When Women Lead

What happens when men and women begin to share equal responsibilities to see the church grow and go on?  This is not a debate that we conducted recently, but the realization that came to us as we witnessed persecuted churches coping with circumstances.

When pastors were being threatened for their life, if they entered the village to conduct services or pray for the sick, the women stepped in.  They took over services, they led the people who gathered for prayer and they were not afraid to tell the group what God had laid on their hearts. This happened several years ago.

But last month, when connected and premeditated incidents of persecution began to be unleashed on the believers, the women had to step in again.  This time, they were well prepared.  They had the Bible in their hands and in their hearts too.  They were ready to meet the needs of the people and also to approach the authorities for the needed protection.

“One look at these precious ladies, and you would think that they are too silent and too accommodating.  But their real strength was displayed when they began to pray.  There was no way that heaven would not entreat on behalf of their teary and passionate prayers”, observed a visitor the region.

On the cultural front, we are still coming to terms with women sharing equal status, but in the spiritual field, God is raising these women up to become ‘mighty women of valour”

“When I got saved, I was in a desperate situation.  My two children had died, my husband was an alcoholic and there was no income in the house” Ambu briefly narrated.  “Now that I am saved, I am happy, my husband is free from alcohol and we have bought a rickshaw on loan that is bringing us steady income.”  She continued while pointing her finger at her neighbours, “But it is important that they get saved, and I am praying regularly for their salvation.  I don’t want them to go through what I underwent, and I will make sure that I bring Jesus to them”  Now remember Ambu has known the Lord hardly for a year and it is  totally revolutionizing to her testimony and her desire to bring Jesus to others in her locality.

Leela is another hero. Three kids, one husband, no job, no place to stay and constant sickness in the house meant that she was always knocking the doors of doctors and those who would help her. Then she found Jesus and her life turned around.  He bought a push cart and also rented a small house in the slums.  God blessed them and the kids began to go to school.  She had two more children but God began to bless her abundantly.  They bought the shack where they were living and began to rebuild it by faith.  With no money but total faith, she completed her house! And recently two of her children aged 12 and 9 recited the entire epistle of Colossians on a Sunday morning.  God began to show her visions and dreams and all were coming true.  Then she started to pray for the sick and they began to be healed.  Her house now has become a centre for healing and help.

“I have received so much from the Lord and I don’t know how to thank him” she said to us recently, ‘so I have decided now to spend at least one hour in the prayer room in the church interceding for my community and the nations of the world.  I have a sense that it is going to be the best gift I can give to the Lord.”

Women indeed  are changing the spiritual scene in this country, becoming not just recipients of grace and compassion but becoming the very life that brings about a total and radical change in their homes, their families and in their communities.