E-Quality Spring 2005 A Few Outstanding Women in the Modern Missionary Era

An excerpt from "Historical Models of Women Leaders in the Church," by Mimi Haddad

Catherine Book was co-founder, with her husband William Booth, of the Salvation Army. She was a powerful preacher and a tenacious inner city missionary.

Concerning the public ministry of women, Catherine was outraged when Phoebe Palmer's speaking tour in England was criticized because Palmer spoke to both men and women. Catherine therefore wrote a pamphlet, "Female Ministry, or Woman's Right to Preach the Gospel," a remarkable defense of women's biblical call to preach.

When her husband, William, became ill, Catherine assumed his circuit preaching duties. From its beginning, the Salvation Army has protected the ministry of women preaching and teaching.

Catherine was also involved in the temperance movement, inner city missions, and work among prostitutes. She said, "It will be a happy day for England when Christian ladies transfer their attention from poodles to destitute and starving children."

Born to a wealthy Virginia plantation owner, her mother read to her children the life of Ann Adoniram Judson. This inspired Lottie to consider service as a missionary.

She received a Master's degree from Hollins College in 1851. Turning down an offer for marriage, she sailed for China in 1873. She quickly assimilated the Chinese language and culture, and eventually settled in Pingtu, where no missionary had ventured. There she began a church, later a school and an orphanage, living in a Chinese house (unlike the usual "missionary compounds"), eating Chinese food and wearing Chinese clothes.

Moon persevered through serious famines, revolutions, and plagues. Money was always short, and she appealed to her women friends at home for help. There was never enough, and she eventually died of malnutrition because she could not bear to eat with hungry Chinese children looking on. She shared everything she had. The "Southern Baptist Lottie Moon offering" now raises millions of dollars a year for missions.

She lived and worked more than fifty years in India, writing 35 books on missionary work.

She devoted her life to serving Indian children, especially rescuing more than 2000 girls from a life of temple prostitution. Her work was dangerous, especially since the government of India endeavored to keep the practice secret. At one point she had more than 900 girls and workers in her school.

Born into slavery in the U.S., Amanda saw the influence of her mother and grandmother. Through their godly lives and prayers, her slave owner's daughter had come to faith.

Later Amanda was deeply influenced by the second great religious awakening. In one such meeting, Amanda felt called of God to preach the gospel. Following the Civil War, she preached all over the US and in England, India, and Africa.

Like other women, she faced gender prejudice. Even her own denomination, the African Methodist Episcopal Church forbade the ordination of women. Opposition also came from white Christians. In England she met white Christians who were more concerned that a woman might preach than that people come to faith in Christ.

However, one male missionary in India where she preached wrote her: "I learned many valuable lessons from you more that have been of actual value to me as a preacher of Christian truth, than from any other person I have met."

Mary Slessor was a Scottish factory worker who turned missionary and served in Calabar (present day Nigeria) for 38 years. She served in areas where few had dared to go.

Her only schooling was what she learned in her Scotch Presbyterian Sunday school. When she arrived in Africa at age 27, she was disillusioned by the rich life style of English missionaries.

She moved in with Africans, ate their food, went without shoes, and finally moved to the bush were life was dangerous. Slessor adopted and raised several pairs of abandoned twins.

She won the respect of the Africans, and she taught them the art of trade and their economy flourished. Slessor built schools, cared for the ill, preached and opened churches.

As her African babies grew to adulthood, they began to take over her work and she moved further into the interior to begin again.

Pandita founded the Mukti Mission in India that served needy women and children and was considered the best example of Christianity in action.

Her father was a Brahmin priest married to a very young bride. When Pandita was 12, she had memorized 18,000 verses in Sanskrit and knew many other languages and dialects.

Both parents died when she and her brother were young. They wandered the countryside, homeless and hungry. She found and attended revival meetings where she learned of Christ's love for everyone, regardless of caste or gender.

When she arrived in Calcutta, some educated men recognized her eloquence and learning. She became an example of the intellectual capacities of women. Eventually she made her way to America where she wrote her famous book "The High Caste Hindu Woman," that exposed the plight of women in India, including child brides, prostitution and lack of education. One crowd who heard her speak in Boston helped form the Ramabai Foundation, to support the work of educating India's child widows.

When Pandita died, hundreds attended her funeral, from many different castes, a testimony to a Christian woman who shaped the course of India's history.

Courtesy of The Lausanne Occasional Paper from Issue Group 24. Copyright © 2005 The Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization.

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