The Voice of a Woman

 This article started my thinking:

https://velvetashes.com/lessons-from-when-i-belonged-at-the-zoo/

And a quick Google search found this article:

https://lausanneworldpulse.com/lausannereports/740/06-2007

All my life, I have been told to tone it down. Be quiet. Don't say anything. And I understand why. 

I don't want to challenge authority, and I'm not here to throw out the status quo. I'm not here to say we need women preachers, etc... God forbid that anyone think so.

But these articles bring me to tears. Not just for my personal experience, but because I know the stories of other women. 

And I remember how closely I broke down and cried on the spot when a preacher told me that single women are an essential and needed part of the church. I didn't know him well enough to cry in front of him, but I did on the way home. I didn't realize how much it meant to be seen as fully human for once. To be seen by a Mennonite man as having something to offer to the church.

It's okay for women to go to foreign places, but then their voice doesn't matter. Especially if they are single. I'm speaking for silent ones. I know. May I ask why we can go and are encouraged to do as well as "not waste our lives waiting on the man," but then be treated as 2nd rate citizens whose opinions don't matter when we show up?

If women's Sunday school classes can be taught by women, what would a sending organization for women be like if at least a few ladies were on the executive panel? At least a women's auxiliary of member care?

I'm not here to shake everything loose, and for the most part, the male led businesses that I have worked for are far more functional than the female led enterprises. I personally tend to feel more secure when there's good solid men in leadership. 

But my personal plea is this: only a female cheerleader gets what it feels like to be a woman running a race. What about putting a single woman or two on a plane to visit the women serving around the world instead of the board and their wives? What about a class taught by a woman to women who want to go to the field? Or other prepping that is not all male led?

I know. It falls flat coming from one of us. But it's my appeal. You don't need to shift the world several tectonic plates and cause an earthquake. Just acknowledge there's a few things about women that it takes a woman to understand, and leave us to our tea party devices.

There's places where women might have stayed, and would still be making a major impact if they would have had the moral support they needed. There's losses that should be mourned by men and women who passively watched women burn out. We needed you. We forgive you for it, but I for one won't watch other women go down. So I use my small voice to say this... 

Women need women in places where their voice is heard and understood.