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It is exiting to observe through the pages of Scriptures the role that women had in the preservation and propagation of faith in God. Women and their role in keeping faith in God alive even under the sourest of ungodly atheistic and heathen pressures brings honor to God who gives them their spiritual strength.
Throughout the world, even in theologically sound Christian churches the role of women is often limited to teaching children and singing in the choir. However, these same churches do send out missionary women into difficult and dark places to spread God's good news of the Savior. These missionary women do not question the fact that they are the ones to first befriend the heathen, learn their language then evangelize, plant churches and then pastor these churches
until they can train a man for the leadership position. I understand that true biblical interpretation is essential to eliminate one’s own prejudices concerning women evangelists and preachers, but I would personally like to see an American pastor step aside from his pulpit on a Sunday morning when the church is full and allow a woman missionary share God' s word from her heart and field experiences. We all have the greatest respect for such women of God as Marilyn Laszlo of Papua New Guinea.
She not only shows strength and steadfastness in the Lord, but has a marvelous sense of humor that helps carry her through some of the most unique and strenuous situations, Let me just relate one incident. When Marilyn arrived by boat at her new station of service, the men of the village came out to the river bank to meet her. To her horror they were all quite naked, with only a string tied around their waists. She was terrified but the sight was so strange
that she started to laugh and they all laughed with her. Later when she learned their language, she asked the chief why the men were the string. The answer came back that they didn't want to walk around naked
Now this is not something that happened 100 years ago but in our lifetime. Marilyn Laszlo is our contemporary missionary, Women of this caliber are serving the Lord in many parts of the world today as they did in years gone by.
The Lord has privileged me with extensive experience in women's ministry. After I graduated from the Russian Bible Institute in 1948 in Toronto, Canada, Peter Deyneka Sr. Challenged me to go to war tom Germany to work among the Russian people who were displaced by the war and were now living in displaced persons camps. The challenge was truly great for the shy young girl that I was. Nevertheless, this gave me hands on experience of putting to practice what
I learned at the Bible institute and developing ministry among women and children suitable to their needs. Remember these were Soviet people who had little or very distorted ideas of God Since those early years, I have had the joy of doing personal evangelism in Russian Old People's Homes in Nice and Menton, France.
Could you imagine the thrill of leading a Russian general's wife to the Lord the day before she celebrated her 100th birthday! She lived for 4 more years and grew in the Lord as she studied the Scriptures and shared the readings daily with her whole entourage. She was indeed the Russian ol people' s First Lady!
Then I was involved in establishing Christian Women's Clubs, one in Monte Carlo, Monaco and another in Nice, France. Most of the women who come to the dub luncheons and meetings are very sophisticated, wealthy women whose homes are in the Principality of Monaco and the French Riviera. These women coma to trust the Lord and accepted God's free gift of salvation. It is whole new experience to work with women who could buy everything and anything they wanted,
but could not buy the one thing they yearned for and that is faith in God. The Christian Women's Clubs are still active and are led by these women who are now able to lead their kind to the Lord.
Women's ministry in the CIS
As soon as the Iron Curtain carne down, I started personal ministry with women in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. I will never forget my first all women' s meeting in St. Petersburg. Russia. My husband Nick was invited to speak at a newly planted church. Pastor Anatoly established the church 3 yrs earlier, and already there were 200 members with a 25 voice choir and special classes for children. The congregation was youthful, educated and eager to learn what
the Bible said. They met in a theater because they had no building of their own. One evening Pastor Anatoly asked Nick to meet with the men and for me to have a women' s meeting.
The women met in the apartment of a young couple who actually had a large living room, a bedroom and a kitchen. According to Russian standards this was a luxury apartment. I spoke on the 'whole Armor of God' with emphasis on the fundamentals of our Christian faith. The women were sopping up every word like dry sponges. They would not let me stop, but after sharing for 2 hours I was tired. It was then that they asked me to write a book so that they would have
something in hand that they could refer to. Before leaving I asked our young hostess if she would be willing to lead a women' s Bible Study in her home once a week.
She is a school teacher by profession and even though the Bible was new to her, she agreed with the hope that they would all grow in the faith together.
Last October my book, 'The Christian Woman in the Whole Armor of God' carne off the press in Moscow and by March all 10,000 copies were in the hands of women in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. God helping we hope to have a second printing finished for the Russian immigrants in America by the end of August. Also another printing is being scheduled for Moscow.
An actress at the Bolshoi Theater accepted the Lord two years ago but was not sure of the elementary tenets of her faith after she read my book she realized that to grow in the Lord she must read her Bible daily and share her faith with others. How does an actress go about sharing her faith? Well she joined a drama group of young actors and is challenging them to perform plays with good morals.
The majority of Christians in Russia are women. Walk into any church in Russia and you will find that at least 80% of the congregation is made up of women. Needless to say many Christian men perished in prisons and in exile in remote places of Siberia during the Soviet rule. Women kept faith alive in their families in outstanding and courageous ways. Many took their children to the priest after the midnight hour, to have them baptized, not knowing whether
the priest would report them to the authorities or not.
Last year, a young women, Svetlana, who lives in Moscow wanted to print a Christian magazine for the women of Russia just like the ones she had seen on her visit to America. The first thing a Russian woman does is go for advice and permission to the pastor and leading brethren of the church. Svetlana did as was expected of her and the brethren told her that the women have a page in the men's magazine that should be enough. She was quite downcast when she
confided in me, We talked for a while and I did not know how to encourage her to just go ahead with the magazine since she felt so strongly about it. she kept coming back to the Russian Christian tradition that the women are to obey the brethren. I turned to the bible and read that wives are to obey their husbands and asked her if she had a husband. She said "Rosa, you know very well that I am not married". Good, I answered, then you have no man to obey, go right ahead and prepare your magazine for
printing. Since then she and a few other women have put out 3 issues of the magazine "Maria". Would you believe it, even the men are pleased with it now.
Five years ago Vera, a middle-aged woman realized that there was a great need for properly trained Sunday School teachers. There was no material for teaching that would be geared to Russian culture so she developed a suitable curriculum and started teaching Sunday School teachers, that is both young men and women. Every Saturday these students come to the Baptist church for their studies. They study this way for six months, from November through April and
then they get a certificate as a qualified Sunday School teacher. I met some of these graduates and truly they are outstanding. So far Vera has trained 245 teachers who are all working in the Moscow area. Her material needs to be published so that it could be available to all the SS teachers in the CIS.
I am greatly encouraged in my involvement of isolating fine, educated Christian women and helping them develop their special talents for the sake of the Gospel. Women's ministry is really each woman according to her God given ability - and each ones involvement does make a difference.
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