Editorial

Notable Women in Women’s Ministries
Agnes Kola—“I Will Preach”

Kola accepted her appointment as WM director a little more than a year after graduating in 1999 from the church’s Port-Moresby-based Pacific Adventist University (PAU). She says the decision to study theology is the most important she has made. “No member of my family had ever done it before.”

A lecturer at an agricultural college where Kola first studied introduced her to the Adventist Church. She joined on January 13, 1990. But the rest of her family—father, a former police chief inspector; mother; five brothers; and two sisters—belonged to another denomination. Kola began to fast and pray, promising God that if her family joined the Adventist Church, she would work for Him. Her parents, sisters and older brother were baptised in 1994. “God had honoured my prayer,” Kola says. She resigned her job at the Department of Agriculture and, a year later, began studying at PAU. Her husband, Benjamin, has also graduated with a degree in theology and worked as a minister for three years.

“He’s willing to go against the normal culture that a woman’s place is at home,” says Kola. “He prays for me, encourages me, and sacrifices his time to help with some home duties. I would not have come this far without my God and without him.”

Kola is one of two women employed as ministers by the Adventist Church in Papua New Guinea. “Many women now hold important positions at their local churches,” says Iony Kemo, Ministerial Association secretary. “Our members are recognising the value women such as Agnes bring to ministry.”

But Kola says she has not found it easy being a woman and a minister. “Some members initially challenged my leadership. Now they respect me.” What is Kola’s reply to the few who question her place behind the pulpit? “I tell them, ’I’m sorry if it will offend you, but for the sake of your salvation, I will preach.’”

Kola says men and women should work together in ministry. “Women are emotional beings. God has given us this loving, caring and nurturing nature to complement what men bring to ministry.”

Information from Brenton Stacey, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea