By Claudia Rodriguez de Castellanos
After my husband asked me to become the director of the Women’s Network, I went through weeks and months of intense work with the team of leaders he had formed. During that time, I took upon the task of getting to know them and evaluate them to be able to select the team that I would be working with. Once the group of 12 was established, I took time to strengthen their character, deeply heal their self-esteem, awaken the potential for leadership that was in every one of them, and to plant in their hearts the vision specifically focused on women.
The biggest challenge the network had to go through at that time was the gathering just for women at our city’s coliseum with capacity for 18,000 people. That was going to be our first meeting, and the announcement of the gathering caused much impact among the group of twelve when I told them that the event would take place in just ten days. We knew that, this way, the Lord would receive all the Glory. I traveled the next day with the compromise of coming back the day of the gathering.
During those ten days, I couldn’t stop praying. God had given me the conviction in my spirit of what He was going to do, but the Heavenly sphere needed to be moved through prayer. When the date of the big meeting arrived, I understood that all I could do was to lean on God because I knew that no one in the group could do the necessary work to achieve the results we expected. I had the certainty in my heart that God would move His mighty hand and He would draw in the women to that place.
As I got close to the coliseum where we were going to have the meeting, I was filled with expectations that we would see the miracle of multiplication operated by God. With great emotion, I told my brother who was driving the car: “Look at all those cars, the coliseum must be full!” But he told me: “Don’t even think about that. All those people have come to the soccer stadium and are simply parking their cars over here; the multitude is not here for the meeting, but for the game.”
I felt at that moment that it was as if Satan’s voice was talking to me trying to weaken my faith, but I didn’t accept it and with authority, I told him: “That’s not true! I will show you that the owners of those cars are going to the meeting.”
When I walked in, I saw the answer to the prayers; the place was completely full of women. During the whole meeting, we felt we were under the cloud of Glory; each song, each testimony, each prayer was done with so much precision and harmony as if the Heavenly symphony were accompanying us. After the message I invited the women who were there for the first time to come to the front and I saw a great movement of women around the whole coliseum who were coming with the desire of making a compromise with God.
Approximately three thousand women received Christ as their Lord and Savior that day. We all felt so happy to see God’s full support. We understood that it’s not with power or with an army, but with His Holy Spirit. After that meeting, I heard the voice of the Lord tell me: “Daughter, you have passed the test. Today, I will make you a fisherwoman who will catch women.” Those words left me completely perplexed; I could relate to Peter when the Lord told him: “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch,” but Peter told Him: “because you say so, I will let down the nets,” and he caught so many fish that the net began to break. Then the Lord told him: “from now on, you will catch men.” Peter had to move without looking at the circumstances, the only thing he had as support was the word given by the Lord.
God had given me, as a woman, a challenge. I tried to have my husband work with me on that because I felt supported, but he wisely told me: “Claudia, that is your challenge and you must lean solely on the Lord.” I understood that in the ministry, the Word of God gives us challenges in order to test us, challenges not to the logic, but to our faith where the only way to have God be delighted in us is by believing Him. The Lord was gladly surprised by the kind of faith the centurion had. We know that it is impossible to please the Lord without faith. That meeting took place on December 7, 1997, and it was the birth of the Women’s network and the date that marked the hearts of the team He gave me.
Since that day, they began to see me as their leader; they felt secure working by my side because they could see that God was also with me. At that time, we had approximately forty cell groups for women and only a few were part of the leadership. Today, we have an average of twelve thousand women preparing to become leaders and over twelve thousand cell groups for women.
This is God’s time for women. The same Lord wants to lift them up and dignify them, since women’s ministries have suffered for such a long time. We know that happened because of the war going on between the serpent and the woman. The Lord told the serpent: “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel” (Genesis 3:15). I have the firm conviction from the Lord that for this final time He will use the women to step on the head of the adversary.
I want to motivate the Christian pastors and leaders to give their full support to their respective wife, mother, and sisters so they will be able to develop their tasks in the work of the Lord. For several years, I remained behind my husband’s shadow and I was content with being behind the platform; but now I thank God because I always found great support in him and because of this I have been able to develop my work in the ministry and see thousands of lives transformed.
Bibliography. Winning Women by Claudia de Castellanos.
|
