El Roi in the Villages: When God Sees the Overlooked
Earlier this year, one question kept coming back: Can we start a group for women?
Clearly, the answer was yes — on the premise that we could find two strong Zambian women to lead it.
Tresha, the 23-year-old wife of our main leader Acklos, offered herself and suggested Stella to help her. Stella is an elderly, respected woman in the community, wife to a leader over 120 local churches. Together, they make a great and trustworthy duo.
Since our mission is to Equip & Send, it is on our heart to equip these two women in their leadership role and send them out to lead their group with passion, confidence and integrity.
So far, they have shown dependability and faithfulness in hosting their ladies meetings every Thursday.
When asked what topic is mainly being discussed, the answer is clear: home life and Christian marriage.
This came as no surprise, since from the beginning the following passage was their motivation for starting these meetings:
"Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior... and so train the young women to love theirhusbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled." Titus 2:3–5
As word went out about this, more and more women joined — even from as far as the village of Segoonde. Though heavily pregnant, several women from there set out each week for a 1.5-hour walk each way just to attend.
Why? You might ask yourself.
God was about to answer an even bigger question than the one we had asked.
This August, we received a small visiting team from Gathering Together. One of the two ladies who came up from South Africa was clear about what was on her heart: "I just have a ministry for women!"
A wide-open door for effective service (1 Corinthians 16:9 — "For a wide door for effective work has opened to me...") presented itself: with many women hungering to meet with one another, and one woman carrying a message on her heart, we arranged gatherings not only in our own village but also in the five surrounding ones.
The message rang out clear and wide: God sees you. Not as unworthy and condemned by your actions and choices, but as precious and valuable in His sight — redeemed by the blood Jesus willingly shed for you.
As a result, each village came back with the same question we had heard earlier this year: Can we start a group for women?
Clearly, our answer is yes — on the premise that we can find two strong local women in each place to lead it. Since our mission is to Equip & Send, it is on our heart to equip these women in their leadership role and send them out to lead their groups with passion, confidence and integrity.
Now comes the twist: as Tresha and Stella are continuously being trained in leading their group, they are now being invited to help train the next leaders for the new groups.
This is what we are all about: "... and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also." 2 Timothy 2:2
Coming back to the question of why women would go through the trouble of walking three hours round trip just to meet with other Christian women — we have found that they experience a deep need to be seen.
One statement that troubled us was: "But since I am the third wife to my husband, I cannot go to heaven."
This pierced our hearts and prompted us to sharpen the goal of our women's groups. While discussing home life is good, since most of these women are wives and mothers, it is not where we ought to begin.
First and foremost, each woman is a child of God and a follower of Jesus — a disciple.
Jesus' desire for each of us is that we would be mature in our faith, able to test what we hear by the truth found in Scripture, that we would be like strong trees planted by streams of water, not tossed back and forth by every wind of teaching:
Jeremiah 17:7–8 — "Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord... He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream."
Ephesians 4:14 — "... so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine ..."
Therefore, our focus is shifting toward discipleship:
• What does it mean for me to be a disciple?
• What does it mean for me to make disciples?
And this is the connection point to home life:
1 Corinthians 11:1 — "Follow me, as I follow Christ."
If we want to inspire our husbands and our children, it starts with us.
We need to read our Bible, get to know its Author, follow His commandments, be transformed, and lead others in doing the same.
A checklist inspired by Dr. James C. Dobson's A Checklist for Your Child's Spiritual Development to help us put this into practice can be found below.
Are my children seeing God's love through how I love and treat them?
Are we praying and reading the Bible together as a family?
Are my children learning to talk about God naturally in everyday life — not just at prayer time,but including Him in their thoughts and plans?
Do my children know to turn to Jesus when they're afraid, worried, or lonely?
Are they learning to trust God, especially when things are hard or uncertain?
Are they learning to accept themselves as God made them?
Are they learning to be kind and understanding toward others — not selfish, not gossiping or criticizing?
Are they learning to share?
Are they learning to obey me and other authorities — as practice for learning to obey God?
Are they experiencing the joy of following Jesus, not just rules and obligations?
Do they understand that wrong actions have real consequences?
Are we teaching them to be honest and truthful?
Are they learning to follow the convictions of their own conscience?
Are they learning that the Lord's day and worship are set apart, not just an ordinary day?
Are we showing them that following God matters more than holding on to our possessions?
Are they learning to give back to God from what they have?
Are they learning to work, carry responsibility, and control their impulses and minor frustrations?
Are they learning to be thankful, and to forgive rather than hold on to hurt?
Are they learning true humility — not looking down on others, but not thinking too little of themselves either?
Are they learning to hold on to God's Word — remembering and obeying it, not just hearing it?
By the time our children are old enough to choose for themselves, they can say, "Here am I, Lord — send me."
Now to you: where do you recognize yourself in this article?
What is encouraging — to both the women in this area and to you — is that we serve the God who sees, El Roi.
Read all about Him in Genesis 16 (Hagar's story) — Genesis 16:13: "So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, 'You are a God of seeing,' for she said, 'Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.'"
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