Throughout the history of India it was traditionally men who were concerned with improving the status of women. It was not until the late 19th and early 20th centuries that a number of influential women reformers arose. The most notable of these was Pandita Ramabai.

Pandita was born in 1858 into an orthodox Hindu Brahmin family. This upper-caste sect mandated prepubertal marriage for girls and denied women educational opportunities. However, Pandita’s father was a priest, scholar and social reformer who had a liberal, progressive view of the caste system. While traveling on endless pilgrimages throughout India he gave public lectures on the need of women for education. He provided Pandita an extensive formal education with a focus on Sanskrit.

Pandita soon became a famed lecturer who, like her father, championed women’s rights. She had witnessed the suffering of child widows and the uneducated and wanted to help them. Oppressed women became her first call to service.

My oldest son was killed in a car accident on September 26, 1984. Recovery wasn’t an easy process for me, but God healed my broken heart, mended my shattered emotions and put me back together again. He began to show me the power of prayer and most of all, the importance of standing on His Word for my loved ones and myself.

One night as I was praying with my 16-year-old daughter, the Holy Spirit led me to pray more protection over her than usual. According to Isaiah 43:17 and Psalm 91:11, I prayed that no weapon formed against her would prosper and that angels would be all about her.

Little did I know what was ahead! But the Holy Spirit was way ahead of the devil!