0:09

Welcome to the Journeywoman podcast. I'm

0:12

your host, Hunter Beeles. Life's a journey

0:14

we were never meant to walk alone. We all

0:16

need friends along the way. On the Journeywoman

0:18

podcast, we'll chat with mentors about

0:20

gracefully navigating the seasons and challenges

0:23

we face on our journeys to glorify

0:25

God. We're continuing our Women of

0:27

the Faith series in which we are talking about women

0:29

from church history who will encourage us to trust

0:31

our God who doesn't change. Today,

0:33

Karen Ellis is going to share the story of

0:35

an incredible woman named Mariah Fearing.

0:38

Mariah's story will inspire you to set aside

0:41

excuses and serve the Lord with gladness.

0:43

I can't wait for you to hear more about her. But

0:46

before we get started, I want to say thanks to those

0:48

of you who support our podcast

0:49

through your generous donations. Journeywoman

0:52

is a nonprofit organization that exists to move

0:54

women to know and love God, to find their hope in

0:56

the gospel, and to invest deeply in their local

0:58

churches as they go out on mission

0:59

for the glory of God. If you'd like to

1:01

join us in this endeavor, you can learn more at

1:04

journeywoman.org.

1:13

In this series, we are looking at the lives of

1:15

different women throughout church history. The

1:17

more we learn about them, the more you may be

1:19

challenged to study the Bible more deeply and

1:21

be better equipped to teach God's Word. If

1:24

you find yourself there, know that Southeastern

1:26

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1:30

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1:33

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1:35

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1:37

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2:09

K-A-L-S, welcome back to the Journey Women

2:11

podcast. I'm so glad to be

2:14

here with you, you Journey Woman. What

2:17

a treat to catch up with you. Such a

2:19

joy to have you on the show. As soon as

2:21

I heard from the Good Book Company that we

2:23

would be releasing one of the Do Great

2:26

Things for God series together, I was

2:28

like, well, how can I say no to that if I

2:30

get to work with K-A-L-S? It's

2:34

a treat. I'm glad that was your catalyst

2:36

because I love that you're writing on Amy Carmichael.

2:39

It's

2:39

very exciting, you know, seeing her

2:41

story condensed for our We

2:44

Ones. I remember reading her

2:46

novel a long time ago,

2:49

probably 30 years ago and just being so

2:51

impressed by her life story. So I'm glad you've taken

2:53

her up. Oh, absolutely. She was such

2:55

an inspiration to me, but all of these ladies

2:57

are. You have had the privilege

3:00

now of writing two from this series, but the

3:02

one that's coming out really soon is on Mariah

3:04

Fearing. Is that correct? That's right. So

3:07

exciting. So we're going to talk about her today, but first I would love

3:09

for the listeners just to get a little bit of a snapshot

3:11

into your life because this is a minor

3:14

note in a bunch of major

3:16

notes that you're working

3:19

on playing right now. So tell

3:21

us a little bit about who you are and what you do

3:23

for those who haven't had the opportunity to

3:25

interface with your work. That's a good way to put it,

3:27

a minor note, a bunch of major notes. Okay,

3:30

well, professionally, I'm an academic

3:33

and I work with Reform Theological

3:35

Seminary in Atlanta and we have a project

3:37

that I direct called the Edmiston Center.

3:41

And the Edmiston Center is an

3:43

academic institution within the

3:45

institution that specializes in studying

3:48

theology around Christian life

3:50

in the hard places. That can be anywhere from persecution

3:54

to soft marginalization to persecution

3:56

to martyrdom. And so there's

3:58

this big academic hole. that

4:00

nobody's really writing and there's a lot on theology

4:03

of suffering, there's a lot on, you know,

4:05

on practical theology, there's

4:07

a lot of testimonies and stories, but nobody's

4:09

really doing a lot of theological spade work

4:12

in how do, how have

4:14

Christians endured

4:16

under anti-Christian hostility. So

4:18

that's what we're kind of pioneering or exploring

4:21

this new academic theological space.

4:24

And I get to do that with my husband, which is fun too. Absolutely.

4:27

I think that we talked about that

4:30

whenever you had first started the Edmondson

4:32

Center. How long has it been established? We

4:35

started in 2018

4:37

and we've been doing it long

4:39

enough now to teach through our whole curriculum.

4:41

We have a certificate program and

4:43

we also have a lecture series where we've been hosting

4:46

different voices to talk specifically about

4:48

Christian endurance in hard places.

4:51

We've had our first graduates, which is exciting.

4:54

Yeah. And so, yeah, we've been at it long

4:56

enough now to see a few things turn over and

4:58

start looking at expanding. So it's really exciting.

5:00

So that's the process. So exciting. Absolutely.

5:03

Yeah. On the home front, I'm a

5:05

mom, a stepmom, but I

5:07

feel like I'm a mom because the kids have just they're

5:09

not kids, they're adults. They're in their late thirties

5:11

at that. But they have just warmly

5:14

embraced me over the 12 years my husband

5:16

and I have been married. And they're all the kids I've

5:18

ever known. I never had biological kids. As

5:21

a matter of fact, I'm married into my forties

5:24

for the first time. And so I didn't have biological

5:26

children. So they're my kids. And

5:28

then I have one granddaughter who I just adore

5:31

and she adores me and we have a really great time

5:33

together. So I'm doing home things

5:35

like that with my husband and my

5:38

my son, my granddaughter and figuring

5:41

out how to grow our own food in our little urban garden

5:43

and how fun those sorts of things

5:45

and how to get through school and, you

5:47

know, how to learn new jobs and stick

5:49

to things. And she's eight. And

5:52

so it's a good time. It's a good time on the home front.

5:54

Well, and you didn't even talk about all of your writing projects

5:57

because those in and of themselves are like

5:59

a full time job. KA. Yeah, yeah.

6:01

So, okay. I'm a professional

6:04

speaker, heavily trained. I

6:07

am not a writer, but I'm learning to

6:09

be one. I like to say I have been, I

6:11

might have been born yesterday, but I've been up all night.

6:13

So this is how the writing

6:16

thing has gone for me. And I

6:18

have asked my pastor, his wife, my

6:20

closest friends, do not ever

6:23

let me sign a bunch of publishing

6:25

contracts that all come due at the same

6:27

time, because that's what I'm experiencing right now. Oh,

6:30

what the rookie mistake, right? You feel

6:32

poured out like a drink offering right now, because I

6:34

can only imagine, you know, the cartoon

6:37

characters when they're flattened in the road, that's, that's

6:39

what it feels like sometimes my husband just, you know, he's like,

6:41

are you writing? He just knows for about three

6:43

weeks, he just slides the food under the door. Make

6:48

sure I stay fed. And, you know, I

6:50

grunt every once in a while, and then there's a manuscript.

6:52

So I've

6:53

been learning at 56 years

6:55

old, I've been learning how to write

6:57

how to be a writer. Yeah, it's

6:59

been terrifying. And it's been wonderful.

7:02

I started with these two children's books. And then I have

7:05

two trade books coming out in the next

7:07

year. And then I have a young adult book coming

7:09

out on Phyllis Wheatley in June. Yeah, well,

7:12

it's the script is due next year. But

7:14

that'll be in the next couple of years. So you know,

7:16

I just feel like I'm, I'm just have

7:18

all these opportunities just presented themselves.

7:21

And you know, people came and said, do you want to write? And

7:23

I was like, you know, I'm not a writer.

7:25

And they're like, well, you we think you can give it a

7:27

good honest stab. So God's been very

7:30

merciful to me, to

7:32

actually give me something to say, that

7:35

glorifies him and honors him

7:37

and points to his faithful servants

7:39

throughout history. I think one of the reasons

7:41

that I became interested in Mariah's

7:44

story, she's connected to the Edmiston

7:46

Center, in that the

7:48

Edmistons for whom our center is named, they

7:50

were all on the same first African American

7:53

mission group to Congo. And

7:55

this was at the turn of the

7:57

last century or century before last.

7:59

And just going back and finding

8:02

these stories, the stories

8:04

of people who've been overlooked, you know, they just

8:07

haven't been recorded as heavily

8:09

as some of our other church heroes. So

8:12

that's been such an honor and

8:14

a wonderful encouragement and a great

8:17

exercise for me, just kind of excavating

8:20

these folks from history

8:22

who were faithful. At a time when

8:24

the church is really heavily focused on the places

8:26

where the church just got it wrong. And

8:28

I'm like, can we look at some of the places

8:30

where they got it right? Because there's

8:32

been some, God's kept the kingdom line of people

8:35

who were faithful.

8:36

Not perfect, but faithful.

8:39

So yeah, so that's kind of where I've been exploring,

8:41

my research has been exploring and that's

8:43

how I landed with Mariah Fearing. Yeah,

8:46

that's how you landed with her. So did you discover her

8:48

through some of the work that you've been doing with the Edmondson

8:50

Center? Or when did you first interface with her story?

8:53

I first interfaced with her story,

8:55

I did a project with Mission

8:57

to the World, which is the mission arm

8:59

of the Presbyterian Church in America, the PCA. And

9:02

we did a project with them where

9:04

they wanted to have a short pamphlet

9:07

of significant African Americans

9:09

in missions, because they

9:11

wanted to, now I'm African American myself,

9:14

and they wanted to highlight the

9:16

fact that

9:17

when African Americans go into mission

9:19

work,

9:20

they are not stepping into a stream

9:23

for the first time, but we actually have this rich

9:25

legacy of faithful,

9:29

carrying the gospel forward around the world

9:32

under really difficult circumstances.

9:34

Oh man, absolutely. Yeah, difficult

9:37

financial circumstances, cultural, social,

9:40

you name it. And so I did

9:42

a pamphlet of about, I guess it was about 15 people,

9:45

starting with John Marrant,

9:47

who was the 17th century,

9:51

a free person of color. And he had,

9:53

his story had been recorded, he had written his autobiography,

9:56

and Mariah Fearing was among those folks.

9:58

So I knew just

9:59

enough about her for her

10:02

to be intriguing. But then the more

10:04

I started to excavate about her, the more I found

10:07

that she was connected to all these

10:09

other people that were

10:11

doing mission work whose stories also

10:13

had not been told. So

10:16

I found the Edmistons and

10:19

I found the Shepherd team, William

10:22

and Lucy Shepherd. And

10:24

their stories leap out from the page like they should make a movie

10:26

about these folks, just the things that

10:28

they endured as Christians

10:32

so that we could have some new heroes in

10:34

the mix. You know, it's like, oh my gosh,

10:37

I want to be remembered

10:41

for representing

10:43

Jesus as well as Mariah Fearing

10:45

did. And we don't know a whole lot about her.

10:47

She didn't write

10:49

much of her own. We have surviving

10:51

letters that she wrote back and forth. But

10:53

the work that she did is it's

10:56

stunning. It's impressive. It's

10:58

biblical. There are pockets of people

11:00

in Congo who remember her and who remember

11:02

this team. Tell us like about what

11:04

period of time she lived

11:07

and worked and where did she grow

11:09

up? She came from Alabama

11:12

and she was actually enslaved.

11:15

And she heard about the gospel on

11:17

the plantation in both the

11:19

formal worship services that

11:21

her owners

11:22

would have. But she also heard

11:24

about the cultural aspects

11:27

of the gospel and the oral tradition of

11:31

what God was building, what

11:33

He was doing around the world in

11:35

the Hush Harbors. So she was learning

11:37

from both sides. She was

11:40

hearing the stories of the Bible.

11:43

And when she was emancipated, she

11:45

decided after she did very

11:48

well actually after emancipation, she purchased

11:50

her own home by sewing as

11:52

a seamstress

11:52

for people in her

11:55

rural town. And she had

11:57

heard all

11:59

her life about it. about this place called Africa

12:03

and was captivated by it. As

12:05

a Christian woman, she was older. She

12:08

was in her 50s when she was

12:10

emancipated.

12:12

And so she had gone to a church

12:14

service as a free woman now. She

12:16

had gone to a church service and she heard

12:19

that William Shepherd preach

12:21

and give a call to missions.

12:23

And he was going to

12:25

Congo, which we would know today as the Democratic

12:27

Republic of Congo. At that point,

12:29

it was the free Congo, right? It was before

12:31

the Belgians colonized and

12:34

King Leopold took over. And so she

12:36

prayed and she sold her home.

12:39

That's how she paid for her mission.

12:41

This is the reconstruction period, right? It

12:44

says post civil war. And

12:46

she had purchased a home. She sold

12:48

that home to be able to pay for her

12:51

life moving

12:53

from the United States to Congo.

12:57

This was at a time

12:59

when people would move

13:01

whole congregations to

13:05

go and do mission work. Wow. Can

13:08

you imagine like if your church just was

13:10

like, hey, we're gonna fast and pray for

13:12

a little bit and then we're

13:14

gonna see what King Jesus says. And then at the

13:16

end of that period of fasting and pray, your church says, I think we're supposed to

13:18

go.

13:20

And

13:23

everybody says, yeah, I think we're supposed to go. And

13:25

so the whole church uproots themselves

13:28

and goes. That is incredible. The

13:30

trip must not have been easy given the time.

13:33

It was not. They went by steamer.

13:36

You know, of course, you know, the change

13:38

in climate because they were acclimated to the rural

13:40

South and then the change in climate

13:43

and the diseases. But what's significant

13:45

about this group was this was actually

13:47

the first African-led

13:50

mission

13:51

team, team,

13:53

I don't want to discount George Lyle and

13:56

Phyllis Wheatley who was the first actual mission team

13:58

but we were the first. were still British

14:00

then. So this is the first actual

14:03

team that was African-American-led.

14:06

Now what's interesting

14:08

about all these folks is the other

14:11

folks besides Mariah, who did not have

14:13

a formal education but was literate and

14:15

able to translate, she worked

14:17

on a grammar project and gave the Congolese,

14:20

one of the Congolese groups of people groups that they worked

14:22

among, gave them their whole grammar

14:24

written. It was one of their legacies.

14:27

You're just like, I could not do that with all

14:29

the modern day conveniences of the internet and

14:31

all the things accessible to me. And she had

14:34

nothing. That's incredible.

14:36

Yeah. I mean, you go through their papers and it's

14:39

all handwritten

14:39

stuff.

14:45

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14:47

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15:47

How did she stand up to some of the injustices

15:50

that were happening in the Congo? Okay,

15:52

so she leaves the Jim Crow South,

15:55

the black codes,

15:56

you know, discrimination against her

15:59

ethnicity. Also against

16:01

her faith because you know churches were segregated

16:03

at that point. So she leaves that the Jim Crow

16:06

South She had been an enslaved person

16:08

herself. Now. She's free. What

16:10

does she do with her freedom? She goes to Congo and

16:13

they immediately face persecution

16:16

From the rubber trade the people doing

16:18

the rubber trade and also King Leopold II who was Look

16:22

him up the history that he

16:24

left was Horrific

16:27

and so there was essentially a pogrom

16:31

of persecution against Christian

16:33

missionaries and also Local

16:36

a lot of local tribes people in

16:38

Congo and so they had a period where they

16:40

had to flee For safety then

16:42

when they came back when things settled back down what

16:45

she started doing what Mariah started doing was

16:47

she started ransoming children orphans

16:49

and

16:50

She would trade up from the Arab slave

16:52

trade and the other the Arab slave trade went on

16:55

up into I'd say the 1970s.

16:57

Oh my goodness Right.

17:01

There was the transatlantic slave trade that was from

17:03

the West There's the Arab slave trade going

17:05

from the east and then there was all this Mixing

17:08

going on in the middle. Well King

17:10

Leopold comes to power. He

17:12

starts this horrible It

17:16

could be called a genocide against the

17:18

local people in order to sustain

17:20

the rubber trade Okay, so, you know how today's

17:22

conversation is all about where does

17:24

the cobalt come for our laptops

17:26

and our phones our electric cars?

17:30

Comes from Congo

17:31

And a few other places,

17:34

but there's this whole conversation today

17:36

about ethical mining To

17:38

get this cobalt like how are these people these

17:41

children especially being exploited for

17:43

this today? And how can we make this

17:45

just Wow? Well, the

17:47

cobalt of Mariah fearings day

17:50

was rubber hmm rubber for

17:52

the tires Yeah, and so

17:55

these children were being exploited to

17:57

manufacture rubber for this burgeoning

17:59

this

17:59

new technology called the automobile.

18:04

And so she's ransoming children. And so she

18:06

brings them, they've got to go somewhere. She's buying them

18:10

with different objects, whatever

18:12

she can, thread, beads, medicine.

18:15

And so she's right, well, now they've got to go somewhere.

18:17

So she takes them into her own home.

18:20

And she starts something called the Pentops

18:22

Home for Girls. Oh. This

18:25

was a hallmark of the whole team.

18:27

They were known for these faith

18:29

work projects.

18:31

The Bible says, the thief comes only

18:33

in order to steal and kill and destroy,

18:36

but I came that they may have and enjoy life

18:38

and have it in abundance to the full

18:40

till it overflows. That means that the

18:42

gospel, they saw the gospel as

18:44

something that was supposed to infiltrate every

18:47

area

18:48

of their lives. And so she was discipling

18:51

all these young people in her home.

18:53

Many of them had come from horrific conditions. They

18:55

were missing body parts. That was one

18:58

of the punishments that Leopold would inflict

19:01

on the young people was, well, if you're not working hard enough,

19:03

you're not working fast enough, you have to lose a limb. Oh

19:05

my goodness. And then be expected to still produce.

19:10

Right? So, you know, these children,

19:12

they're traumatized, but they're coming and they're

19:14

finding the home. They're home with this

19:16

woman who had, like

19:19

I was getting, this is where I get a little, because this is

19:21

where my story intersects with hers,

19:24

had never had biological children like

19:26

her. And

19:29

yet God satisfied that longing

19:31

and made her the mother of many.

19:35

So much that she ends up with, they name

19:37

her, which for an African-American

19:40

on the continent is an honor to be named.

19:42

I've been named in several different countries

19:44

when you go back and they give you a name. And

19:47

it's precious. It's really precious

19:49

as a lost

19:51

daughter or a stolen daughter. So the

19:53

children give her a name and they give her the name, mama

19:56

hua imputu, which means mother

19:58

from far away.

19:59

Wow, that

20:02

is incredible. So

20:04

she worked well into her late

20:06

70s, early 80s, but my denomination

20:09

at that point, which would have been this PCA

20:11

today, but the PCUS

20:13

back then, they forced her to

20:15

retire because she wouldn't

20:17

leave. Oh, I know you just want

20:19

to be just like that, don't you? Her

20:25

health was failing. And so they said,

20:28

you really need to retire. And so she was retired

20:30

and came back to Selma, Alabama,

20:33

and as a teacher,

20:35

continued to teach, was honored

20:37

by the Presbyterian Women's Hall of Fame. It's

20:39

just such an honor because we're talking now

20:41

at this point, it's probably the 1920s, 1930s,

20:44

it's so unusual for

20:46

an African-American woman to

20:49

receive that kind of honor in

20:51

the South. Yes, especially. Yeah. So

20:54

her story is just so unusual

20:56

on so many levels that I feel

20:58

like, you know, our kids and our grandkids,

21:01

they just need to know about these heroes

21:03

and heroines of the faith. And

21:06

that, you know, the series that we're part

21:08

of is called Do Great Things for God.

21:11

And there are so many

21:14

ordinary people that

21:16

mark the New Testament, whose

21:18

names we'll never know. Right.

21:21

They mark the book of Acts, you

21:23

know, and we just will never will get

21:25

to see them in glory. Right. Those people

21:27

are all over history. I mean, to be completely

21:30

fair, nobody's going to remember our names. If

21:32

the Lord tarries, nobody's going to remember 500 years

21:35

from now. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But

21:38

I'm really getting to the point where I just

21:41

don't care if my name

21:43

is written in the history books, as long

21:45

as it's written in the Lamb's Book of Life. And my

21:47

story is in there. And your story

21:50

is in there. And Mariah Fearing's

21:52

story, all the stuff we've missed. And

21:54

Amy Carmichael, as many books as have been written about

21:56

her. The whole story still hasn't been told.

21:59

Right.

21:59

All those details are in that book

22:02

of life, and He knows, and He

22:04

sees. Just to encourage young

22:06

people that God sees

22:09

them, God knows their deeds, and

22:11

He's building a

22:13

kingdom line of people from

22:16

Genesis, from our parents in the garden who messed

22:18

up, God said, all right, I'm going to keep this. You

22:21

can't keep this promise, but I'm going to keep this promise. I

22:23

will be your God, and you will be my people.

22:26

He's going to keep that all

22:28

the way to

22:30

Revelation when we get around the throne,

22:32

and He says,

22:35

now the dwelling place of God is with men.

22:38

I am their God. These

22:40

are my people. He says

22:42

it, and He's fulfilled it completely,

22:45

and He's keeping that promise through

22:48

all

22:48

of these unseen saints. Totally.

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Tell me about how these

24:02

unseen saints and their stories encourage

24:05

you to continue

24:06

to walk forward in

24:08

faith. I think about the Christian

24:11

life as a bullseye.

24:12

Let

24:14

me explain that. In

24:17

the center of the bullseye is the only person

24:19

who's lived the Christian life perfectly. And

24:21

we know that that's our wonderful

24:23

Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, right? He's

24:27

the only one who's lived it perfectly. But throughout

24:29

history, there have been people

24:32

who've come closer and

24:33

have lived and named the name of Christ

24:36

further away from the center of that

24:38

bullseye based on the lives

24:40

that they lived. So my question

24:42

studying all these people has become,

24:44

how do I live

24:46

closer to the center of that bullseye?

24:49

What are the values that

24:51

these folks had? What were their priorities?

24:54

What were their acts? I'm

24:56

studying a population of one of

24:58

the first African-led congregations in

25:00

the Americas, and they're a group of Moravians

25:03

on St. Thomas Island. And they also

25:05

were persecuted specifically for

25:07

their faith, not just for their ethnicity, but for their

25:09

faith. So we're talking

25:12

like mid to late 1700s, and they left

25:14

an incredible legacy. That church that was started

25:16

in 1732 is still there today.

25:18

Wow. And I'm like, what

25:20

were these folks thinking

25:23

about? What were they doing

25:25

that brought so much antagonism

25:30

from the plentocracy, from

25:33

sometimes their own denomination,

25:35

from the tribal Africans that

25:37

were around them?

25:39

Because they got it from all sides. They

25:41

were living the life of Jesus.

25:44

Some of them gave their lives for it.

25:46

And their stories are remarkable. So

25:49

I am learning to interrogate

25:51

myself and ask,

25:53

how can I leave behind

25:56

as little toxic waste as possible? Because I'm

25:59

being...

25:59

still trapped in this body, I'm going to leave some

26:02

bad stuff behind. But how can

26:04

I, with the infilling of the Holy Spirit,

26:06

how can I leave behind as little as

26:09

possible and sling forward

26:11

the kingdom of God and bring others forward

26:13

and pass a good kingdom ball

26:16

to the next generation? Yeah, I love

26:18

that so much. Tell me about Mariah in particular.

26:20

You know, when I've looked at these different women

26:22

of the faith through this whole series, it

26:25

seems like some of them might encourage me even

26:27

more by way of meditation

26:29

on Scripture

26:29

or by way of, you know,

26:32

Scripture memory or different

26:34

disciplines that maybe they really clung

26:36

to in their

26:37

respective struggles. Was there

26:39

something that she really motivated

26:41

and encouraged you to pick

26:44

up or to do more faithfully in

26:46

your kind of spiritual life? I

26:49

will say this. So we don't have a lot

26:52

of Mariah's writings. We have

26:54

a handful of letters. She did

26:57

do, I think I mentioned this before, she did do

26:59

a huge project with Althea

27:01

Etmiston, for whom our center is named, where

27:04

they basically created the

27:06

grammatical system

27:07

for the tribe that they were working

27:10

with in Congo. So that's a huge thing

27:12

to leave behind. But behind

27:14

that is a

27:16

discipline

27:18

that was exemplary

27:21

of African Americans, you

27:24

know, just before the turn of that century.

27:27

And where did they learn that? So, okay,

27:30

William Shepherd came from

27:32

a historically black college called

27:34

Hampton, where my husband went, actually, and my father

27:36

too. Now it's Hampton University

27:39

in Virginia. Mariah did not have

27:41

formal education, but she was in that ethos.

27:44

Althea Etmiston had gone to Fisk

27:46

University, which was another historically black college.

27:50

And the man that she married, that Althea

27:52

married, who's Alonzo Etmiston, he

27:55

went to Stillman, which was an

27:57

African American preacher's college, all

27:59

of them in the

27:59

South. And so all of them were these

28:02

sort of fledgling opportunities and

28:05

movements toward formal education.

28:07

And it wasn't just academics.

28:10

Their concept of whole life

28:12

education

28:14

that honors God

28:16

was what was in front of them. I feel

28:18

like that just expresses what you are

28:20

so passionate about. Well, now I'm

28:22

gonna tell you a secret.

28:24

I'm gonna tell you a secret. Tell me. I'm

28:26

lazy. I

28:30

don't believe that for a second. I'm lazy.

28:33

I can be lazy. And

28:35

so what I get to... I can waste some

28:37

time. Oh, same. Our whole world is set

28:39

up for our time wasted. And

28:42

we're actually addicted to wasting

28:44

time. Absolutely. I completely agree. I know

28:47

I am the chief of centers in that regard.

28:49

Well, thanks for joining me in my sin.

28:53

Right? So knowing

28:55

that and seeing the

28:58

ethos with which I mean

29:00

staying up by candlelight

29:03

in a place where there's no electricity

29:05

to

29:06

complete a grammatical system

29:09

and a language,

29:10

a written language for

29:13

people who are an oral people. I

29:15

mean, that image just sticks

29:18

with me of how hard they

29:20

worked to honor the people,

29:23

this people group that God had created,

29:26

how hard they were. They translated portions

29:28

of the Bible, not the whole Bible, but portions of the

29:30

Bible into the

29:33

Luebaleuba language. And

29:35

so I'm imagining them and I'm like, oh God,

29:38

I just,

29:39

I have no excuse to be lazy.

29:42

So they... How hard do they have to work to get the gospel

29:44

to these people? And it's like, it's so hard for me just

29:46

to walk over to

29:47

my neighbor's doorstep. Right.

29:50

Right. So my prayer out of that is,

29:52

God, give me that passion. Give

29:54

me that same passion and that same

29:57

discipline.

29:59

To get up and do...

31:59

really strengthen and embolden

32:02

Mariah for the work that the Lord had said before

32:04

her. I don't have a specific

32:07

answer of, you know, which passages

32:10

were embedded

32:12

in her heart. But one thing that I would

32:14

assume is that, and

32:16

I hear this from others in the, you

32:19

know, I've been working with the persecuted church and

32:21

underground churches for more than 20 years

32:23

now, and they always, their theology

32:26

is so practical.

32:28

And that's one thing that stands out for me about Mariah's

32:31

theology is not head knowledge

32:33

and it's not disconnected from the world

32:35

that was going on around her. I

32:37

don't advocate for monasticism at

32:40

all, because I just don't think, I don't see

32:42

that anywhere in the scripture,

32:44

especially in here, here's where I'm going

32:47

to tie this in the scriptures, especially in the book

32:49

of Acts.

32:50

Mariah and her

32:52

ilk would read

32:54

the book of Acts and would walk outside

32:57

and see it happening. Yeah. And

33:00

that makes me want to go, Oh God, give me some of

33:02

that. Yeah. I

33:04

want to see the book of Acts come to life. Yeah.

33:07

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That

33:10

is so encouraging. Well, certainly hearing about her story has been

33:12

one of my simple joys today. It's

33:15

going to be one of my simple joys as I read it to my

33:17

girls. I told you I have an eight year old girl and a six

33:19

year old girl. And that's been part of the joy

33:21

of being able to write for this

33:23

series and just have the

33:24

books in my home. I had the books in my home before

33:27

I got to be invited

33:29

to write for the series and they

33:31

just absolutely loved them. So it's such

33:33

a simple joy for me. But I'd

33:35

love to hear from you as somebody who

33:37

has done so much work just in

33:40

looking at the lives of Christians from

33:42

the past. What are some of your simple

33:45

joys when it comes to studying

33:47

women in particular from

33:49

church history?

33:52

I

33:55

think the great diversity

33:57

among them. So

34:00

funny because we latch on to, within

34:03

this is part of human nature because we just don't

34:05

like to be pushed to think, and I don't like

34:07

to be pushed to think in a complex way because

34:10

thinking simply is easy. But

34:13

there's so many different

34:15

ways to be a biblical

34:18

Christian woman.

34:19

And Mariah Fearing

34:22

and Amy Carmichael, they have a lot in

34:24

common in their stories, but

34:26

there's also a lot that's very different about

34:29

them. Vastly different. And

34:31

also, even on their, even

34:34

on Mariah's team, the life that Althea

34:36

had was very different because

34:39

she had different gifts than Mariah.

34:41

So I think it's the commonality

34:44

that we have in Christ and that

34:46

we have in the way that he's asked

34:48

us to live, but then the diversity

34:50

and how he allows us to express

34:53

that. And I really wanna

34:55

see our girls get set free.

34:58

My granddaughter has a little friend and

35:01

they both love Jesus. They really

35:03

do. They're both, one's eight, one's

35:05

seven. And they could not be

35:07

more different. I mean, my granddaughter is

35:09

the little girl who's like, let's

35:12

go on an adventure. I found these bugs. Let's

35:14

get in the dirt. I mean, she does not being mine, she

35:17

does not mind being muddy. She's

35:19

in a forest school. She will climb a tree,

35:21

but she's still a girly girl. And she'll

35:23

do all those things. The other little girl

35:26

who's our neighbor across the street,

35:28

precious little thing. When

35:31

she gets invited to go on the adventure, she's like, let me get

35:33

my purse. But

35:35

she'll go on the adventure. She has to have

35:37

her purse. She doesn't wanna get dirty. She doesn't wanna

35:40

have any bugs, but she's in all

35:42

these little dance classes. And the Lord is

35:44

shaping them according

35:47

to how he's gifted them. And I just

35:49

long to see them continue

35:52

until they're in their 20s, still

35:54

be friends. Their 40s and

35:57

their 60s and still afford each other.

35:59

the latitude to be who

36:02

God has made them to be. I

36:04

love that so much. Well, KA, I'm

36:07

so thankful for all of your work and

36:10

just so inspired by the way that you

36:12

live. And I thank you so much just

36:14

for giving us access

36:16

to these ladies'

36:17

stories by doing all the hard work

36:19

of research. I mean, like you mentioned,

36:21

Amy Carmichael, the problem I had with my

36:23

research was that there was so many books

36:26

I had to read. Yeah. Meanwhile,

36:29

you're having to literally excavate letters

36:32

from the depths. So I

36:34

love that. And I'm just so

36:36

grateful for all of your, for what

36:38

a labor of love that is. Thank you so much for doing

36:40

that for us. Well, I'm glad to be a part

36:43

of this team with you and part of this series.

36:45

It's a really neat series, you know, the people

36:47

that they're collecting. And I'm

36:49

just so glad that we get to be a part of it together.

36:52

Yes. Well, thank you

36:53

so much for joining me on the Journey Women Podcast

36:55

and talking about it today. It's been a joy to have you on

36:57

the show. My pleasure.

37:05

We pray that this episode challenges you to

37:07

use whatever God's given you to build His kingdom.

37:10

If you found this episode helpful,

37:12

consider sharing our Women of the Faith series

37:14

with a friend or leave us a review in iTunes

37:17

or Spotify. And if you're looking for resources

37:19

we mentioned, like the series Ka and I

37:21

wrote for, you can find our Journey Women

37:23

specific storefront with 10 of those bookstore

37:26

at the link in our show notes. As always,

37:28

thanks for listening. It's a joy to get to Journey

37:30

alongside you guys. Can't wait to see you here

37:33

next Monday. Have a great week.