International (MNN) — Tomorrow is International Women’s Day, where women around the world and their achievements are celebrated. It’s a day to respect and honor women and a call to treat everyone equally – no matter their gender.
One way you can observe International Women’s Day is to come alongside ministries like Trans World Radio who are working to bring healing and lift up women who are hurting all over the world.
Trans World Radio (TWR) empowers women and girls through their “Women of Hope” radio programs and prayer groups. These efforts are touching the lives of hundreds of thousands of women around the world.
“We continue to hear stories from our listeners about ways our radio program, Women of Hope, is touching their lives,” TWR’s Dr. Peggy Banks says. “Not only the radio program, but we have a prayer movement that has more than 65-thousand intercessors praying through our prayer calendar in more than four thousand prayer groups globally.”
Healing through Prayer
One of these incredible stories of hope and healing took place in Zanzibar where Banks recently went.
Zanzibar is about 99 percent Muslim, but Banks met a Christian family who had started a Church in their Muslim village several years ago and was helping to strengthen others in their community.
Banks started speaking with the pastor’s wife, her daughter, Elizabeth, and several other women who were part of their TWR prayer group.
“Elizabeth started to tell us her story,” Banks shares. “Her story is one that is pretty amazing what God has done because when she was 15, she was gang-raped by a group of Muslim boys in that village, beaten very badly, and left, really, to die out there. She was filled with anger, of course, and shame, and didn’t want to tell her pastor father and her mother what had happened– until she found out that she was pregnant.”
(Photo courtesy of TWR)
Elizabeth then told her mother what had happened and her mother brought her into the TWR Women of Hope prayer group.
“The women started praying with her, started praying over her. They started praying through the prayer calendar. They were seeking God for wisdom on what to do. They were afraid too that she was pregnant with this child from these Muslim boys.”
Through this prayer and the support of these women, Elizabeth began to find healing and hope in God. She eventually gave her life to Christ, “and knew that God had a plan for her and this child was going to be a gift.”
Banks had the privilege to meet Elizabeth’s four-year-old daughter, Grace, who is being taught about Jesus so she will one day love and know Him as her Savior, too.
Seeing how Elizabeth has been influenced, Banks knows just how much prayer groups are touching the lives of women around the world.
Helping Women become Spiritual Leaders
“The impact that our prayer groups, first of all, are doing where women are seeking God together,” she says. “They’re seeking prayer warriors when situations happen in their families. They’re helping each other. They’re walking alongside each other during these difficult times.”
These prayer groups have led women, including Elizabeth, to also begin listening groups, where they tune into TWR’s Women of Hope radio programs. These programs are broadcasted more than 500 hours each week and cover physical issues, such as being pregnant, loving their husbands, and even how to grow a garden. Most importantly, the programs share about Jesus, His goodness, love, and mercy.
These programs further encourage women to reach out to their communities and share about Jesus.
“A prayer group will turn into a listening group, and now they’re listening to programs of hope, and … then a radio home group,” Banks says. “They start to look outside of their group and say, ‘How can we help our community?’… They become a group that then reaches out to their community and starts more prayer groups, which turn into listening groups, which turn into community groups.”
Act with TWR
(Photo courtesy of TWR via Facebook)
TWR is excited to embolden women around the world to act as leaders in sharing the Word of God with their communities. They invite you to help women like Elizabeth to heal through a relationship with Jesus.
You can join or start a prayer group in your Church and pray for women around the globe.
“It helps us to remember that there are others in other parts of the world that are going through things that sometimes we can’t even identify with.” Your prayer will support women and girls and help them grow in their walk with God.
International Women’s Day is about celebrating women’s achievements. Let’s celebrate the achievement of mobilizing hope and healing through Jesus in the lives of women everywhere.
