GLOBAL WOMEN: Global Women Summit, Huntsville, Alabama

I attended the Global Women’s Summit this past weekend to get a feel for what the organization was and who the women were that made up the organization. I should be ashamed, I know, but I just didn’t know what to expect from a women’s organization based in Alabama. I can say this because I was born and raised an Alabamian, and live here, by choice. So mine was an internal wondering, not one from someone on the outside looking in… but from one who wants us, Alabama, to be and become all it can be.

Of course, Global Women is made up of women (and men) from throughout the United States and the world. I was inspired by each and every one of the bright, open-minded, open-hearted women I spoke to throughout the conference, whether she was a presenter or participant during the sessions or a table partner during one of the meals we shared together. These women believe in and represent their Christian faith through their actions and in bringing relationships to the center of their service. A strong grassroots effort to build community seems to be the key to the success in growing the organization: The efforts during the planning, organizing, and production of the yearly summit is a strong tool that serves as invitation for membership. When each gathering ends, a core of newly energized volunteers and board members remain to grow and carry on the seeds begun during the summit weekend.

It took only the opening session for me to have hope that this was, indeed, both a conference that I could enjoy as a learning experience, and an organization of which I could be proud. The opening was well planned and was the beginning of beautiful prayers and litany meant to touch the very soul of womanhood that were a part of the entire weekend. The well-written and well-performed story of Ruth and Naomi continued as a theme from beginning to end: As one of my all-time favorites, it felt fresh and new as we watched the relationship grow from mother to daughter to daughter to mother to sister to sister. And who knew Al Garrett could sing? Not me… but he does, and he does well!

The summit offerings of whole-group gatherings, investigative sessions, fun and informational mealtimes, a fair trade gift fair, hands-on participation in missions projects, film festival, and guided prayer experience filled the weekend with more than enough from which each attendee could choose. I was impressed with the excellence of presentation and variety of choice from a professional standpoint and excited with anticipation from that of a participant. It was hard to decide just how to fill each segment of the schedule.

It was hard except for the first segment. Several years ago, after I hit my fifties, I decided it was facetious to continue to say, “When I grow up, I’m going to…”, so I’ve changed it to “When I grow old (and get to retire), I’m going to…”. I want to become an itinerant midwife/doula, going wherever there is a need I can help fill, so, of course, my first Global Opportunity choice was to attend the investigative session “The Friendship of Maternal Health”. The passion and knowledge exhibited by the presenter, Suzanah Raffield, solidified not only commitment to my goal, but also commitment to serving the world’s poor. Her grasp of who she is as a person and her role as a child of God humbled me: I may have possibly been as adamant as she at her age, but I certainly do not know even now how to convey my convictions as she does.

“Community Without Borders” was led by Diana Bridges and was also an inspiring hour of suggestions and ideas for welcoming and forming relationships with international residents within our communities. One woman asked just how someone could get involved with internationals within her own community, especially as an introvert. The answer of calling any ESL program and volunteering to be conversation partners with students was one that I hadn’t thought of, but one that even I could easily do, with the promise of being a good experience for both my conversation partner and myself. Diana, too, was well-spoken, passionate, and sincere in her presentation and I was impressed with her commitment of friendship to those she has chosen to serve.

I met Neerja Rajeev Prasad at lunch on the first day, so I committed to attend her presentation on “Gender Justice” first thing Saturday morning. I’m so glad I did! She is a Presbyterian Peacemaking Committee Guest at the tail end of her time in the US. She will be returning to her home of Jabalpu, India, at the end of the month to continue her work there with the Women’s Fellowship for Christian Service. Her session dealt with how simply being female affects the lives of women in India, touching on the subjects of domestic abuse, arranged marriages, and human trafficking. She was eloquent in her words and manner, passionate in her care for the women she serves, and kind in her friendship. I hope to stay in contact with Neerja and follow her continued successes.

I knew Global Women was a serious organization whose purpose is serving the real needs of women when I learned their three main areas of effort were women’s and maternal health, economic empowerment, and human trafficking. After spending the weekend with the women that make up the organization, I believe it will continue to grow and be successful because of these organizational attitudes:

• Global Women partners with existing organizations, utilizing the time, talents, and energies already in place to help administer, supplement and enhance chosen projects.
• Global Women asks those women they serve what they need and how might they be successful in meeting those needs.
• Global Women looks into the eyes of the women they serve, learning who they are and calling them by name… the organization’s relationships are with the women participants, not with the projects themselves. Although each person involved and the organization itself is led by their Christian faith and commitment to serve those in poverty and need, their testimony and witness comes from their acts of care and service to the individual women they form relationships with and the community they grow among the women they serve.

These thoughts are my own: I have yet to even read the Global Women Mission Statement: This is what I discerned after one long day and half of another spent in prayer, service, learning, and fellowship with the group of women meeting at my church. Their website is listed below. I encourage you to research the organization and determine your own thoughts and feelings, and whether or not you can meet their passion in serving women in need.

I’d like to thank Cindy Dawson, Global Women Executive Director, and her staff and Board that allowed me to participate in the summit. I come away having rekindled a couple of old friendships: One woman I worked closely with through Huntsville Housing Authority who feels, like me, that we have a personal mission to accomplish in service to global women, and one who stood with me and other Women in Black to protest impending wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, whose words “Let’s hope we will be more successful in other endeavors”, reminded me that we just have to keep trying. I met two women I didn’t know from my own congregation and many that live away with whom I hope to stay connected. The stories of women being served through Global Women touched my heart, the participating women’s passion buoyed my soul, and the liturgy and litanies for and about women made my spirit sing. As a woman and as an Alabamian, I’m proud to call each of you sister…. and let ALL God’s children say “Amen”!

 http://www.globalwomengo.org   

Happy Birthday! Grace: Saint Francis of Assisi

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved, as to love… For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

                                                                                  ~Saint Francis of Assisi

            I’ve learned many lessons from Saint Francis over the years since my high school days. I can’t say those were the best days of my life, but I can honestly admit to a little wistfulness as I remember finally being allowed to wear jeans to school, pairing those jeans with a flannel shirt, and listening to John Denver sing the words of Michael Murphy as he told the simple story of “The Boy from the Country”.  Growing up at the tail-end of the Civil Rights Movement, I now have many heroes and sheroes from that era, but at that time I didn’t appreciate them as I do now. Since then, I’ve learned to embrace Gandhi and his teachings; the real-life lessons taught by the fictional characters of “To Kill a Mockingird” have helped me form my own moral character; and although I have never met her, I count Maya Angelou as the mentor of my soul because of what her writings have said to me through the countless reading and re-reading of them. But it was Saint Francis that first introduced me to personal passion and individual responsibility to become that person one was meant to be. In a way, Saint Francis was my first crush: He garnered and encouraged my own passion in both what he had said and in the way he lived his life. I had never known anyone like him, real or fictional, dead or alive… and I marveled at how simply he lived his life and how happy he was in doing so.

            My younger brother used to kid me about “Francis, the Sissy”, and I took offense at his poking fun at him. I now understand that if waging peace and loving people is seen as weak, then so be it: I’m sure Saint Francis had a redneck badge of honor gained from not only grit, but grace as well. He certainly was no coward: One has to be strong in conviction and faith to turn his back on his family and turn towards God’s promises as Francis Bernadone did. His complete acceptance of Jesus and his teaching of faith found in Matthew 6:25-34 is a lesson in complete trust with which I continue to struggle: But I have an example that it can be done through the story of the poor little monk of Assisi. His story is important not just because of what he said or even for what he did. It is important because of how he lived.

            Both biographers and songwriters stress that Saint Francis chose to not see the forest for the trees: He chose to see the individual and to live in compassion with those that were in poverty, in pain, and in need. Rereading Jim Wallis’ article in “Cloud of Witnesses” as we start another year of JustFaith fellowshipping, I am reminded that Saint Francis listened intently... with his ears, with his eyes, and with his heart. The people he served knew that they were important to the man small in stature yet great in love, simply because he listened to them, looked at them, and knew them for who they were.

            We need to take this lesson from Saint Francis and make it our own. Yes, the social injustices and blatant inequities of the world can be overwhelming, if we look at only the big picture. So much poverty, so much pain, and so much ugliness can make our eyes glaze over. But if we remember to look into the eyes of those we wish to serve, and open our ears and our hearts to them as individuals, then we can see each person for who they are and not simply as a part of mass devastation. This, I think, is the lesson of compassion and solidarity Saint Francis taught us.

            Back in those high school years long ago, I wrote a little verse that applies somewhat to the birthday wishes for today:

                                    Friendship is like

                                                an old flannel shirt:

                                    warm,

                                                soft,

                                                            and comfortable.

I want to be warm and comfortable in living the lessons learned from Saint Francis, but I know to live those lessons I must be ready and willing to roll up my sleeves, wear my old jeans, and walk through the forests of needs… making eye contact with individuals and listening with my heart to know who each of them are. So, Happy Birthday, Saint Francis! And may we all have many more shared with you as we look for our own area of service in Jesus’ name.