Apostolic Friends Forum - to Elders Burk and Benicasa

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to Elders Burk and Benicasa

To Elders Benicasa and Burk

I am sorry you both feel I have in your words grossly misrepresented your position on women preachers…I agree that is very possible for I did not read the many many posts and when a sister got involved it became heart rendering to me as I am sure I misunderstood but my mind was taken back to many years ago when Brother Alvear pleaded for a missionary to go to the country of Paraguay and who volunteered to go after no man stood up was a little lady with 5 small children still at home. A lady that her husband left her when she became a believer. A term we use in Brazil for Christian.

Sister Petrolina left Brazil with her children and lived in dire poverty, building a little tabernacle with her own hands from scraps. Living in a home with no electricity, sleeping on mats on a dirt floor, cooking on old bricks outside. A home where she did not have running water or any of the necessary things of life. Many times going without, yet she won souls to the Lord. One soul became a Pastor who still lives in Paraguay( far from that area). We raised her 5 small children; today one of her sons is a faith missionary in the jungle and the other pastors several churches in northeast Brazil. Her youngest son works in the music ministry. Her daughters are married to young preachers…but Sister Petrolina never lived to see her beautiful children grow up into Gods service, she was martyred in Paraguay.

My mind went to another sister in Brazil (a preacher) that was brutally raped in a village where she was preaching but not even such a traumatic experience has silenced her lips…she preaches on…

My mind went to a little sister in Bahia that pastors’ a little church that most of all her kin folks are Branhamites, yet in the mist of laughs and persecution she has a wonderful group of people today, her husband is the head pastor but when she started out he barely was a Christian and all his folks are Branhamites.

My mind went to a little pastor lady that walks hundreds of miles each year to take the gospel to farm areas and interior places risking her life..Sister Celia…

My mind went back to another little pastor lady that did not seek the job but because of a imbalance in the brain her husband lost his mind…he was a fine pastor…she so bravely takes his place and has went through living hell, yet in the mist of so much suffering she has now started a second church in the city where she lives.

My mind goes to Sister Roas a preacher…a pastor’s wife that help the fort in the far backlands of an interior state for Pastor Jose taking care of services riding on the back of milk trucks to go to the farm lands where a church is being built today. Pastor Jose did not mind that his wife helped him, in fact, they have worked together for many years in the gospel.

Another sister's husband messed up with a church lady, yet she never missed a beat taking care of the church though her personal trials and has witnessed growth and blessings.

Brother Burt, Brother Benicasa I have never been known to fight men or disrespect men and my post meant no harm and I never dreamed you would take offence…I really meant it joking…as that is a part of my personality.

I personally know what it is to work in a leper colony for years, sleeping among the lepers and eating in their homes…change bedpans, wrap sores and preach Jesus to them…I did not have men offering to take my job…how I wished many times to have a man to help lift them, bath them, especially the men…but I did whatever was needed, including teaching them the story of Jesus.

I seldom mention this however for your knowledge I was the first white woman that ever walked into the tribe of the Xavante Indians..cannibal Indians…I stood there before completely naked men and told them the story of Jesus…Do you think that made me uncomfortable? Not only their nakness but knowing they would decide IF I would live.

Twice I had spoken in Catholic mass in Brazil telling the priest, nuns and those present the story of Jesus.

I remember many years ago in an Indian village standing in the freezing rain in far south Brazil with two other sisters and my baby…we had no place to sleep but our bus did not come to pick us up and the Indians were noted in that place for raping women…we prayed until God sent 2 drunk men that let us catch a ride in the back of an old pickup truck over slippery muddy rainy roads, not knowing if we would get back into a town where we would be safe.

I remember many times taking one of our little boys with me and getting off the long bus ride to the backlands of Bahia then hitch hiking for a ride back on to lands where the bus did not run…

I remember walking for hours with Sister Sonia drinking from ponds where the water was slimy green…just to get back into some area where He has not been named. Today Sister Sonia health is gone due to the parasites that have destroyed her body.

I baptized a trinity pastor and his wife in the Amazon jungle in a little stream at night full of alligators.

Many times in my life have I sat through witchdoctor meetings to wait until it was over to tell the witchdoctor the story of Jesus…sometimes I was severely persecuted other times the message was received with joy. One witch doctor shook a black chicken in my face and told me he was going to kill the chicken and drink its blood and I would die from the curse he would put upon me.

Do you think I have enjoyed per se going into villages where there was not even an outhouse…baths taken in creeks knowing the native men were trying to get a look at the foreigner and what food they have is horrible to say the least.

I do not agree with ladies that are brazen and bold and march to pulpits imitating men, however, in God’s eternal plan HE called and I have never lost the wonder of being a missionary.

Once again I ask the forgiveness of anyone I might have offended. And if you feel I have misrepresented you and your views I do ask forgiveness.