Mary Slessor, Amy Carmichael, Gladys Aylward, Jennie Adams, & Katie Davis

I’ve read their stories. I’ve told their stories. These five ladies have inspired millions. Some are well known and some are unknown. All of them did incredible things for God and all of them did those things far away from home. As a teen and young adult, I worked for Child Evangelism Fellowship and spent eight summers traveling around Northern California, holding Bible clubs for children. Each summer we would share the story of a different missionary and the story of Mary Slessor was my all-time favorite. Mary grew up in the slums of Scotland. Her father was an alcoholic. Her childhood was difficult. In her 20s, she was inspired by the story of David Livingston to become a missionary. At 28, she went to Nigeria as a single woman and she spent the next 4 decades of her life there, ministering among the tribal people. She accomplished amazing things for God. She never married. She died in Nigeria in 1915. Amy Carmichael is perhaps the most well known of these missionaries. She served for 55 years in India without furlough and wrote several books. She was inspired by Hudson Taylor to become a missionary and she started her work as a single woman when she was in her 20s. She died in India in 1951 at the age of 83. Gladys Aylward used her life savings to get to China when she failed to meet the standards of the mission board. In 1958, a movie starring Ingrid Bergman was made about her life but it didn’t even begin to tell the story of her incredible work in China. She left China during WW II and was not allowed to return under communist rule. She went instead to Hong Kong and later Taiwan where she worked until her death in 1970. I met Jennie Adams a few times when I was growing up. My mother still has a small clay pot in her living room that Jennie gave her. Jennie brought it from Peru and used it as an object lesson at the ladies luncheon our church hosted in her honor whenever she was home on furlough. Jennie would tell stories about hiking around the mountains of Peru, ministering to people who had never been reached with the Gospel. We prayed for Jennie during the years she spent in a tiny Peruvian jail cell for a crime she did not commit. A few years after she died, this piece was published in the newsletter of her mission board: “In 2010, Jennie posthumously received Baptist Mid-Missions’ highest honor, the William C. Haas Lifetime Service award, which honors missionaries demonstrating exceptional service for the Lord. After serving as a military nurse during WWII, Jennie enlisted in a new calling: missions in Peru. A great portion of her ministry was spent in remote areas. She would drive until the road ended, and people came to hear her teach the Bible. She had the freedom and flexibility to reach people who otherwise may not have been reached. Many of these received the Savior. Today scores of pastors in Peru’s rural and mountain areas trace their ministries back to Jennie’s influence. Jennie often showed kindness by giving rides to those walking along the road. When Peruvian police found drugs on one of her hitchhikers, Jennie was also presumed guilty and she and her passengers were sent to jail. Despite this injustice, Jennie accepted her time in jail as a new ministry assignment. She taught female prisoners to read by using leaflets from a Bible society. Her influence for Christ was even greater than that of the outsiders who came to hold weekly worship services.

After five years, Jennie was finally cleared of all charges and was free to resume her regular ministry. However, an accident caused her to be wheelchair bound for the rest of her life. Undaunted, Jennie wheeled herself around the Baptist Seminary of Peru in Trujillo and touched the lives of many students. Even during her final years in a nursing home, Jennie daily visited the other residents and held Bible studies.” My childhood pastor named his youngest daughter after Jennie. We had great respect for this single lady who was used by God to win and to help train-up pastors who returned to plant churches throughout unreached areas of Peru. Whenever she visited, she would give an update on her work to our church on Sunday mornings, but only the ladies in our church ever got to benefit from her teaching. She passed away in 2005. In the summer of 2007, 18 year old Katie Davis, a recent high school graduate, stepped onto Ugandan soil with a heart for children. A year later, she founded a child sponsorship program that has helped bring food, schooling and hope to the children of the region. In 2011, she published the first of two best-selling books about her work. At that time, she was personally raising 13 Ugandan girls (which she subsequently adopted) as a single woman running a successful international non-profit while ministering on the ground. She was 22. In 2015, she married, and this year, her organization turns 10. She is 29 and still living and working in Uganda. I was privileged to hear her speak recently at a live-streamed women’s conference out of Austin, Texas. How could God use Jennie Adams to raise up Baptist pastors in Peru when she couldn’t even teach Baptist laymen in America? Is Katie Davis being invited to speak at missions conferences and interdenominational seminars or is she relegated primarily to women’s events? Do we believe God used these women overseas because there were no men available? I’m sure many have been taught that God used Deborah in the book of Judges because no suitable man could be found. There is ZERO Biblical support for that notion but it is common nonetheless. In some American Christian cultures, women in their 20s are taught they must stay at home under the authority of their parents until a husband comes along. Every one of these missionaries did incredible things for God sans husband and before the age of 30. It is no secret that we have a double standard in America. We will send single women to dangerous regions and let them work unhindered on the mission field while limiting the ministry opportunities for women here at home. The command to go and make disciples of all nations includes women and includes this nation. When the largest protestant denomination in the United States boasts a female membership of 55%, yet allots a total of 12 minutes out of 970 minutes of programming at their national convention to a female speaker, something is very wrong. And it isn’t just one denomination. I’ve seen it. My daughters have seen it. We have never been anywhere near the SBC.