“Women’s Ministries:  An Introduction”  by Gwyn Oakes, Ladies Ministries President, United Pentecostal Church of the USA and Canada, at Scism Christian Institute—New Delhi, India.
 
Proverbs 31:10  “Who can find a virtuous woman?  For her price is far above rubies.”  The Bible is the same worldwide, and culture doesn’t make a difference that prevents God’s Word.  Culture should be maintained as long as it doesn’t contradict the Bible.  In the Bible we see many women used by God and given freedom in God’s work.
 
Proverbs 31:23  “Her husband is known in the gates, when he sits among the elders of the land.”  A virtuous woman does not embarrass her husband or leaders.  If her husband wants his wife to treat him like a king, he must treat her like a queen.  Women are very important and must be given power—nbot more than the man, but just under the man.  A virtuous woman will never try to take the place of a man.  When she is filled with the Spirit, He will let her know her place.  A woman deserves praise when she does well.  She is not a lower creature.
 
Proverbs 31:31  “and let her own works praise her in the gates.”  She will receive praise through her works.  Sixty per cent of the church is women.  If they are left idle, the work of the Kingdom will be hindered.  You must allow them to be leaders in some capacities.  The Ladies Auxiliary Department in the USA started 1955.  In the first year, they raised $4,000.  Forty years later, in 1995, they raised $20 million.  If you took that much money out of the church, it would suffer.  Your women work, also.  They need freedom and encouragement to continue.  For one project in Adur, Rs. 11,000 was raised.  In Shillong, Rs. 50,000 was raised for the Bible college.  Also, the handful of rice project has been very successful.  Make sure your women are involved with the LAD.  Never say, “I’m only one, and they’ll never notice.”  God sees and He is the one who’s important.  Let your ladies give money to God.

Matthew 10:8  “Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils.”  This is exciting.  This we all want to do.  But that verse goes on to say, “freely you have received, freely give.”  Sometiems we want to see all these miracles, but we don’t want to give.  LAD programs benefit ministries around the world.  The Great Commission applies to everyone and each individual has responsibility for it.  Working with the LAD helps to do that..  Never think your church is too small.  Never think, “When we get going well, then we will give.”  Start giving as soon as He starts giving to you.  He said, “You have robbed me through not giving tithes and offerings,” so not only are your tithes important, but also your offerings.  Women can do things that sometimes men don’t have time to do.  Women can be trained to work with people who are praying, to teach children and younger women, to direct music programs.  When you start a church, you need to go to your district LAD director and get your new church involved in the LAD.  We are the UNITED Pentecostal Church.  We must work together.  “United we stand, but divided we fall.”  If you isolate yourself, you will not have the strength and support of the church.  Also, your people will feel cheated.  Never say, “My little bit doesn’t count.”  It does.  It’s very important to have women’s meetings and regular women’s prayer meetings.  Women want to help and work for God’s Kingdom.  Ministers must let them.”

“And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.  And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh:  she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of Man.” (Genesis 2:22-23).

“And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat….Unto the woman he said;, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee…. And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the motheer of all living” (Genesis 3:6,12,16,20).

Village Care Workers:  “A village care worker is a person who helps lead family and neighbors toward better health.  Often he or she has been selected by the other villages as someone who is especially able and kind.  Some village health workers receive training and help from an organized program, perhaps the Ministry of Health.  Others have no official position, but are simply members of the community whom people respect as healers or leaders in matters of health.  Often they learn by watching, helping and studying on their own.  In the larger sense. a village health workers is anyone who takes part in making his village a healthier place to live.  This means almost everyone can and should be a health workers:  mothers and fathers can show their children how to keep clean; farm people can work together to help their land produce more food; teachers can teach schoolchildren how to prevent and treat many common sicknesses and injuries; schoolchildren can share what they learn with their parents; shopkeepers can find out about the correct use of medicines they sell and give sensible advice and warning to buyers…; midwives can counsel parents about the importance of eating well during pregnancy, breast feeding, and family planning….health needs.  But to help your village be a healthy place to live, you must also be in touch with their human needs.  Your understanding and concern for people are just as important as your knowledge of medicine and sanitation.  Here are some suggestions that may help you serve your people’s human needs as well as health needs:

1.  Be Kind.  A friendly word, a smile, a hand on the shoulder, or some other sign of caring often means more than anything else you can do.  Treat others as your equals.  Even when you are hurried or worried, try to remember the feelings and needs of others.  Often it helps to ask yourself, “What would I do if this were a member of my own family?”  Treat the sick as people.  Be especially kind to those who are very sick or dying.  And be kind to their families.  Let them see that you care.

2.  Share your knowledge.  As a health workers, your first job is to teach.  This means helping people learn more about how to keep from getting sick.  It also means helping people learn how to recognize and manage their illnesses, including the sensible use of home remedies and common medicines.  There is nothing you have learned that, if carefully explained, should be of danger to anyone.  Some doctors talk about self care as if it were dangerous, perhaps because they like people to depend on their costly services.  But in truth, most common health problems could be handled earlier and better by people in their own homes.  Because you learn something about modern medicine does not mean you should no longer appreciate the customs and ways of healing of your people.  Too often the human touch in the art of healing is lost when medical science moves in.  This is too bad, because…

[3] If you can use what is best in modern medicine, together with what is best in traditional healing, the combination may be better than either one alone.  In this way, you will be adding to your people’s culture, not taking away.  Of course, if you see that some of the home cures or customs are harmful…you will want to do something to change this.  But do so carefully, with respect for those who believe in such things.  Never just tell people they are wrong.  Try to help them understand WHY they should do something differently.  People are slow to change their attitudes and traditions, and with good reason.  They are true to what they feel is right.  And this we must respect.  Modern medicine does not have all the answers either.  It has helped solve some problems, yet has led to other, sometimes even bigger ones.  People quickly come to depend too much on modern medicine and its experts, to overuse medicines, and to forge how to care for themselves and each other.  So go slow—and always keep a deep respect for your people, their traditions, and their human dignity.  Help them build on the knowledge and skills they already have.  No matter how great or small your knowledge and skills, you can do a good job as long as you know and work within your limits.  This means…

[4]  Do what you know how to do.  Do not try things you have not learned about or have not had enough experience doing, if they might harm or endanger someone.  But use your judgment.  Often, what you decide to do or not do will depend on how far you have to go to get more expert help….Do not take unnecessary chances.  But when the danger is clearly greater if you do nothing, do not be afraid to try something you feel reasonably sure will help.  Know your limits—but also use your head.  Always do your best to protect the sick person rather than yourself.

5. Keep Learning.  Use every chance you have to learn more.  Study whatever books or information you can lay your hands on that will help you be a better worker, teacher, or person.  Always be ready to ask questions of doctors, sanitation officers, agriculture experts, or anyone else you can learn from.  Never pass up the chance to take refresher courses or get additional training.  Your first job is to teach, and unless you keep learning more, soon you will not have anything new to teach others.

6. Practice what you teach.  People are more likely to pay attention to what you do than what you say.  As a health worker, you want to take special care in your personal life and health, so as to set a good example for your neighbors.  Before you ask people to make latrines, be sure your own family has one.  Also, if you help organize a work group—for example, to dig a common garbage hole—be sure you work and sweat as hard as everyone else.  A good leader does not tell people what to do.  He sets the example. 

7.  Work for the joy of it.  If you want other people to take part in improving their village and caring for their health, you must enjoy such activity yourself.  If not, who will want to follow your example?  Try to make the community projects fun.  For example, fencing off the public water hole to keep animals away from where people take water can be hard work.  But if the whole village helps do it as a work festival—perhaps with refreshments and music—the job will be done quickly and be fun.  Children will work hard and enjoy it, if they can turn work into play.  You may or may not be paid for your work.  But never refuse to care, or care less, for someone who is poor and cannot pay.  This way you will win your people’s love and respect.  These are worth far more than money.”  (excerpted from David Werner’s Where There Is No Doctor:  A Village Health Care Handbook, p 1-7, published by Hesperian Foundation, PO Box 1692, Palo Alto, CA 94302 USA.  English editions adapted for India can be obtained from Voluntary Health Association of India, C-14 Community Centre, Safdarjung Development Area, New Delhi 110016, India.)

Some time ago a Melbourne, Australia, cinema, a person sat on something poking that was on one of the seats.  When she got up to see what it was, she found a needle sticking out of the seat with a note attached saying, “You have just been infected by HIV.”  The Disease Control Centre in Melbourne reports many similar events in many other cities recently.  All tested needles ARE HIV positive. 

The Centre also reports that needles have been found in the cash dispensers at Public Banking Machines (ATMs).  Therefore, use extreme caution:  inspect all public chairs/seats with vigilance and caution before use.  A careful visual inspection should be enough.  Recently, a doctor narrated a similar instance.  At a cinema, a girl engaged and about to be married in a couple of months was pricked while the movie was going on. 

The tag with the needle had the message, “Welcome to the World of HIV and family.”  Though the doctors told her family it takes about six months before the virus grows strong enough to start damaging your system, the girl died in four months, perhaps at least partly from shock.

“I owe much; I have nothing; the rest I leave to the poor.”    
Francois Rabelais

“Undermine the entire economic structure of society by leaving the pay toilet door ajar so the next person can get in free.”         Taylor Meade

“Never answer a letter until you get a second one on the same subject from the same person” 
Michael O’Hagan

“If Bret Harte ever repaid a loan, the incident failed to pass into history.”  
Mark Twain

“There are three easy ways of losing money–racing is the quickest, women the most pleasant, and farming the most certain.”         
Lord Amherst

“Fire the whole purchasing department.  They’d hire Einstein and then turn down his requisition for a blackboard.”         
Robert Townsend

“One way to solve all the traffic problems would be to keep all the cars that aren’t paid for off the streets.”
Will Rogers

“I worked my way up from nothing to a state of extreme poverty.”   
Groucho Marx

Through three cheese trees,
three free fleas flew. 
While these fleas flew,
freezy breeze blew.
Freezy breeze made these cheese trees freeze. 
Freezy trees made these three fleas sneeze.

Laura Brown’s Cute Little Medieval Nursery Rhymes For Old Children 

Mary had a little lamb
Her father shot it dead.
Now it goes to school with her,
Between two chunks of bread.

All

Edmund Rostand’s classic drama adapted and retold in a modern Canadian setting with Steve Martin and Daryl Hannah.  True love (even in an unattractive package) can win out.

Daniel Defoe’s timeless novel is basically ruined by this too-free rendering which owes more to

Homer’s timeless classic is faithful adapted to film with Armande Assante doing a fantastic job as Oddyseus on his ten-year trip home from Troy, eventually to reunion with his faithful wife, Penelope, (by Greta Scacchi).  A great way to understand one of the world’s greatest books.