Women Worth Knowing is my favorite podcast.
It’s just been on the air since April 10, 2020–a COVID-year bonus!
I’ve listened to every episode, usually first thing Tuesday mornings.
After writing two biographies of influential women who were not particularly famous, I so appreciate this weekly podcast.
It’s a joint effort of author Cheryl Brodersen and history teacher Jasmine Alnutt, both affiliated with Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa.
The two love to read missionary biographies and Alnutt teaches courses on Missionary Biographies, Church History, and Women in Church History at Calvary Chapel Bible College
What’s Women Worth Knowing about?
Long-time friends and ministry partners, Brodersen and Alnutt often discussed how God used men and women through history.
One day, Brodersen explained,
We realized most of our friends didn’t know these great stories or their own history.
In the Bible, God was always reminding the Israelites of their forefathers and their history.
Our Christian forefathers and mothers help us to know who we are and how to build our faith.
The podcast’s goal is is to build faith and a sense of identity. These are our close relatives in the faith.”
Alnutt’s parents are missionaries in London where her mother volunteers with a ministry called Book Aid.
The organization provides Christian literature for ministries and churches around the world. As the ministry is funded through used book shops, Mrs. Alnutt amassed a large collection of biographies found in the shop.
(Note: Book Aid has shipped more than 30 million books to “book hungry” areas since 1988!)
All those biographies seeded Jasmine Alnutt’s interest in church history.
I weave many biographies into my Church History class because I don’t want my students to just learn facts and dates. [I want them] to be inspired by God working in the lives of ordinary people like us.”
While attending one of Alnutt’s Missionary Biography workshops at a retreat several years ago, I took home pages of notes–and a list of books to read!
What can we learn from these “close relatives in faith?”
The theme of Alnutt’s Missionary Biographies class comes from Daniel 11:32: “The people who know their God will be strong and carry out great exploits.”
She likes to pull out a key theme in the life of each missionary and, in telling their stories, draw our lessons.
How we know God, our perspective of God, determines how we will live our lives.
I believe the key to every great exploit that these missionaries accomplished was the result of KNOWING GOD.
[Knowing God] is something any one of us is able to do, regardless of intellect, talent, background, or resources.”
Brodersen noted that many of the women they highlight in the podcast came from unremarkable backgrounds or faced great obstacles.
Yet, through their faith and perseverance, God used them in extraordinary ways.
We believe every woman who places her faith in Jesus is worth knowing and probably has a story that needs to be told.
So, another aim is that women would begin to discover their story in Christ, or maybe begin to seek the stories of the Christian women in their lives.”
To that end, they like to include “ordinary lives,” in addition to the more-famous women believers like Elisabeth Elliot, Florence Nightingale, Harriet Tubman, or Harriet Beecher Stowe.
Those less-famous women include Granny Brand, current missionary Sarah Yardley, Eliza Davis George, and Wycliffe Bible Translator Joanne Shetler.
Alnutt explained:
We want to bring stories that are relatable. Stories that show these normal, flawed people are just like us, who trusted a BIG God to work on their behalf.
In fact, we want to stir our audience to have a bigger view of God and to walk by faith in whatever He calls them to do.”
Where do they find Women Worth Knowing?
They both have extensive libraries full of biographies.
Brodersen calculates she currently has at least 30 biographies to read. “However, I’m always hearing about some Christian woman I didn’t know before and searching out that person on the Internet.”
She noted that while researching Elizabeth Blackwell, she discovered three African-American women who became the first female doctors of color. She also encountered Susan LaFleshe Picotte, the first Native American female doctor.
Alnutt mines her class notes and appreciates opportunities to do more research. “It’s been fun to have an excuse to read stories I’ve been meaning to get around to. One of my new “friends” is Hannah More.”
Which biographies personally affected them?
As a child, Brodersen read Amy Carmichael’s works and loved Catherine Marshall’s Christy. “However, it was Gladys Aylward who got me hooked on missionary biographies.”
“Which one hasn’t changed me?” Alnutt laughed.
And she was off!
- “When I was in high school, Shadow of the Almighty by Elisabeth Elliot really shaped my Christian faith and my desire to really go for it with the Lord, holding nothing back.
- Since then, my favorite biographies are probably Hudson Taylor’s A Retrospect [free!] and Eileen Vincent’s No Sacrifice Too Great about the lives of C.T. and Priscilla Studd. (Yes, CT was a crazy radical, but the way Vincent tells their story is so challenging and convicting, it has really impacted me!).
- But I have also been greatly influenced by:
- the honest struggles of Isobel Kuhn (also an excellent writer).
- the patience and perseverance of William Carey and William Wilberforce.
- the practical ministry of Elizabeth Fry,
- the sterling character of John Woolman,
- the sacrifice of John and Betty Stam, and William Borden.
- I have to add that Adoniram and Ann Judson will always hold a special place in my heart, if it’s possible to name a favorite, I think it’s probably them!
Listen in. You’ll probably hear about most of them in the coming years. Join me!
2022 Update
Cheryl Brodersen interviewed ME about Biddy Chambers on February 15 and 22, 2022.
Listen in to hear Biddy’s story:
2023 Update
Cheryl told Lettie Cowman’s story in July 2020
And I recapped three years later.
Tweetables
Wonderful biographies podcast every week on Women Worth Knowing. Click to Tweet
Encouraging, fascinating, and fun: Women Worth Knowing podcast. Click to Tweet
What kind of women are worth knowing? Click to Tweet
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