This is a guest post is by Amy Carroll. Amy is the director of Proverb 31 Ministries’ Next Step Speaker Services and a member of the ministry’s speaker team. She lives in NC with her 3 favorite guys and a little, red dachshund. You can find Amy on any given day typing at her computer, reading a book, or trying to figure out one more alternative to cooking dinner. Visit Amy at www.amycarroll.org and find out more about the speaker service at www.nextstepspeakerservices.org.
The flight home from India was tough. I went with a heart full of dreams to reach women at our conferences, and I came home with a heart wound tightly with faces and names and stories.
When our little team of 4 women and 1 brave man began planning for our women’s conferences, we had a dim vision of tearing the veil of culture—a culture that defines women, especially poor women, as second class, less than, and unworthy. Only Jesus is strong enough to rend veils, so we went with stories of His love and the hope that our poor re-tellings would be enough.
They were. Jesus used them.
One woman haunted my thoughts on our plane ride back to my home—my space of comfort and refuge. Her name was Sabitri, and her pastor had us pray for her the second morning of the conference. The night before, her husband had brutally beaten her with a fan blade for going to a Christian conference.
Our team was shocked…
That evening tears streamed down our faces when a woman walked through the church door covered with bruises but determined to hear about Jesus. His love had broken through to Sabitri, and she was willing to pay any price to be with Him and His people. The next day she took an even bigger risk, bringing her son to sit at the church’s door, listening to messages of Jesus’ love and grace.
As I slouched in my plane seat trying to catch sleep, I thought about Sabitri and prayed for her. Other faces also ran through my mind—a teenager weeping because her arranged marriage was imminent, a young, handicapped woman with no money for needed healthcare, and a gifted worship leader with a heart broken by her father’s cruel words.
Suddenly, God’s quiet voice rang loud in my spirit. “There are women at home who need to hear about My love, too.”
Because I myself live cocooned by love, respect and limitless possibilities, sometimes I look right past the women living in my neighborhood, community and sphere of influence who are suffering. Home is my place of greatest comfort and refuge, but for many women it’s their place of greatest pain. God had a plan to put an end to my ignorance.
I started studying and praying, asking God where I was to invest my time. Today, I’m volunteering once a week at my local domestic violence shelter. The training to volunteer was a painful eye-opener by itself, but the women at the shelter grip my heart, just like the women in India. I’ve heard some sad stories, looked into the eyes of suffering women—some wounded, some angry—and mostly loved on a shelter staff with an over-worked, underappreciated reality.
Jesus is opening my heart to those who need to hear about His love, and in small, seemingly insignificant ways I’m trying to share His good news. I’m simply doing cleaning and organizing chores and praying for opportunity to talk about Jesus, the Master Servant. In the meantime, He’s changing me and capturing my heart more and more for Himself and the women for whom He loves and longs.
You may not be able to go to India, but there are women right in your community who you can bless. If your heart is stirred, I'd love to hear from you, and Amy would too. Pop on over to www.amycarrol.com, leave a message right here, or email me at cynthiafin@gmail.com. I'd love to hear from you!
