THE WOMENS INSTITUTE IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

This past January, Reaching and Teaching’s Global Training team launched our first ever Women’s Institute in South Asia!

Early the first morning, the ladies began to trickle in. At first, it appeared we would have 15-20 women, but as the morning went on, the room continued to fill and fill until we had more than 40 ladies with us. On the break, we began chatting with the ladies who had come in late, and they were so apologetic, explaining that they’d traveled through the night, along with their kids, and were working to get the kids settled in their rooms for naps before they came to the training.

Immediately, we were humbled at the lengths these women were willing to go to in order to sit under teaching from God’s Word. An overnight journey in any context can be brutal, but this one involved a train that didn’t have seats for all the passengers, and it included mothers holding small children for the

8+ hour train ride. Yet these ladies — and their children — were all smiles when they arrived.

We asked them how they were able to have such joyful spirits after staying awake all night, and they responded with, “This is the first opportunity we’ve ever had to come and study about God outside of Sunday morning church. The men have had opportunities to do this, but we’ve never had the opportunity to attend.”

Needless to say, our team was overjoyed with the incredible privilege of sharing more about God’s Word with these dear ladies. We taught the first course in the Women’s Institute: “Overview of the Bible.” We traced the theme of redemption from Genesis to Revelation and showed how each book fits into the grand narrative, as well. The ladies were intrigued to learn how the Bible all fits together and were particularly interested in hearing about the faith seen in characters like Job in the midst of suffering. Persecution for Christians is quite common where these ladies live. They’ve known more suffering than many of us, especially when it comes to standing for Christ. Despite the persecution their community has experienced, their desire to grow in their faith and share it with others is strong. We hope and pray that through attending the Women’s Institute, these ladies will know God more deeply and be better equipped to share Truth from His Word with their children, neighbors, and friends.

Our team will continue facilitating trainings in this area for the next three years, returning 5 more times to finish the Women’s Institute. Please pray with us that God’s church would be built up around the world through this investment in His Word.

KELLY COOPER Women’s Training FacilitatorAsia

Kelly came on board with RTIM as a Women’s Training Facilitator for Asia in 2022. She is passionate about seeing women grow in their faith through a deep knowledge of God’s Word. Prior to serving with RTIM, Kelly served in Bangkok for 3 years. She has also taught high school and university courses for Palmetto Christian Academy and Charleston Southern University. Kelly is thrilled to see how God is going to move among the women of Asia to make His name known!