in the congregation, in the children's Sabbath school, Sabbath school Bible study groups, as a deaconess, preaching, and was one of the first women of the Conference to be ordained as a church elder.
At the first EUD Women's Ministries Congress in Schwäbisch Gmünd in 2014, Bernadette was blessed with a great enthusiasm for women's ministries. The experience of this congress was phantastic and overwhelming at the same time! She really felt how God was calling her into the work of this department. This enthusiasm was transferred to other women in Ticino as she started Women’s Ministries with them, assisted by the local pastor, and set up the women's ministries department there.
Since January 2016 she has been the leader of the Women’s Ministries Department in the church district in Lugano, and she was also the initiator of the first Women’s Ministries Congress in Ticino in 2017.
Bernadette says, “I love the Adventist Church, the message and God’s work! I am so grateful to God, for all that He has done in and with my life, that I feel bound to fully dedicate myself to Him and His work! HE will guide and protect me! I am in his hands!” Her favoute verse is 1 Chronicles 28:20 “Be strong and courageous, and do the work. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you until all the work for the service of the temple of the Lord is finished.”
Her hobbies are: Nordic walking, hiking, cross-country skiing, knitting, drawing, spending time with her grandchildren, reading and studying the Bible and good books, having fellowship with women, getting involved with them in order toenrich and support each other.
We welcome Bernadette as Women's Ministries Director for the FRST (French- and Italian speaking Conference of Switzerland) and wish her all the best for the future, much joy, enthusiasm and the blessing of God for this work