The Special Way God is Working Through Women Today

years. Since: 2007

Joel Wright: It is excellent to be with you. Thank you for the opportunity to share.

Twanna Henderson: Absolutely. Well, you know, we met a few months ago at the Converge office in Orlando. And I met you and of course, I had met your wife via zoom. And I think that was our first time actually meeting in person, but just talk to me just about that experience and your lovely wife, Barb.

nverge network. She cares for: 3000

Twanna Henderson: Oh, wow.

Joel Wright: Of our whole network. And anyways, so I'm waiting for her at the lobby of our Converge and who is standing there, but our Twanna Henderson with some friends chatting, and she mentions a women's conference and I'm like, "Women’s conference? I was just at a women’s conference, like five days ago." And so we said hi and got chatting there, and I guess the rest is history now.

Twanna Henderson: Yeah. And so I agree, it was one of those divine connections and appointments. And we actually had a chance later on that evening at dinner to chat some more. And I'm just so excited for you agreeing to take time out on today. You know, we were talking about just women, as you said women and women in missions, and I know that's kind of been a passion of yours and a heart of yours. And the Lord has really used you in a phenomenal way. Talk to us first about your journey to this place of being a missionary, because nobody just wakes up and says, "I want to be a missionary." But tell us the story of Joel and your family and how you got to where you are.

Joel Wright: Well, let's see. Do we have three hours?

Twanna Henderson: No.

on Christmas. Christmas Eve.: 1960

Twanna Henderson: I wasn't even born.

Joel Wright: But it was one of my first memories. But here I am, and it's my mother who says, "Joel, we're not going to talk about Santa Claus. We're gonna talk about Jesus."

Twanna Henderson: Yeah.

Joel Wright: And it was just like, you know, like, there's this recording going on. I can replay back the recording in my head and my heart. And it's just like the recording was pressed play button, you know, or hear a button to record this. But she told the story of Jesus, and it just penetrated. Then at the end of the story of telling how Jesus came into the world to teach us and to guide us, but then he came to die for us so that we could be forgiven for our sins, and He rose from the dead and He's on high and can come into our lives. She said, "Do you want to invite Jesus into your heart?" And there was this internal voice that just, gave this kind of missionary, “it's true. Lean in.” And so I looked into her eyes, and I said, "Yes, I think I would." And so we got on our knees, and it was an existential experience I would love to take 10 minutes to explain more in full, but it was just a powerful encounter when God invaded my life. And then I laid on my bed that night, and the voice of God came to me and called me and just said, "Joel, now you're mine."

Twanna Henderson: Wow.

Joel Wright: And it's this sense of suddenly, you know, knowing there's something going on here. And God is real and alive and speaking to me. So anyway, I grew up  in Long Beach, California. Born in Chicago, but grew up in Long Beach, California, and my parents loved Jesus. They wanted themselves to go into missions. They never made it onto the mission field, but my dad put up in my bedroom, maps of National Geographic – the maps of the world. And so every single night I'm going to bed looking at some part of the world, and somehow that just kind of oozed into me. The sense of just getting out there. So long story short, studies and philosophy and world religions, and then came for Trinity, an amazing experience under all of the greats, you know, the famous,  John Woodbridge, and Don Carson and all the scholars and the big books and things. But I just love the scriptures going deep. And so we graduated and got married. My wife and I, we met on the Trinity campus. Then a few years later, we get this just powerful call within saying, "it's time to go. Get out there." Where do we go? I don't know. But the sail is up, the wind is blowing. And God led us to Brazil.

Twanna Henderson: Well, it definitely sounds like your mother had a very impactful part in your life.

Joel Wright: Yes, most definitely. I just want to thank God for the mothers there, and your role is so important to just invest in the lives of your kids. And I remember waking up. My mother would be reading her Bible. It was sitting on the table at breakfast, and when she'd leave for work, the Bible was still there. So, you know, just little by little man, I just thank God for her. She is still alive. 90 years old. We just had a huge family regathering. All the sons and daughters, grandkids, great grandkids, and she still prays daily for me, and her name is Shirley.

Twanna Henderson: Yeah. So, you obviously have a special heart for women.

Joel Wright: Definitely.

Twanna Henderson: Let's talk about that. Because I hate to say that's kind of rare, but I mean, you know, but it is a little rare. But, I think it's so amazing that you do have this special heart or calling or passion for women. Let's talk about that a little bit before we get into some specifics of how God has used you.

Joel Wright: Yes. Yeah, well, once again, do we have three hours? But, there's something very, very special about how God has packaged women. And, you know, it's like the pinnacle of creation. I mean, we can do a theology on the pinnacle of creation and these values that just seemed to ooze forth. The sensitivity and emotions and caring and motherhood and so I've seen this you know, ever since childhood in the teachers in my school. My first grade teacher was a woman from Jamaica. And so right here I'm like, "Whoa, this is something really unique and special." I remember her opening up her closet in first grade. She'd have these special lotions and things that just seem something exotic. And this woman from Haiti. Her name was Hope Virtue. She was a daughter of a Jamaican poet. And so just you know, you start out in life and there's these things that go all the way through but then when we got to Brazil, my goodness, the Brazilian churches, the women are just the powerhouse of the Almighty God. I became a pastor several times in Brazil, and we would have women that were so close to God, I would be, as a man, just trying to represent God on earth. There was no way that I'd be involved in some kind of sin during the week. I step into the pulpit with this holy fire of God ready to prophetically pointing the finger at me, because one that had walked so close to God. So we were praying together. We'd have prayer gatherings and the women were often in the majority. They were not the minority, but the majority. And in Brazil, we had Hola Hola, Vangelis. There's one gal named Sachi. She skipped the marriage deal. And she was a daughter of a Korean and Japanese together. She was the fruit of reconciliation, global reconciliation, but she spent her whole life and evangelism in Brazil.

Twanna Henderson: Wow.

Joel Wright: And I would say before the throne of God, her trophy is like, 300 times larger than any of ours. I mean, it's just, she's probably led like over 100,000 kids to Jesus. I'm just like, "oh, my gosh." You know, just a general of the kingdom. And so when we look at Scripture, we see the hero and faith. You know, the Debrahs and the Esthers and the ones that saved nations. I've seen this alive today. And so I'm just humbled in this whole sense of God and what all he can do. So, yeah, I've just been deeply, deeply touched. And then, you know, again, as we go into Scripture, the stories of women, you know, where our scriptures have so many stories of women. There's over 100 stories of women in the Scriptures. And a lot of times, as guys, we don't preach enough of the women in the Bible.

Twanna Henderson: I agree about that. I agree with that. But you know, when we met, and the thing that kind of sparked my interest was, you shared that just five days earlier that you had held this women's conference. I think it was a virtual conference, that included hundreds of women. Talk to us about that. What that conference was, and what the Lord did.

Joel Wright: Wow. That's a great lead in. So where do I begin? Well, just in these last years, you know, we've been working with the diaspora here in Chicago. Our Converge Chinese pastors here invited me on a trip to go to Africa. They wanted me to go and to preach. Because my English was pretty good. But they knew that I had taught, you know, for like, 20 years in Brazil. So we went and my translator, when we landed, was a pastor and I think, for security reasons, I'll have to use a codename. I would love so much to tell his name and all his details of the city and everything, but I guess for public security and things like that, because you know, his name could easily be on a hit list somewhere. But we'll just call him brother Hezekiah. So, Brother Hezekiah, God is my strength, he's survived three attempts on his life in a city that was formerly in Islamic capital in East Africa.

Twanna Henderson: Oh, wow.

Joel Wright: So, he is my translator. I land there, and he's my translator. And I'm like, well, brother, like, "Who are you?" You know, it's just a great feeling, heart to heart, like a double barrel shotgun, like in the name of Jesus and then, you know, he's shouting out, you know, "Praise the Lord," in Swahili and other languages as well. I've already given a little bit of a hint. But you know, it's just like this double barrel shotgun, and it's like, this is a brother of the heart, and I come to find out his story and Jesus had called him to go back into this city where the church had been cast out and martyrdoms had taken place. The former pastor of the church, the church had been closed for 20 years, the former pastor was martyred at the pulpit. And the flock scattered, but Jesus told him to reopen the church. "The keys of the church are in my hands, and open the doors." You know, this is like, right out of the book of Revelation, but he gets the call, and he goes in, and he reopens the church by faith. Well, who shows up? Some of the women coming back in, you know, like, "Yeah, we're kind of hanging in here. We're doing secret house churches, but you want to reopen the doors? And it's gonna take a lot of faith." But there they are. They're starting to worship. And a miracle begins to happen. This network of widows, Muslim-background widows, start showing up. Like what is happening? The women know one another, and neighbors to neighbors and little things start happening. And so this wave got started. And so a little over a year ago, I was in the group of 120 widows in the city at the church, where martyrdom had taken place, preaching to a crowd of 120 Muslim-background widows that were coming to Jesus. Most had already gone to Jesus, but there were still some awaiting conversion. And I got to preach there and the owner of the largest mosque in town, a widow who was now the title deed owner of the mosque, is there in the audience. Well she, in the next weeks, comes to Jesus. And I got to preach from the powerful stories. The Muslim context is so amazing when we go into the roots of our faith and the biblical text and so on. I'm preaching on the story of Hagar in Genesis 16. The God who sees me, the God who hears me, and I'm jumping preaching like a Pentecostal. I see you. I see you. The translator with me. Anyways, many have come to faith. And so this last year, to get to the final conclusion to answer your question. Yes, we're now with 500 women in a multisite conference through zoom. I'm back here in the US, but through zoom with now 500 women for like a second year in a row with the women of Muslim background. Talking about the God who hears you, the God who sees you, the stories of Rachel and Leah and the Old Testament, because they had never heard the stories before they loved. They love the stories of the prophets, Ishmael and the patriarchs, but they don't know the story. And so, to retell the stories of the women in Scripture is powerful.

Twanna Henderson: Yeah, yeah. And so what did the Lord do in that conference?

Joel Wright: So we're still in this wave of hundreds coming to faith. And as we speak, just yesterday, writing back and forth daily with Hezekiah. We're on this continuing wave of hundreds coming to faith. We're trying to follow up. Some have been, you know, needing to flee their homes and persecution. Children have been kicked out of their school, people losing jobs, but praise God, there have not been too many deaths. There have been houses burned, and some attacked physically, but none, as far as I know, have died. But many are coming to faith. And we're in this wave. And now it goes across borders. And so we're talking about other unreached, unengaged people groups. For sensitivity, I can't give, you know, all the locations, but East Africa is just breaking open as we speak.

Twanna Henderson: Wow. Yeah. You know, that is so amazing just to see what the Lord can do and will do. And I think we have to be willing vessels for him. And I think this is definitely a testament of how the Lord has used you and wants to continue to use you in such a remarkable way. I think just to be able to see women, in that context, to come to the Lord is just so remarkable and just speaks to the power of God and just how awesome he is.

Joel Wright: Amen. You know, sometimes I love to, you know, just move my accent a little, you know, like, we're getting some kind of Texan drawl or something. You say, "Oh, God. Oh, God." These are things that we, you know, we just have no capability of ever, you know, stepping into but suddenly, here we are, we're doing it and it is like, "What?"

Twanna Henderson: So what's next then for Joel? And, you know, because we know God is always moving. What's next? Because he's done so much through you already, but what's next?

Joel Wright: Well, we're trying to evaluate those very good questions. You know, in a lot of ways, you know, our journey has always won by faith. You know, I just, I love when I go back to the biblical stories, because it is a confusing, at times, journey. We just don't know. You know, we could spend, once again, hours on this. I love the story of Philip for instance. The God on the move. His name is connected with horse, the God on the move, and you know, you see this journey from Jerusalem to Samaria, and then from Samaria out to the desert, the Ethiopian eunuch and touching base with stuff in Africa, and then he flies through the heavens and lands and Caesarea, the New York of the region, and then he raises four daughters that prophesied. So they're prophesying events of the kingdom. We, you know, how would you ever put that story neatly down? But so we're trying to just, you know, inch by inch, trying to figure out that very question of where are we. But we feel like we're needing to first, off to package things. You know, we've done a whole follow up. We did a 12 week follow up. And we did a whole series on, you know, what do Muslims need to know as they come to faith. Where do they go? What do they do? And so the Lord guided us. I would love to tell more stories of that, but Jesus just came and he spoke to us, you know, "What materials should we use?" and Jesus just came in and whispered in my ear kind of thing. He whispered into my ear, "Why don't you use me?"

Twanna Henderson: Yeah, yeah.

Joel Wright: So, Matthew 5-7. And so we did a whole 12 week series. So this is now all packaged him in PowerPoint. We did a 12 week series in PowerPoint, so I feel like we need to get things written down. But also the biblical stories are so rich, and they go back into Genesis in the stories of Rachel and Hagar and Leah and the meaning of these names and the power behind them. It's just incredible stories that means so much and can mean so much to us and minister so much to us today. So I feel like I need to get into a lot of writing and things, but we're also still just with this wave out to the nations. And so we've started a new group now called "God's Love for the World." And you can go on Reliant as we're now kind of, in a sense, oozing forth. We're still with Converge. I'm an associate pastor here in Chicago at our Brazilian Connection Church. It's a Converge church, but Brazilian. We had 240 for our Christmas dinner and banquet and things. So we've got this ministry going right here. Still connected with Converge, but yet, we're kind of being issued forth, in a sense, into missions, and under Reliant, which is just down the hall from our Converge headquarters. They're in the same building. We're now starting this new kind of getting out with a national pastor. So we want to support pastors like Hezekiah. We want to actually want to get more funding, because these are guys who could be incredible partners with us in global missions. So these are some of the things that we're trying to think about in our future here.

Twanna Henderson: I think that's great. You know, Joel, what you shared really lets us know that we think about with women, Muslim women, and what could happen. You know, a lot of times God is just, again, looking for willing vessels to use, because who would think that all of these women, Muslim women, would come to the Lord. And it just says to us that God can do anything, and we know he can. But it just reminds us that God can really do anything. And, sometimes, particularly as we're still at the beginning, in the first quarter of this year, we're asking the Lord, you know, "What does he want from us? What do you want to do through us, Lord?" And, sometimes we hinder, we try to block what God wants to do. And God wants to do so much greater than we can even imagine. So much greater than we can even think. And I think your testimony of what God did in this conference, and not just in this conference, but you know, there have been other instances where you've seen Muslims and Muslim women come to come, you know, to the faith. And it speaks to just how how awesome God is and how faithful he is. And that he is working and he's moving and we don't ever need to think that he's not working and moving, and that he can use us to do that. And so I think it gives us that charge, even now to say, "Yeah, let's step out. Let's not be afraid to do something out of the box to really see what God will do through us." It will just be available to him.

Joel Wright: Yes, amen. Amen. I mean, I just love John 21 when Jesus, you know, he takes a look at Peter and he looks deep into the eyes, and he just says, "Follow me." Yeah, it's just that daily adventure.

Twanna Henderson: We make it so complicated. We make it more complicated than it needs to be. We go through all these different questions and all these different things, and it's not that difficult. It's very simple.

Joel Wright: Yeah, yes. It just, you know, goes down into those two words, you know, just "follow me" you know, as if, and I love that because he's already there. You know, it's not like we're just stepping out and Jesus is kind of pushing us from behind. No, he is already there. He has ordained these things. He is. So this year, we're like, stepping into his invitation. He has gone on ahead. You know, just like he says to the disciples. He's gone on ahead. He is there waiting for us. "Follow me." With each step that we're taking is like, he's already in front saying, "Come on. Come on. I got this. I got this. I got this. We can handle this today." So whatever you're going through, whatever I'm going through, you know, a daily, we're just, you know, we seem so broken. We're just, at times, just on our knees saying, "Lord, you know, help me here. This is not easy." And we just, you know, we're filled with the questions and how are we going to do this? And, you know, we got a million questions, but, but for that, you know, God is a billion fold strong. Jesus says, "No, I got this."

Twanna Henderson: Yeah he does, and he just wants us to follow Him. If you had a life scripture, Joel, what would it be and why?

Joel Wright: Colossians 3:23 has been my life verse. And it’s a text that talks about servanthood. And not easy situations. And even in the midst of evil, there's still this calling. And just, it just goes, whatever you do, do it with all your heart. And so it speaks to this enthusiasm, you know, being God-filled. Whatever you do, do it with all your heart, and then for the glory of God, you know, not from man. And so that speaks to doing the right thing at the right time at the right place. But then for the right reasons, you know, that somehow, God be glorified. That he'd be lifted up that somehow, we become less and less and less, and then He is exalted. He's mighty God of all creation and is somehow mysteriously doing things, and touching hearts and bringing the kingdom.

Twanna Henderson: Yeah, that's good. You know, we could go on and on, and on and on. I wish we had three hours. But there are women, you know, women and men, but particularly women, who are listening to this. And as I said we're at this time of the year where we're still just seeking the Lord and what he's asking us to do. And I think you've really let us know and reminded us really, that there's nothing too hard for God. Do you mind just taking a moment to just pray for our listeners, and that they would really step out on faith and trust whatever the Lord is saying to them as it relates to reaching others and being big vessels for him?

Joel Wright: Yes. Amen. Amen. So, should I lead a prayer?

Twanna Henderson: Yeah, you can pray. Thank you.

Joel Wright: Good. Good. Well, let's come before the throne. Heavenly Father, we come before you. You are the God of the nations. You are the God that has ordained our days. Just like the women of old, Rachel and Leah, Hagar, even Eve, you have a story for each one of us. At times, we're just so so broken. At times, we are just so so wondering, you know, "is my life important and am I seen? Do you even know me?" And yes, yes. Oh, God, we just come before you and thank you. You're the God that sees us. And here is our cry. You're the one that says we are beautiful, made beautiful. Grace and covered by grace. We are one who are chosen for you. The ones that somehow maybe even someone no one even wanted like like Leah, like Leah, the one that no one wanted. But the one that was chosen to be the lineage for the lion of the tribe of Judah. We pray that the other daughters of faith here of the lion of the tribe of Judah would be blessed today. And you will bless each and every one. That you will give them the other victories of the kingdom that you have ordained. So we pray for your anointing and blessing on each and every one today. We ask this in the name of Jesus, that Yeshua HaMashiach, the savior the Messiah, the One who has ordained that praise be given on Earth among all nations. So we pray for your blessing. Guide us and lead us Lord Jesus. Thank you for these very precious moments together. We pray for your blessing. And Twanna as well, bless her and this ministry and the whole of the Converge network. That it will all be for your glory. Help us to all be better together. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.

Twanna Henderson: Amen Joel. Thank you so much. It was so good to chat with you again. I look forward to part B when we can spend more time, but thank you for sharing with us, and I pray just the Lord's blessings over you and Barb and everything that the Lord has purposed for you in this season in everything that you put your hands to. And to all of our listeners, thank you for joining us today. I'm Twanna Henderson. Be blessed of the Lord.