Creating a woman of standard
BISHOP Margaret Takaedza ( MT), the founder of Woman of Standard Ministries launched her first book last month at a conference hosted by New Revelation Ministries. The entrepreneur who believes in time management says opportunities have been lost because our priorities are wrong. Tendai Manzvanzvike ( TM) spoke to her about the new book and other matters of faith. TM: Welcome Bishop, and congratu
lations for the milestone! MT: I feel very honoured to be here, and I am so excited because “A Woman of Standard!” is my first book. TM: What inspired you to write a book where according to the blurb is “designed to mould ladies to be mature, modest, well-mannered, God-fearing females of excellence who walk with integrity and uprightness of the heart”? MT: I have always been dealing with women and I have a calling to work with women. That is why I decided to start with my calling, and then tackle other areas after I have fulfilled my vision. TM: Is this “woman of standard” referring to all women or it is addressing a certain class — women in the church or elitist women? MT: It is for all classes of women in Zimbabwe and globally, women from various religious and cultural backgrounds. So, it is every woman’s book. TM: Being the first book, how long did
it take you to write? MT: To be honest with you, it took me three years. In between, I was just dragging my feet, but with encouragement from my family, church members and friends, I started being very serious at the beginning of this year. What’s amazing is that I ended up with two books from one book. So, I had to split it because there was a lot of information. The second one will be “Spiritual Traits of a Woman of Standard.” It will concentrate on the
spiritual elements. TM: Most writers these days are self-publishing because of the costs. Was it the same? MT: I have a publishing house — Amabush Publications owned by Reverend Abigail Magwenzi. TM: Basically, what is your message? MT: I am trying to create a woman — a sagacious woman, who is led by the Holy Spirit; a woman with a spirit of discernment in whatever area she is operating — be it at work, home, church, in the garden and so forth. Wherever she is, that Spirit of discernment is there with her. When I create that sagacious woman, I am expecting the results of a woman with integrity, sophistication, a star who is success driven, someone who wants to learn, and has a passion and vision. If she doesn’t know, she has that desire to learn. Even though she might not know a lot, she doesn’t feel intimidated. She doesn’t feel out of place wherever she goes. Whatever your background, you can be that woman as long as you are willing to embrace the aspects I lay out. In summary, she is a woman with style; a woman of substance who can soar like an eagle, who can be anywhere, any time if she has the desire to be transformed. TM: I went through the book, and I saw dollars, around the transformation process of the woman of standard. Do women have the money to make themselves over as you suggest? MT: Yeah! I also encourage in one of the chapters that I want this woman empowered. I want to empower and inspire her. I want her to be delivered. I want her to work hard. The little that she gets, she has to save, but she first of all has to take care of herself because it has to begin with her. You have to love yourself first, before the standards are raised. TM: How does someone manage to put aside a little when people are crying about the liquidity crunch and job losses? They will say, how could Bishop Margaret say I should save when I don’t have enough to put a meal on my table? MT: After encouraging someone to work, they get a little, and the Bible says we should not despise the days of small beginnings. These are the small beginnings, and you start from there. And when I am talking about dressing up, I am not talking about very expensive things, but just the coordination. It takes sacrifice to be a woman of standard. At the conference I told women that the best way to start is to go back home and rearrange things in their houses. You don’t need money to do that, but passion. Look into your wardrobe. There are things that you don’t even wear. Bless somebody. That’s how you start. That way, you also uplift another woman’s standards. If we adopt that spirit, every woman would be a woman of standard. TM: Apart from the book, do you have a facility where you teach women to implement this? MT: Every Thursday, we are teaching and upgrading women in church. There are also some professionals who are keen to come and assist. Our Ladies’ Meeting or Ruwadzano now has a new name — Woman of Standard Meeting, and is a ladies’ ministry inside New Revelation. I also do this at home with my daughter because I want to see the woman of standard first in my own house. So, if I uplift this woman, she will also uplift her own family and the cycle will continue. They will all eventually carry the woman of standard flag, wherever they are. TM: Proverbs 31 is highly cited among women. Sometimes it is quoted, but you don’t see women living like that woman. MT: This is what we are trying to impart to the women so that as they read the Word of God, they also practice what is written in the Bible like the Proverbs 31 woman. She wakes up very early in the morning and doesn’t look up to the husband. You can see that she even goes out to buy a piece of land. That is what we are encouraging women to do — to go and buy stands from the savings that they would have made. We encourage that
because there are three things that destroy families: communication, finances and sex. Families are breaking up due to lack of finances. And some women are looking up to their husbands to be taken care of. I’m also trying to remove that stigma and say that you can also look after your husband, as long as there is love between the two of you. TM: Just as well that you speak about money. Complaints about abuse of church funds and church leaders’ flamboyant lifestyles are growing louder by the day. Accusations are that some churches are robbing people of their hard-earned cash. MT: You are very right. Some of these people are abusing the church. It is our prayer that they come back to God. The church needs to operate transparently. If there is a project that requires money, yes you can talk about it, but if there isn’t, there is no need to say
money, money, money every Sunday! Some churches are purely business entities using the umbrella of the church. TM: There is a clarion call for women to rise up and pray for the nation. What are you doing in your church? MT: Women are already doing that, but after that, they also need to go out and act on their prayers. TM: Final remarks. MT: Let us not lose hope Zimbabweans! God is there to raise our standard. Let’s pray, work, love one another; let’s have unity. We will succeed. Let’s just believe things are going to turn around. Let’s also speak positively about our country. We have to decree and declare that Zimbabwe will never remain the same. Look, now there are more investors coming into our country. That’s a miracle. Our prayers are being answered. And, we thank the Lord for the peace and security we enjoy in our country. We worship freely.