Special Feature: Precious Women!

One of our important goals for this website "by and for ICOC women" is to provide a platform for best practices and inspirational ideas that effectively meet crucial needs in our fellowship. Sometimes an issue that may feel like a screaming unmet need in one part of the world is being successfully addressed in another one of our Regional Church Families. Taking into consideration, of course, our global cultural differences, we can still learn so much from one another’s efforts, successes, and failures.

One such example is the Precious Women ministry in the Southeast Asia (SEA) Region, whose largest church is in Jakarta, Indonesia. The Precious Women ministry began more than 10 years ago to address the problem of isolation that single women can face in the world and in our churches today.

On WomenToday.International's Mature Singles page (you can find it in the Lifestages dropdown menu), we’re proud to highlight the inspiring story of how the SEA Region’s Precious Women ministry began and developed (https://www.womentoday.international/mature-singles/mature-singles-ministry-inspiration-best-practices). The Mature Singles page also features several compelling testimonies from women in that ministry (https://www.womentoday.international/precious-women-ministry, https://www.womentoday.international/testimony-of-santy-oey, https://www.womentoday.international/testimony-sui-ching-yong, https://www.womentoday.international/testimony-of-charissa-christiano).

In addition to the material for Mature Singles, the SEA Region has produced quality spiritual content for single mothers, such as their Crucial Conversation titled “More Than Conquerors Through Him" (https://youtu.be/_njgneoTztM).

If you’re a single Christian woman reading this, you are worthy of deep admiration and respect as you live celibate and faithful to Jesus in today’s world. Meanwhile, if you’d like to help us create more pertinent continent for women like yourself in our churches, please don’t hesitate to reach out. Click here to submit an article We’d love to hear from you.

— WTI

Webinar Puts Spotlight on Mature Singles Ministries

By Tammy Fleming (Kiev, Ukraine) and Susani Karta (Jakarta, Indonesia)

Long ago and far away

In February of this year, the Women’s Service Team, along with the leadership of the 33 regional families of ICOC churches around the world, traveled to Jakarta, Indonesia, for the ICOC annual Spring Leadership Meetings. Now, after the COVID-19 lockdowns, this seems amazing, as if it took place long ago in another world.

We agreed to meet in Jakarta because the Indonesian church family (known as the SEA Region, for South East Asia Region; not to be confused with the South Asia Region, which includes India; or the SPA region, which is the South Pacific and Australia Region) has for many years maintained the most consistent, stable growth of any large region (over 3,000 members) of all our churches in the world. We wanted to learn from them -- how they have steadily continued to plant new churches, raise up the next generation, and expand and create new ministries.

Precious Women

When the Women’s Service Team made the historic decision to add single women to its number for the first time earlier this year, Susani Karta from Jakarta was among them. Susani is one of the earliest and most influential disciples in the Jakarta church. As a mature single woman, God led her to overcome many personal obstacles by helping to found the ministry for mature singles (or Seasoned Singles, as they are called in that part of the world). Women in the Seasoned Singles ministry are known as Precious Women in the SEA Region. Their fun, faithful, flourishing, fruitful, fantastic ideas and best practices are spreading to other churches, nations, and regions.

In July 2020, the Women’s Service Team hosted a presentation and conversation attended by mature single women on the continents of Africa and North America. The Zoom presentation featured Susani, along with Mami Takanarita from Japan, who introduced the history and evolution of the Precious Women and Seasoned Singles ministries in South East Asia.

You can watch a video recording of this conversation by clicking the link below. It seems as though there is a great need that would be met if groups of mature singles could initiate or have access to more conversations like these, and engage in the types of activities we hear about from Susani and Mami.

Our collective heart on the Women’s Service Team longs to lift up and support the incredible treasure we have in the single women all over the world in the ICOC, and our friends who are single. One of our task forces (a fancy word for subcommittees) is focusing regularly on conversations with mature single women all over the world at regular intervals. We hope you’ll feel free to share this video and these testimonies from some of the Precious Women of the SEA Region.