Asia

Think of the names of the first ten people from the Bible that come to your mind.

How many of them were women?

In Jesus’ day, just as in our time, women of many cultures are marginalized in importance of a society. That is an over-generalization, but you get the idea. In many cultures women’s tasks are assumed to be those related to the house, children, and meals.

But think of the women in the Bible who made impacts that defined cultures, altered decisions, and impacted individuals who impacted masses. God continues raising up these humble women today.

I just got an email from a pastor friend in a south Asian country. A week ago he told me he was taking five women to a coastal village to teach other women. Two of the women could read. I don’t know how many of the village women could, but from experience in this country I would be very surprised if three or four of the twenty-five women coming for the training could read at a second grade level. Starting at about age five or six, these girls have spent years patching clothes and nets and going to the market for their fishing-dependent families.

This was the first time somebody had come to specifically teach these Christ-loving women a ministry skill.

This was the first time these five women trainers had ever trained anybody else too.

In a church made of bamboo and banana leaves and elevated on bamboo poles to keep from flooding, these women spent two days together. They taught each other stories. They talked about them. They went out at night and told other women in the village as they were making meals and chasing dogs away from the pots.

In this small Buddhist village on the coast, these unnoticed women talked about Jesus. And people’s lives are different – their neighbors as well as their own.