Some things take time

It came as a surprize in October 2019 – Hannele Ottschofski was to be one of five women to be presented with the Woman of the Year Award of the General Conference Women’s Ministries Department. Nobody expected her to fly to the Church Headquarters in Silver Spring so she was not able to attend the little ceremony prepared by the General Conference Department leaders Heather-Dawn Small and Raquel Arrais. The certificate was delivered to the Division President at Annual Council to be passed on, who gave it to Dagmar Dorn, the Women’s Ministries Director of the Inter-European Division.
Some things take time and there was no natural occasion for presenting the document. Dagmar did not just want to send the document by mail, so she invited Hannele and the other women she had worked with closely in the German-speaking areas of the Division to come to Zurich for a day on March 9, 2020. Now that they have all (except for Angelika Pfaller, who was not able to attend) retired from active service, there are not so many occasions for them to meet each other. Gerd-Laila Walter from Austria hopped on a night train and was the greatest surprize, as no-one had expected her to make the long trip just to be part of this little celebration. Together with Denise Hochstrasser and Heidi Albisser the five women spent a wonderful day, enjoying loving memories and real friendship. For all it was just like zooming back to the times when they would come together to present Leadership Certification Seminars in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. They expressed their conviction that although God used them to teach others, they had all personally learned more through this experience and grown as individuals. And finally, Dagmar was able to present the certificate to Hannele. With hearts full of joy and gratitude for the privilege they had of serving other women they all returned to their respective homes with a special glow.