DARK AND HEAVY CLOUDS SHORTENED the horizon. The stalks of sugar cane swayed back and forth in rhythm with the roaring winds as the people hurriedly took shelter in the only storm-proof structures in the town--the school buildings. Hurricane San Felipe was paying a visit to Puerto Rico with the intention of sweeping it clean.
At the shelter where we were, most of the children were crying, some of the mothers were telling tall and scary stories, and the men were gambling with cards and dominoes. A small group of church-women were praying. This is the first memory of my existence, and in this setting, I am told, I gave my first testimony to the power of Jesus Christ.
I was very little, and in baby talk I prayed: "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me." I repeated the memorized prayer again and again, and the men stopped their gambling to listen and shamefully echoed the prayer. We all survived the hurricane, although we lost our houses.
I thank God for giving me the blessing of being born of Christian parents. My mother, although she could not read or write, taught me everything she had memorized as others read to her and taught me to depend on Jesus, not being ashamed to proclaim and exalt his holy name.
As I grew up, the words and prayers of salvation and hope that were once repeated as a toddler now were used more structurally to bring the gospel to passers-by on street corners, beaches, and in parks. The fact that I was a child, and a female at that, did not take from the power of the message, and young and old, men and women, listened and responded. As I recall, I did not experience any rejection then.
I KNEW GOD WANTED me to dedicate my life to do church work. It was affirmed in many ways, but I had other plans. The obstacles that kept me from answering God's call to a lifetime of service were my own. In my childhood days, every church had as leaders a man called "the pastor" and a woman called "the missionary."
In my observations missionaries worked even harder than pastors; they did everything the pastors did, including the preaching, only it was not called preaching when the women did it. It was a "missionary report," a meditation, or a testimony, even when it had all the makings of a sermon. But what I really did not like was that the pastor had to be married and could have children, while the woman missionary had to be single. And I knew very early in life that I wanted both a career and a family.
So I got married, had four children, and continued to be actively involved in church life. My husband announced his decision to become a minister in answer to God's call, which meant uprooting to go to a California seminary.
In a dream I found myself in the California mountains following a group of people holding Spanish Bibles. I asked where they were going, and they said, "We are looking for someone to explain this book to us." A couple of weeks later, I had a similar dream.
Following these dreams I was approached by Glendale Presbyterian Church to lead a Spanish Bible study. Recalling the dreams, I could not refuse.
As I unfolded the Word of God to them, it was obvious that these people not only needed guidance and help in spiritual matters but that their needs were also emotional and physical. Body and soul needed healing, and soon I realized that my limitations stopped me from ministering to the whole person. Bilingual education was not enough; I needed pastoral skills.
The needs of the people I was serving made me conscious of the totality of God's call. I felt I had to enter the ordained ministry to be fully equipped to shepherd the congregation that was already shaping. Once I said "Yes, Lord," doors opened, and I was ordained in December 1986.
Although I had encountered no opposition while I was doing volunteer work, as I began seriously to prepare myself for professional ministry, I did experience frustration and rejection--frustration caused by the attitude of family members and friends who resented seeing less of me and rejection by those who think women are not fit to be ordained.
One Sunday, as I served communion to my fellowship, I noticed discontent in one of the male visitors and another family. I found out later that, for them, only the "Father" could officiate at these occasions. Their comment was, "Communion loses all validity and significance when served by a woman."
I was appalled. Can the hands of a woman pollute the elements? Can this memorial be somehow forgotten when handled by a woman? Is there magic in a woman's hands to take away the power from the Word of God?
In another incident, before my ordination, I was introduced to the owner of a Spanish Christian bookstore. When he heard that I was a candidate for ordination, and an already established lay preacher in a Spanish congregation, he got so red in his fury that he turned away from me and with disdain loudly asked me if I did not know that women were to be silent. I had never had anyone look at me with such contempt.
I THANK GOD THAT through incidents such as these God affirms my calling, for it is by God's Spirit in me that I silently react in compassion and prayer. I do not become angry. I do feel sorry that their God is so limited.
My God is the Jesus who had authority to add a new dimension to the Law. On many occasions Jesus taught by saying: "You have heard that it was said...but I say to you..." With his Resurrection, Jesus added a new dimension to the involvement of women in the church. He seemed to have said, "You have heard that women such as Miriam and Deborah were prophetesses and intercessors for the people, but I say to you that women will do greater things than these"; and so he commissioned Mary Magdalene to go and deliver the first Easter message. While the men forsook the master and fled, the women, standing by, were commissioned to go and tell the men the good news of the Resurrection.
So at this, my appointed time, God has called me and commissioned me to exercise the gifts and talents with which God has blessed me and prepared me to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ and to edify his body, the church.
I am in a denomination that is open to changes through the inspiration of the scriptures and the discernment of the Spirit and long ago accepted that the sovereign God can choose men or women to work in the kingdom. God has chosen me, and my concern is to be faithful to that call in single-mindedness.
It has been said that obstacles are what you see when you take your eyes off the goal. I do not have time or energy to waste in convincing anyone of the validity of my ordained position. Those who directly confront me, I refer to God and my ministry: Talk to God about it; only God can and will defend my position. And also look at my ministry: People's lives are being changed through a new relationship with Christ; they are being healed spiritually, emotionally, and physically. And those who come to Hogar Fellowship curious about a Spanish woman pastor usually stay.
The two families who at first could not accept communion served by a woman pastor are today active members of Hogar. To God be the glory!
Frances Robledo de Marchak was pastor and director of Hogar Cristiano Fellowship, a ministry of the Glendale Presbyterian Church in Glendale, California, when this article appeared.
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