Reaching out to women....

Over the past few years God has really deepened my passion for women and needs that are specific to them. Of course as a woman myself that is convenient :)! The major thing that has stuck out to me has been the importance of LIFE and teaching about the fact that God is the author and creator of life and that each and every individual is important and special to God. Throughout the past several years as I have prayed for ways and ideas for us to reach out to women in our community and throughout the mountain villages of Nepal, God has continued to bring to my mind over and over again the need for teaching on women's health issues and sanctity of life teachings. The health care system is very poor in Nepal and so often concepts that would seem very elementary to us in the area of women's health are virtually unknown by many of the women I interact with each day. Also, culturally it is seen as inappropriate to discuss matters of women's health, pregnancy and family planning in public, in groups or even between family members so often important matters get overlooked and women are left confused with what is going on in their bodies as they grow and mature. Of course as I sought out how to develop a plan for how to "package" these teachings I was convinced that we can not just teach these very important topics that are relevant to every woman in the world without teaching them about the God who Created them, Jesus, the Gospel and how much God loves each one of the women we would be teaching. Thankfully, God gave me a starting place and helped me to outline a way to teach women about fetal development (and all that is going on inside their body while they are pregnant) while also teaching them the Creation to Christ story. This is just ONE of the many needs that these women have for women's health education but I have found it to be a really, really good starting place to gather women together to talk about these issues.

A few weeks ago I had the blessing of working with two long term volunteers and one of our national friends to host this fetal development training at a local community center for ethnic Tibetan women. As with all things Nepal nothing is ever predictable. One of my friends had set up the training and we were told that we may have to meet out in a field (which would have been fine) but it ended up being pretty wet from several days of rain so we ended up meeting in the "community center" (which basically means one room on the 2nd floor of a building where these ladies sometimes meet).

On our walk to the "community center"...through the dirty, muddy streets of Kathmandu during monsoon season with our national friend (in the black skirt) and a long term volunteer (who is an NICU nurse)

The building where we held the training (on the 2nd floor)

I wish I was able to really capture the feeling of the room, the loudness of the ladies talking, the smells, the sounds of the ladies' little children, etc. We were told that about 15 women were coming (which is actually a good size) and when we arrived about 45 women and their small children were there waiting for us (they also had a meeting right before this too). The room was SMALL and dark (with only one small light bulb hanging over head, concrete floors and plastic chairs) and I tried to figure out how we were going to make this work. I asked our national friend if we could ask 1/2 of the ladies to stay and the other 1/2 to come back the next day or next week and we would train them then....the room was really TOO small. My friend told me that that wasn't a possibility and we needed to do what we could to train them all right then. After trying several different things we finally figured out that we (the teachers) could stand in the doorway and we could pack the small room (and HALLWAY) with ladies and teach to both groups from the doorway. It was really crazy and loud and difficult but we made it work as best as we could.

The hallway where many of the women and children were to receive the training

Although because of the situation we were unable to do the training as in depth as I would have liked to, the women were really interested, had good questions and were able to hear the Creation story and part of the Gospel (many for the first time). They also got to see pictures of the different stages of fetal development and were very interested in those. Some of the women had to leave before the training was over (which actually helped us to better focus on the remaining women) but after the training was over we gave each woman a tooth brush and toothpaste as well as a model of a 12 week old fetus for them to remember all that they had learned and how important each life is to God and the miracle of it all.

The 12 week fetus models that we gave to each woman.

Our friend translating the teaching for us to the many women, girls and children who came (sorry I don't have better pictures because it was SO dark and crowded)

Thankfully one of my friends has been able to follow up with some of these ladies (and others) who have a desire to learn both about spiritual and physical things. I am so thankful that God is allowing me to be a part of all of this. It is such a privilege to teach these women about health issues but most importantly about the one who created them, loves them and has a special plan for them. I look forward to many more opportunites like this one. To God be all the Glory!