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@SomeAdventistWomen Just Want to Talk

Growing up into adulthood in the Adventist Church, I have been blessed with a group of brilliant, godly, and wise women as peers. With this cohort of women, I spent my younger years dreaming about changing the world, thinking through social and theological issues, and navigating school, ministry, singlehood, career, and relationships together. 

While I am not unique in this experience, I also know there are others in the church, especially women, who may not have similar camaraderie or support system as they journey through life. This aloneness (and have we not known aloneness in a much deeper level during the pandemic?) can be such a heavy spiritual and mental burden. 

The desire for a deeper connection, perhaps triggered by pandemic isolation, sparked an idea between the aforementioned group of women in the spring of 2021. Professionally, we are a lawyer, a public health officer, a historian, an engineer, and an editorial assistant. Yet as different as our professions are, we are bound together by a deep desire to live as faithful Seventh-day Adventists and to expand the breadth and depth of women's conversations in the church. Concurrently, we also want to invite other women into our conversations and friendship, and hopefully let them know that they are not alone. 

This was the origin of Some Adventist Women. 

What is Some Adventist Women?

Some Adventist Women is an Instagram-based project that provides space for Adventist women to engage with the most pressing issues in society today, inside and outside of church.

In our regular church life, at least in my experience, there are numerous topics relevant to women’s experiences that do not get enough airspace. Topics like mental health, career, work/life balance, being Adventists in secular spaces, singlehood, race, current events, and many others, intersect and collide profoundly in our lives. But it’s hard to talk about them in depth when we’re rushing to feed hungry children after church or when we’re socially distanced.

For many, this is a felt gap. Some Adventist Women is an attempt to fill this gap. We want to platform conversations—to create a space where women can talk and wrestle through things with both gravitas and humor. It is a community where we can center women’s narratives and see things through women’s perspectives, as numerous and varied as those could be. 

“Part of this is going to be thinking out loud,” as Sikhu Daco, one of Some Adventist Women leaders, says. “We’re processing along with you as we go through the topics. I think maybe that’s even more valuable than the conclusion. It’s allowing a process to happen, allowing ourselves to think through things, giving ourselves permission to not know and to try to figure stuff out as we go along.”

Mentorship Amongst Women

Along with addressing important topics, the process by which we talk through our thinking process is also a way to mentor others who may be looking for some guidance. 

As young women in the church, in college and graduate school, we have both felt and lamented the lack of mentorship as we considered life decisions and sought wisdom. Now that we have some experiences, we feel a calling to pass on what we’ve learned and more importantly, provide an example on how we’re navigating the next steps ourselves.

What are the guiding principles that lead some Adventist women to think certain ways or make certain decisions? How can I adapt these principles to my situation? These are the types of questions that we want to expose Adventist women to, especially our younger sisters, so they can benefit from our experiences, mistakes included. 

“We don’t claim to be the definite voice of Adventist women,” says Amy Ratsara, another Some Adventist Women leader. “At the same time, we are some Adventist women, and there are Adventist women who think and sound like us.”

An Invitation

If you resonate with this community, come join us at @someadventistwomen Instagram page. You can view all of the past Instagram Live conversations there, which is currently our main avenue for events. Most importantly, consider yourself invited to the shaping of this initiative by giving your ideas and inputs. By God’s grace, as a community, we can be some Adventist women who help some other Adventist women. 

Some Adventist Women is the brainchild of Amy Ratsara, Michel Lee, Josephine Elia Loi, Sikhu Daco, and Thando Amankwah. The opinions expressed in this platform are our own and do not represent our respective employers.

Josephine Elia Loi is a chemical engineer working for the energy industry. Born and raised in Indonesia, she now resides in CO with her husband and two boys. She holds a PhD from Princeton University and BS from MIT. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, blogging at josephineelia.com, and creating content at IG @someadventistwomen.


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