Women at Bethel had a chance to invest a Saturday thinking about their roles in caring for themselves and others when Sister Care for College Women came to campus.
Bethel College students work on an art exercise, part of the faith formation portion of the Sister Care for College Women day that took place earlier in the semester.“I just wish it had come sooner,” said one participant. “I’m a senior and I would love to do it again.”
The Sister Care for College Women ministry of Mennonite Women USA (MW USA) is based on the well-established Sister Care seminars that Rhoda Keener and Carolyn Holderread Heggen present around the world from India to Cuba. They along with Ruth Lapp Guengerich had the vision for Sister Care for College Women.
Claire DeBerg, communications manager for MW USA and editor of its magazine, Timbrel, prompted the 2013 visioning session when she reflected to Keener, “If something like Sister Care had been available to me when I was in college, my life might have taken a different, more positive route.”
MW USA staff eventually developed Sister Care for College Women, for which MW USA’s new executive director, Marlene Bogard, is providing sole leadership while Keener and Heggen continue leading other Sister Care seminars.
Bogard’s first Sister Care for College Women on her own was the one at Bethel.
“So many wonderful truths are revealed during Sister Care that young women could benefit from as well,” said Bogard.
“There are differences in the two seminars,” she added. “In Sister Care for College Women, we’re considering where college women are in their lives and what issues they are facing right now.
“Sister Care for College Women is life-stage appropriate, for this precious stage of young adulthood. That’s different from Sister Care, where we take considerable time looking at the many significant experiences over decades of life that older women carry.
“Sister Care for College Women asks: What are the important concerns and issues facing 18- to 22 year-old women?”
The five areas on which Sister Care for College Women focuses are managing stress, working with personal and physical boundaries, life direction (expressed in the question “What will you do with your one precious life?”), care for others through compassionate listening, and spiritual life and growth.
At Bethel, two resource people came in to help with some of the areas.
Barbara Thiesen ‘81, co-director of libraries at Bethel and a trained yoga instructor, demonstrated breathing techniques that can help reduce stress. Beth Burns, an art instructor at Slate Creek Elementary School, led the group in an art project that connected to the faith formation segment of the day.
“The best part was either the yoga or the art,” said a participant. “The yoga was calming and something that will be very useful in the future.”
The structure of Sister Care for College Women is “to have local women with skills and gifts to share with their community of young adult women come for the enrichment parts of the day,” Bogard said. Local women also organize and provide food for meals and snacks.
The hope is to do at least one Sister Care for College Women a year at each of the Mennonite institutions of higher education.
After the Sister Care for College Women at Bethel, Bogard said “it feels more like I’m owning this,” while at the same time, she’s still refining the program.
The 15 women who were part of Sister Care for College Women at Bethel were overwhelmingly positive about the experience. Comments were divided about evenly between “the best” being the yoga/breathing exercises and art focus, or the things they learned about boundaries, how to set them and how to maintain them.
“This was a really fun day,” said one participant. “Are there ways for us to get involved more in this?”
After the seminar, Bogard said, three of the Bethel students “expressed their desire to have mentoring relationships with women in local churches. So the answer is Yes!”