Lydia Ministries International is Excited
to
Announce the Launch
of
Rachel’s Ministry
September 23rd, 2009
At The
Leading Ladies: Empowering Women Through Getting on PAR with Rachel
PAR: Purity, Abstinence, Renewal
Women’s Conference In Nairobi, Kenya
September 23, 2009Our Mission Statement:
Our mission is to provide a ministry to women, for women, by women which will support women who have made, or desire to make, purity until marriage a priority. Our mission is also to provide a support system for women who have been sexually active, but now desire to abstain from sex until married. Also, our mission is to provide opportunities of healing to women who have been sexually abused, have abused sex, or have been promiscous.
Goals of Rachel’s Ministry:
- To Offer a support system to girls and women who have decided to make purity a priority until marriage
- To Encourage women who have previously been sexually active, but have now chosen to practice abstinence
- To offer opportunities which will extend healing to women who have been sexually abused, who have abused sex, or who have been promiscuous and now hope to regain a sense of self and value that is not based on sex or sexuality. In other words — to help bring healing to wounded and hurting hearts, minds, bodies, and spirits of women everywhere!
- To raise awareness concerning the 1 million women and girls who go missing each year due to sex trafficing
- In countries where sex trade is the main means of survival or the only means of survival for many girls and women, to develop and network resources that would unbind the chains of poverty and abuse. These would include resources that would offer micro-financing to women’s community projects that would provide food, clean water, medicine, shelter, clothing, integrity, and safety to women and children.
The purpose of our ministry is to bring healing to women’s lives, and to offer support, encouragement, and opportunities for women who choose a path to renewal.
It is not a ministry that seeks to shame, judge, or ban any woman! It’s not a “veil” ministry and we won’t ask or encourage you to put a veil on to hide your hair, your face, your beauty, your eyes, or your body! We won’t ask you to take any kind of oath of purity to join. You won’t have to move into a commune or mark your body in any way. We won’t even ask any embarrassing personal questions, or anything you wouldn’t won’t to tell your mama — or my mama! We are not a “male-bashing” ministry, we encourage holistic relationships with the opposite sex, but also acknowledge that in many societies and cultures women and girls of all ages have fallen prey to being used and abused which have lead to shame, humiliation, degradation, pain, and death.
Who Is Rachel?
Rachel was a woman whom we read about in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible, and in the Torah of the Hebrew or Jewish Bible. Her name means “purity”. You can read about her in Genesis Chapter 29 & 30.
Here is my summary of this story, my paraphrase and some additional comments. Rachel was the younger daughter of a man named Laban. Laban was the brother of Jacob’s mother. When Jacob cheated his brother Esau out of his birthright, he had to flee to the east. His mother told him to go to her brother and live there, to take a wife there. Jacob wandered around in the wilderness for awhile and then finally he came to a well. Here he met some men who introduced him to Rachel, his uncle’s daughter. When Laban discovered that this was his nephew he offered him basically whatever he wanted if he would work for him. They agreed that Jacob would work for seven years and then he would marry Rachel.
Now, here are a few points I want to make. We know that Jacob was in love with Rachel, and he thought that she was incredibly beautiful. He wanted her enough to work at hard labor tending sheep and cattle. The point though is this, we are never told that Rachel had a say in the matter, or that she was in agreement with the decision. Truthfully, she was considered little more than the cattle were — a possession to be bartered over by Jacob and Laban. I’m not saying that neither of them “loved” her, but that we are not told that she had any input into the decision.
Second, while Jacob was working away for seven years, Rachel was a “lady-in-waiting” and she continued to wait. On her wedding night, Rachel was put to the side and when the wedding took place, she was somewhere in hiding. The wedding party took place and then the celebration. Jacob took his veiled wife into their tent and they shared the wedding bed. The next morning, Jacob awoke to discover that he had not married his beloved Rachel after all. Instead, he had been tricked into marrying the older daughter, Leah.
When Jacob confronted Laban he was told that because Leah was the oldest she had to be married first. If he completed the week of the consummation of the marriage, and if he worked another seven years, then Jacob would be able to marry Rachel. Jacob completed the week of the marriage ceremony and he then married his beloved Rachel. From then on, it was a competition between Rachel and Leah over providing the most children for Jacob. Leah won the competition. Jacob had two wives, and Rachel had to share her husband!
Eventually, Jacob had enough of Laban’s deceitful ways (yet, don’t forget that Jacob himself was known as being the usurper!) and he packed his belongings, his wives, and his children, and he got the heck out of town. Well, Rachel decided to steal the household gods and she hid them in her camel’s saddle. When Laban tracked them down, Rachel pretended to be having her menstrual cycle and so she sat on the saddle, knowing she would not be asked to move due to her untimely “condition”. She was the only one who was not searched for the idols. Jacob swore a curse of death to Laban concerning whoever had the idols. Of course, he did not know that it was Rachel!
Rachel gave birth to Joseph, and after giving birth to a second son, Benjamin, she died. Today her tomb is located in a Jewish settlement known as Gilo in Israel. I lived in Gilo for almost two months.
All around the world there are women who are being bartered over, in one way or another. Decisions are being made about their lives that they have little or no say in; they are used for trade, for sex, for degradation. Sometimes it is very evident — like the sex slave trade where girls and women are taken into captivity. But there are also women who are in poverty, and who either have only one choice to make, or they feel like they have only one choice — prostitution. Yes, sometimes women make this choice on their own, they see it as “glamorous” or “exciting” or “bold” or “easy” to start with. Sometimes they get sucked in by a “friend”. But most often it is forced upon them. Over 1 million women and girls go missing each year due to sex trafficking, and over fifty thousand women and girls are trafficked through the U.S.A. each year according to reports by the CIA.
I’ve “Snagged” five videos and posted them on our website, at http://www.lydiaministry.com/rachelsministry.html. They are documentaries about the lives of women. I’ll warn you, they are not “christian” documentaries, but they are powerful! They are not suitable for young children, and the content can be very disturbing. But, as you think about the women that Rachel’s Ministry is trying to reach out to, think about women and girls like the ones you will see in these videos. I meet them all around the world, women from Liberia, Ghana, India, Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, the USA, and from the middle-east.
Clicking on the videos will take you outside of Lydia Ministries International website. If you choose to donate on the Snag site, please be aware that you are NOT donating to Lydia Ministries International or to Rachel’s Ministry. To donate to LMI or Rachel’s Ministry, please click on one of the “donate” buttons located on any of the Lydia Ministries International pages at www.lydiaministry.com . Every dime you donate to Lydia Ministries International goes to the work of the ministry. We do not take a salary from Lydia Ministries International donations! Lydia Ministries International is a 501(3)(c) non-profit ministry.
