Women at Work

Sometime ago, I came across this question on the internet: "How does the SDA Church address the issue of equality across genders? Can women be pastors and ministers in the SDA Church?"

That question comes to mind now as I consider the work women of the Royal Valley SDA Church have been doing this past year.

Majority of our members are women and girls. That means we have very few who can be ordained elders and deacons. But never did it mean that we lack busybees doing the work of the Lord.

Our Women's ministry started as a loose group of mothers and housewives who simply wanted to improve the lifestyles of their respective families. So they took an interest in basic nutrition and shared vegetarian recipes with one another. Later on, they began to study natural ways of healing, focusing on herbs. Lecturers were invited to the church to speak about different kinds of herbs and their uses. This knowledge was readily shared with relatives, friends, and even complete strangers.

Some Saturday evenings would find these women and their husbands still in church, repacking capsules of powdered garlic, turmeric, and charcoal for distribution to whoever needs them.

Later on, the women acquired knowledge on basic massage techniques, which became very useful for our little medical missions.

This past year, the church opened a new branch of ministry: Bible studies in the Women's Correctional. And guess who's spearheading this work!

Every Sunday morning, the women of our church would meet at the Ray of Hope Village to study the Bible with the women inmates. Bibles and other basic needs were given away and knowledge was shared regarding God's Word and how to take care of our health.

The inmates were taught about the healing wonders of herbs, charcoal, and water. Soon, even the jail wardens began to benefit from the knowledge.

After some time, the inmates began to ask the church women to visit sick relatives and to study the Bible with them too. On Sunday afternoons, they might opt to visit one such family or go to the local hospital to offer prayers, songs, and messages of encouragement to the sick.

After which, they'll all head to the church to practice with the church choir. The evening will be spent offering songs at the church's local radio program.

With all this work, one might think that the women will soon grow weary, but no. They actually enjoy getting together at least once a week and working together. It's also bonding time for them. Our Sabbath afternoons at church would be littered with testimonies and experiences by these women who share God whenever and wherever possible.

The women are always the first ones to sign up for a tract distribution activity, or for a visit to other churches, or for one training program or another. One could say that they do more work than our church men (although the men do all of their appointed work to the best of their ability).

And that's not all of it yet. All our Sabbath School Superintendents, secretaries, and choristers are women. Ninety per cent of our AY officers are women and girls. We have women lecturers, musicians, teachers, and speakers for prayer meetings and Sabbath programs.

The best thing about all this work is that our women are now more inspired and more driven to study God's Word for themselves so they could increase in knowledge and in wisdom.

Here we see what a great place there is for women in the ministry. Gone are the days when women had to sit home and wait for men to do the job. The women of today are women empowered to accomplish great things - learning, healing, inspiring, and winning souls within the home, the church, and beyond.

So going back to the question we started with, I think one pastor had it right. In God's church, regardless of gender, age, nationality, or social status, the question is always "what can I do to be of service to Christ?"

And for women, there's a lot.

Believe me, I know. Because as I am writing this, women of our church are gathered in the home of a newly-widowed woman and her teenage children, studying the Bible with them.