Through the Eyes of a Woman

  Many years ago, when I had problems understanding everything that was said in a noisy room, my children would say, “Go to see an otologist. Get a hearing aid.” After a while, I got an appointment. The doctor asked me, “Why have you come to see me?” My answer was, “My children say my hearing is bad. I don’t hear everything.” His next remark was, “Why do you want to hear everything?” and we laughed. After the examination and hearing tests the ear specialist told me that even though my hearing was reduced, it was not yet necessary to get hearing aids. After a couple of bouts with acute hearing loss, I finally asked my ear doctor to prescribe hearing aids. Now he was happy to do so, as it would be good for me to learn how to cope with those little gadgets before it is too late. It has taken some time to get used to them, but they do help, although not in all situations. Having put off the decision for a long time myself, I understand that many people try to avoid getting hearing ai...

  My mother was a singer. For me, as a child, singing was done by women. It was only when the male choir of the Stockholm YMCA came to Helsinki in 1957 to give a concert that I realized that men could sing at all! One of the choir members sang a solo in our church on the Sabbath morning and my eyes and ears were opened. Men could sing! The women’s voices in the congregational singing were dominant, so I had not realized that men could also sing. For the last seventy years, children in the United Kingdom have been singing “God Save the Queen.” If they were anything like me, they probably grew up with the idea that only a woman could reign. At least, a Queen is what they saw. How could a man be a king when a queen was all they had experienced? Changing the text of the national anthem to “God Save the King” is easier than for the nation to get used to having a king after the long reign of the late Queen Elizabeth. Despite a few ups and downs, she did a marvelous job and served her peo...

  Tulips are supposed to be bright and colorful. After the long, dark winter months we look forward to the yellow daffodils and red tulips. A splash of color to cheer us up. A few weeks ago I took a photo of the tulips and daffodils in our garden. They were beautiful flowers, radiant in red and white. But the other day, I saw some black tulips. Well, almost black. Black tulips are supposed to be something special. The myth of the existence of a black tulip inspired the 1850 novel by Alexander Dumas, a story that influenced generations. It includes the story of a magnificent prize, offered to the first man or woman to produce a pure, black tulip. Dutch growers worked for years to create a black tulip in real life. A few tulip  breeders came close. In 1891, a well-known grower declared victory in creating the fictional flower, going so far as to name his new breed ‘La Tulipe Noire’ after the book. However, the color was not black but dark purple. Others followed with ‘Queen of N...

  Looking from my European standpoint, I am astonished at the number of recently released books on Biblical Womanhood and associated topics in the English language. There are more books than anyone can keep up with. Very good books. Each one brings something old, something new, something borrowed, something … true. Many of these books have opened my eyes and my understanding. Some helped me get a grip on Bible texts that seemed to contradict each other. As a book-lover, I would like to read all of these books, but I am slowly realizing that even the whole world would not have room for all the books that could be written, as John the Apostle said. [1] Maybe, however, all that needs to be said has already been written. At least, I have found the answers I have been looking for. Something seems to be happening in American Christianity. While women in complementarian churches are waking up to the injustice of the discrimination they have been subjected to for the last forty years,...

  Hidden Figures As news editor of the eudwomen.org website, I have been posting articles about Adventist women during Women’s History Month. I have also shared these stories here on my private blog. I hope that it has been an interesting journey of discovery to the beginnings of the Seventh-Day Adventist church in various parts of the world. Once more, together with a group of women, I watched “Hidden Figures,” a movie that always impresses me. The three highly qualified, extremely talented black women faced so much discrimination despite the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson, and Dorothy Vaughn managed to make a difference, patiently waiting for their chance to show the world that women, black women at that, must be taken seriously. It was a learning process for the scientists at NASA. These women mathematicians before the time of computers helped to make the US space program a success and get the first man on the moon. For about 50 years they were hid...

Women’s History Month 2023#9 Who was this Pioneer Adventist woman? Sarah was born on April 14, 1832, to Noah (1812-1894) and Hannah Hallock (1813-1895). Her paternal grandfather had fought in the War of 1812, and her parents had moved to Ulysses, Pennsylvania, where she was born. She came from a staunch Seventh Day Baptist family where she attended Alfred University (1851-52). [3] In later years she traced the beginnings of Adventism to their area to a tour by J. N. Andrews and Hiram Edson around 1851. [4]  By the summer of 1857 R. F. Cottrell would conduct evangelistic meetings in Ulysses where he baptized four people, possibly including Sarah, for their “deep conviction of the truth.” By Dec. 11, 1857, Sarah sent her first note to the editor of the  Review and Herald  about her newfound faith: “I feel grateful … that the light of his glorious gospel now illumines this once benighted heart of mine.” [5] By late 1859 she responded to a challenge to women “lackin...

  Women’s History Month Petra Tunheim was born on February 18, 1871, in the town of Hatteland, Norway. [i]  She was the youngest of 10 siblings in a family of farmers and spent most of her childhood “herding sheep and reading her Bible on the lonely hillsides” of her native country. [ii]  In 1892, after the death of her father, she emigrated to the United States along with her mother and four brothers. There she learned about the Adventist faith and enrolled at  Union College , where she also worked as a teacher. [iii] For a time, she devoted herself to canvassing, until she read in a magazine the need that the church had for missionaries abroad. In 1903 she traveled to Australia, where she worked as a literature evangelist with great success. [iv] In 1906, during the annual meeting of the Australasian Union, Miss Tunheim offered herself as a volunteer to go to Java as a missionary. [v]  Her work initially focused on the city of Surabaya. There a Protestan...