64 Women, 18 Countries & A Call For Action
From June 2nd-5th I attended the Rise in Strength – Global Consultation for Women in International Christian Leadership in Amsterdam. Sixty-four women from 18 different countries gathered to discuss what work was being done and what work needed to be done for women and girls around the globe. We listened to several PechaKucha presentations covering global trends and regional issues facing women and girls.For those of you like me who have never heard of a PechaKucha, it is a Japanese story-telling format designed to talk less and show more. It’s where presenters show 20 slides with 20 seconds of commentary each (6 min & 40 seconds total.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PechaKucha
The PechaKucha presentations were summaries to help launch discussions at the tables. In my 20 plus years of ministry, I’ve never been in a room full of my contemporaries. A huge percentage of women had their doctorates - a smart group of women AND they had their feet on the ground as practitioners. They were on fire and giving their whole selves to bringing change to women and girls on behalf of Jesus. The best part was, in spite of the level of leadership present, no one was trying to outdo the other. There was no competition or name-dropping. It was truly a Spirit-filled place.
One of our activities was to calculate the number of people influenced by the 64 women in the room. Granted, it was not very scientific so to be safe I’ll stick with the lowest number, which was 2 MILLION!Why is that important? By the end of the week, we had a Call to Action. (READ AND SHARE!) Each of us was asked to share this Call to Action in hopes that the Church would take note that 64 female leaders from 18 countries, with influence over 2 million people, gathered, discussed, and decided it’s time for the Church to take action for women and girlsPrayer: Would you pray for this Call to Action to be seen, heard and acted upon by the Church? Would you also join me in praying about how our work at The Marcella Project could assist the work of these other women who attended the global consultation?