I have always believed women can do anything. I am from a long line of strong women. Women who have raised families through bereavement, who took second jobs to make ends meet, women who taught me nothing was impossible. You may be surprised to hear that I was not raised in a Christian family but I was raised by female role models who refused to let others place limits on what they could achieve.
I had an incredible encounter with Jesus at the age of 19 that changed my world forever, and I discovered the church simultaneously. My husband and I embarked on a journey we are still on, to build and equip, to raise and release, to bring freedom and help others bear fruit for the Kingdom of God. As I grew as a young disciple I was influenced by many great men and women of God who championed us, believed in us and shaped us. There were also conversations that even to this day cause pain when I remember them. Conversations that spoke of women as having less value, whose voices did not count and whose gifts were neglected or ignored. And I observed some amazing women who shrank back from being all that were destined to be because they didn't feel able to articulate their 'why'. These are shadows in the light of a thousand other great memories where I have seen women challenged and stretched, been given biblical tools to flourish and be all that they were created and called to be.
The longer I have been a Christian and in leadership, the greater my biblical understanding of how God truly feels about women has grown. God is for us, not against us, the cross makes all things new. We are in a new covenant, a place where there is no male nor female, where our background and our nationality, our age and our class, do not matter in the Kingdom of God. When God sent His only Son to die for all of humanity on the cross, He died to bring a new day for all of us. Including women. Jesus loves us and He is for us. Jesus equips and calls women and men to function and flourish.
I don't know your background or the place that you have walked from but I do know God has a plan and a purpose for your life. I established Rise Women Christian Leadership Network to help you partner with other women who will lift you up, call you forward and help you to be everything you were destined to be. And then you and I will go back out and help other women find their purpose and calling. It is time to Rise.
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