GRAPEVINE, Texas (ABP) — There are 1.3 billion people in the world considered “absolute poor,” according to information provided by Global Women. Of these, 70 percent are women. Two-thirds of the world's illiterate people are women.
One woman a minute dies from a pregnancy-related cause, statistics indicate, while in Nepal a skilled attendant is present at only 8 percent of deliveries.
Members of Global Women cite such statistics to explain the passion they feel for poverty-stricken and oppressed women around the world. Speakers at the ministry's July 1 breakfast shared testimonies of the support and encouragement they received from the group as they struggled with being women in the ministry.
Global Women is a ministry headquartered in Birmingham, Ala., which “exists to create worldwide friendships among women for shared learning and service.”
Through conferences, projects such as collecting and sending birthing kits to Third World countries, and mission trips, Global Women aims to minister to unreached women around the world and nurture women for global service.
“Global Women believes in the value of a calling, whether they are male or female,” said Lizzie Fortenberry, a residence hall director at Baylor University and Global Women activist. She credited the older women in the organization for inspiring her to pursue ministry and reach out to other women. She challenged the audience to see the world from God's point of view.
Mary Prasana, a Banjara woman from India studying at Baptist University of the Americas in San Antonio, Texas, spoke about the oppression Banjaran women face in their culture, where men are dominant. She is perhaps the first woman from her people group to prepare for leadership in the ministry.
“In my community, there are very few women who go to school, and many never go outside the village,” she said.
Robbie Francovich, a Cooperative Baptist Fellowship missionary in Andhra Pradesh, India, shared her struggle to “raise up Banjara women” and provide them with role models, such as Prasana, and show them the freedom they have in Christ.
Magdi Pap, an international associate in Romania for Global Women, serves as a program and mission coordinator for a Christian camp in her country. “In my culture, you need courage” to be a woman in the ministry, she said. She thanked Global Women for its support and assistance in finding a ministry position with the Hungarian Baptist Convention of Romania.