- How did you and your co-authors select the women to write about in Hermanas? Do you have a favorite woman in the Bible?
We took a weekend to look at the 43 great women in the Bible, and after lots of prayer and post-its, we came to these 12 women. It took a few more meetings to decide who would write on which women.
Hannah from 1 Samuel was the mentor and woman that provoked this idea of looking at people in the Bible and studying their friendship with Jesus, their leadership, and why God chose to include their story. The Holy Spirit used her to mentor me on singleness. She became a dear friend to me as I journeyed with her for 12 years.
- What surprised you the most in the process of writing Hermanas?
I think what surprised me the most was that I was teaching about these women as I was writing about them and many Christian women did not know who most of these 12 Biblical women were. That became another goal for writing the book: to help bring women deeper into their lives and give them greater understanding of our ancient female mentors.
Another surprising thing was how few books there are for Latina Christians. This inspired us to put in the years and the labor to help empower and encourage our hermanas in their love and faith!
- How has the process of writing and publishing impacted your relationship with God?
Writing is at times a daunting and intimidating task. The nine months of intentional writing; full of deadlines, edits, and re-writes, were all new challenges for all 3 of us who’ve never written a book, but this all provoked me to press into Jesus even more. I needed his wisdom, his strength, his ideas for threading a chapter, discernment on what to include and not include. A few times Jesus would have to call out the lies I was listening to or help me through fears that were trying to bench me, but through the day in and day out of writing this book, I really felt like Jesus and I partnered together and that was thrilling!
- What’s next for Hermanas and/or your future projects?
We’re hoping more and more women read the book, and it’s partly our responsibility to get the word out. We want to minister to Latina women, empower our hermanas. We’d love opportunities to train and equip via seminars, conferences etc…It’s already been incredible to meet Latina women from all over the country who’ve been touched by the book. It’s meant as a gift to our Latina hermanas and we’d love that gift to multiply into more books written by other Latina women.
- What does being a Woman Disciple mean to you?
It means allowing Jesus to continue to mature my love for him and my love for others. I love being a disciple of Jesus but even more I love being his friend, his daughter, his bride. As I embrace the different idenitites he gives me, the more I can embrace his identities as my Heavenly Father, my Leader, my Heavenly Bridegroom, my friend. I love to help bring women and men, young and old, to a deeper intimacy with God where religion falls to the ground and real experiences happen. A woman disciple is someone who’s motivated by LOVE!
