Linger. With this theme on their hearts, five women from South Carolina got on an airplane to go across the world to encourage international Christian women serving in South Asia to linger – linger in God’s presence, in faith, and in prayer.
Dana Fore and Beth Hollingsworth pose for a photo with a woman in South Asia. They and three other South Carolinians traveled to South Asia to host retreats for international Christian women in two countries.“It was evident that the volunteers had put so much thought and consideration and prayer into what they did,” Annette Romick* said. “From the gifts they brought, to the Bible study, to the opportunities they gave for personal prayer time, everything was designed to encourage the ladies and give them time to rest in God’s presence.”
Months earlier, as the volunteers began to prepare to host ladies’ retreats in two South Asia countries, they sent a survey to ask the women how the volunteers could minister to them.
“We just kept coming back to the thought that sometimes in ministry we get so caught up in ‘doing’ that we forget that that’s not the priority. The priority is to ‘be,’?” volunteer Kimberly Freeman said.
“It was something that God in his omniscience was working with in our lives at the same time,” she said. “So it was sort of like reading the surveys and saying, ‘This could just as easily have been written by a pastor’s wife in Columbia.’?”
Debbie Fisher pours a cup of milk tea, a South Asian specialty.After prayerful consideration and a retreat of their own, the volunteers agreed that the retreats in South Asia should focus on lingering.
“The definition is ‘a disinclination to depart,’?” Freeman said. “We want to be disinclined to depart from God’s presence.”
Knowing that lingering in God’s presence would annoy the devil, the volunteers asked many in South Carolina to pray for those in South Asia who would be attending the retreats, which the South Carolina Baptist Convention coordinated.
When the five South Carolinians arrived in South Asia, they took time to experience the culture before the start of the first retreat. They felt it was important to get a little taste of what the international Christian women encounter every day.
“It was a great thing, because then we could really identify more with the ladies. I think we knew more of where they’d been,” volunteer Dana Fore said. “We’d seen some of the things they had lived with – the traffic and how people just come up to the windows when you’re stopped, people turning their heads because you’re a white woman.”
After lingering some time with the ladies in that first country, the five volunteers packed their bags again and headed to another South Asia country for the second retreat.
The women who attended both retreats said the time with the South Carolina volunteers was exactly what they needed.
Kimberly Freeman leads international Christian women serving in South Asia in a Bible study that focuses on lingering with God.“It has been great to just breathe,” one said. “Thank you for being obedient and allowing God to give you courage to come to this part of South Asia.”
Another added, “Please know that God has used each and all of you – as well as the ones from back home – to help me. I really needed the lessons, the worship, the time, the prayers, all of it!”
The South Carolina volunteers said the blessings flowed both ways.
“It’s going to be awesome to take these precious women back home with us and be able to pray more specifically and know their faces,” Fore said. “It’s really special.”
*Names changed for security purposes. Wynn is a Journeyman serving as a writer in the South Asia region.