Strong women:
Leaders, dreamers, achievers, caregivers, helpers,
encouragers, teachers, doers, prayers….
I love reading about strong women; women who have an impact throughout
history, in current events, and in fiction. Listed above are just a few of the
words we can use to describe strong women. One thing they each have above all
else is heart, and one thing they all need to achieve their goals is faith.
One such woman made headlines just about a month ago for being a woman
of strength, a dreamer and an achiever. Now she wants to be a teacher and
encourager.
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| Mount Everest courtesy of wikipedia |
On May 19th, 2012, Tamae
Watanabe broke her own record as the oldest woman to ever climb Mount
Everest. She originally set the record ten years prior – ten years where some
other woman could have broken her record, and yet none did. Tamae Watanabe is
seventy-three years old!
Tamae, who lives near the base of Mount Fuji in Japan, is a retired office worker who has spent years climbing mountains. Perhaps living so close to the largest mountain in Japan is part of what inspired her to climb. From Alaska, to Switzerland to Nepal, Tamae has climbed mountains all over the world.
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| Mount Fuji courtesy of wikipedia |
Seven years ago, at the age of sixty-six, three years after she
initially set the record on Mount Everest, Tamae fell and broke her back. She
was afraid she’d never climb again. Driven, she pushed forward and realized her
dream.
For now, Tamae has no further plans to climb Everest. She does,
however, intend to spread her enthusiasm and knowledge by teaching and
encouraging young women of Japan who wish to also achieve their dream of
climbing mountains.
While Tamae may be the oldest woman to climb Mount Everest, she is not
the first. The first woman to successfully climb Mount Everest was Junko Tabei, in 1975, also of Japan.
Junko was also only the thirty-ninth person to complete the climb.
Another woman making recent headlines is thirty-three-year-old Liu Yang of China. When Liu Yang was a
young girl, she loved riding the bus so much that she wanted to be a bus
conductor so she could ride every day. Later she decided to become a lawyer.
But when members of her country’s army visited her school, Liu decided she
wanted to become a pilot.
On June 16, 2012, Liu Yang became the first Chinese woman to be
launched into space headed toward the Tiangong space lab where she and two male
colleagues were to spend a week doing space experiments. She is only one of two
women, and one of six people to have been considered for this space mission and
China is only the third country to send a woman into space.
Learning about these two women, and other women like them – women who
dare to follow their dreams, women who want to experience all life has to offer
and to perhaps be an influence on other women, women who put their lives in
danger for their beliefs – is inspirational to say the least.
But there are other women out there doing things right now, today, who
aren’t in the headlines; women who are changing lives because of their faith
and their calling – women who are giving of themselves to help others.
My friend, Amy Hauser, whom I wrote about here in early 2011, is leaving today for Haiti. She’s made several
trips there since I first told you about her. Not because she wants attention
or headlines, but because she wants to help those in need. Amy is a physical
therapist and the first time she went to Haiti she lost her heart to the people
who were hurt, devastated, hungry and grieving. Because her life’s mission is
to help bring comfort and aid to those in need, and because she’s been blessed
with the gift of healing hands, Amy has become involved with missions such as
Hands of Light in Action and To Love A Child, Inc.
Then we have Christi Sleiman,
daughter of our own Inky Dina Sleiman,
who also has a heart for helping others. Christi says it best on her blog sitewhen she says, “I love helping people and making them smile.” Christi is
getting ready for a mission-trip to the Philippines. Is Christi doing this for glory
and accolades? No. She was called to this through faith, and she’s going with
the heart and attitude to help minister to the poverty-stricken children of the
Philippines.
God bless Amy, Christi, Dina who instilled her love for all of humanity into her
daughter, and other women out there who have the courage to put themselves out
there and make a difference in peoples’ lives.
You have to be physically strong to climb mountains and go into space. But you don't have to be physically strong to be a woman of strength and courage. Those who make the greatest impact are those who do so with spiritual strength, relying on their faith to help them make a lasting difference in people’s lives.
You have to be physically strong to climb mountains and go into space. But you don't have to be physically strong to be a woman of strength and courage. Those who make the greatest impact are those who do so with spiritual strength, relying on their faith to help them make a lasting difference in people’s lives.
To read about Christi and her mission trip to the Philippines, read here.
Suzie
Johnson’s debut novel, No
Substitute, a contemporary inspirational novel, will be released by White
Rose Press later this year. She is a member of ACFW, RWA, and is the cancer registrar at
her local hospital. The mother of a wonderful young man, who makes her proud
every day, Suzie lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and naughty
little cat. You can visit her at the following
places: http://www.susandianejohnson.com
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