Wealth, Women, and God

• This book surfaces for us the hidden stories of suffering and deliverance that are being lived out in the Arab world and other centers of mass migration. With deft storytelling, Miriam Adeney and Sadiri Joy Tira paint moving portraits of women abroad struggling to wrest a future out of poverty and misfortune, and finding in the process the gracious hand of God at work in their lives.  Seldom do we get stories from what the Latin Americans call “the underside of history”—those submerged voices tossed to and fro by the tidal forces of globalization. The authors do a great service in making us aware of the human plight and also of the sovereign God who goes ahead and accompanies peoples on the move.

  — Melba Padilla Maggay, PhD, founder of the Institute for the Study of Asian Church and Culture Philippines

• These stories will touch you deeply. Some will move you to tears. They are records of women who leave home, many not by choice, wandering into faraway lands in search of money to feed their families and to build a better future. In the midst of the difficulties they face, sometimes seemingly insurmountable, we read of the amazing grace of God reaching out to each one—giving hope, strength, and perseverance to carry on.  Ultimately, these stories testify to God’s unfailing and faithful love.

  — Wong Siew Li, deputy director, Iclif Leadership and Governance Centre Malaysia

• Compelling vignettes coupled with vibrant portraits of contemporary and historic life in the Arabian Gulf make this slim volume a rich resource.  From stories of women marred by unscrupulous labor contractors to women who work with dignity, the multilayered lives of diaspora workers are illuminated. Probing questions conclude each chapter, creating a valuable tool for individuals and groups. Evidence of persistence, hope, and resilience across the “deep trench between the wealthy and the poor” speak to us of God’s presence in all places. The text concludes with “next steps” that nudge us toward concrete, practical outreach.

  — Evvy Hay Campbell, PhD, chair of the board, World Hope International

• A totally engaging book. We feel the textures and see the colors of life, faith, and work intersecting in Middle Eastern cultures. We are moved to think about how we ourselves can live as creative minorities in our own cities. I could not put it down. I highly recommend Wealth, Women, and God.

  — Samuel E. Chiang, PhD, president and CEO, Seed Company

• When cultures and governments close the doors to missionaries, send in housemaids. And nurses, nannies, and clerks. Millions of mobile women with a mighty loyalty to faith and family. This book describes the most transglobal migration at work in the world today. It is a female migration, with gripping stories of danger, blood, bruises, hopes, and heartbreak. Yet these women are leaving indelible fingerprints of faith. I could not stop reading.  The individual stories point to the big story of God’s mission pulsing in the southern hemispheres between India and the Philippines and the Arabian Gulf region, between oil-rich nations and poor lands. Until now, few Westerners have noticed. Thank you, Miriam Adeney and Sadiri Joy Tira, for opening our eyes and our hearts.

  — Catherine B. Allen, PhD, advocate for women in missions and ministry

• Expert guides, Miriam and Joy take us “snorkeling” deep into the often unseen world of diaspora women in the Middle East. From their introductory “dive” onward, they convey in 3-D reality diverse glimpses of living, serving, and working as foreigners surrounded by the grace and sovereignty of God. Eye-opening and inspiring.

  — Leiton Chinn, senior associate, Lausanne International Student Ministry

• A great guide to stewarding the impossible situations of life. “My word shall not return void” is the constant theme in Wealth, Women, and God.  Even in places where it would seem impossible to thrive and minister, God has his children. When they allow his light to shine through them, there is hope.

  — Dwight Gibson, chief explorer, The Exploration Group

• The women in this book challenge and encourage readers to look up and see who God is, look around and see what he is doing, and look inside to reflect and then take action on what he wants each of us to do for his kingdom.

  — Cheri Pierson, PhD, associate professor of intercultural studies Wheaton College Graduate School

• Approaching charged topics with the grace and curiosity of wellinformed guests, the authors examine broad geopolitical and economic structures, then zoom in on the intimate realities of individual women’s stories. Their friendly, down-to-earth tone guides us on a tour of God’s work among immigrant women in the Middle East.

  — Hannah Rasmussen, editorial assistant, Africa Study Bible

• “Come, see a man who told me everything I did. Can this be the Christ?” An unnamed woman in the first century asked that question. Miriam Adeney and Sadiri Joy Tira show, through a series of deceptively simple stories, how women in the Middle East today are meeting Christ, then introducing others to him, just like that first-century seeker did. To marginalized women Christ still offers living water, especially guest workers from the Philippines, Africa, and India. This is happening in an improbable place: the wealthy, orthodox Muslim Arabian Peninsula. Told with characteristic grace and understated insight, these accounts exude the warmth of testimonies shared around a fire on the last night of camp.

  — David Marshall, PhD

Authors

• Miriam Adeney
  Miriam Adeney

  Miriam grew up in Oregon and is still at home among the vast evergreen forests and blue lakes beside the unpredictable Pacific. Always active on school newspapers, Miriam earned an MA in journalism from Syracuse University, and continues to make writing a priority.  For Christianity Today, she has served as a writer, senior editorial consultant, and longtime Board member. That led to her writing the CT editorial titled “Think Globally, Love Globally” immediately following the World Trade Center disaster on September 11, 2001.  

  Bookending Miriam’s journalism degree are a BA and a PhD in anthropology (Wheaton College and Washington State University). For many years Miriam has served as a professor of applied anthropology and missiology at Seattle Pacific University. Simultaneously she has crossed the Canadian border regularly to teach at Regent College.  Miriam consults for Christians in wide range of cultures, from a pig-selling business in Sumatra to a toilet cleaning caste in Pakistan to researchers on childraising in Iran.

  She grew up in a home that loved the Word, the church, and God’s world. To those passions she added a quest to understand culturally-contextualized communication.  For four years during her twenties, Miriam directed publications for the Philippine InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. 

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• Sadiri Joy Tira
  Sadiri Joy Tira

  Sadiri JoyTira, DMin and DMiss, is Diaspora Missiology specialist at the Jaffray Centre for Global Initiatives at Ambrose University (Calgary) and blogger for Outreach Canada. He served as The Lausanne Movement Senior Associate/Catalyst for Diasporas from 2007–2019. 

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