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To the Daughter Who Answers the Call
The path of a female minister is paved with a quiet, sacrificial courage that the world rarely sees. While her voice rises in the pulpit to proclaim the Word, her heart may be weathering a silent storm. In a culture where leadership is still frequently viewed through a male lens, many young women find that their greatest battlefield isn’t the mission field, but the home and the very institution they serve.

Imagine the weight of a woman who carries the spiritual authority of an entire congregation or District, only to return to a home where her divine mandate is met with indifference or dismissal. She lives in a triangulated stress—the relentless pull of being a devoted wife, a nurturing mother, and a shepherd to the lost. It is an exhausting dance of identities, often performed without a safety net.

The Unseen Burdens

• The Domestic Divide: Many young female ministers face the heartbreak of husbands who cannot reconcile cultural expectations with their wife’s ecclesiastical status. When these cultural expectations are not met, abandonment or divorce often follows, leaving the woman of God to carry the “stigma” of a broken home alongside the cross of her ministry.
• Institutional Blindness: The church, which should be a sanctuary, often compounds this pain. Routine transfers and postings are frequently made without regard for the peculiar vulnerabilities of a woman’s life or family structure, treating her as a unit of labour rather than a daughter of the Covenant.
• The Silence of Mental Health: Underneath the clerical collar, depression often takes root. Without formal systems of support, these women are left to bleed in silence while they pray for others to be healed.
  A Scriptural Foundation for the Called
  To the young woman in the fray, remember that your calling was never a mistake of man, but a decree of Heaven.
• You are sustained: Just as Deborah rose as a mother in Israel when the hearts of men failed (Judges 5:7), your leadership is a vital necessity, not an intrusion.
• You are seen: In your exhaustion, remember the promise of Psalm 34:18, “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” He sees the tears shed behind closed doors after the sermon is over.
• You are chosen: You stand in the lineage of the women at the tomb—the first entrusted to preach the Resurrection. Your authority is not stolen; it is bestowed.
  
  A Call for Radical Empathy
  Ministry can be a cold and lonely place for a young woman, but it doesn’t have to be. We are called to be more than observers of their struggle; we are called to be their strength.

Ministry should not be a sentence of isolation. Let us replace the cold wall of indifference with the warm embrace of encouragement.

Let us move past the era of judgment and into an era of profound empathy. Let us build a church that sees the woman behind the title—the one who tires, the one who grieves, and the one who needs to be shepherded herself.
Jean-Paul Agidi (Rev)