Sabbath Devotional :: Shipbuilding and a New MWEG Tree
The account of the Brother of Jared in the book of Ether is one of my favorite Book of Mormon stories because the Lord has used it over and over again to teach (and sometimes correct) me. A few years ago, I found myself thinking about scriptural shipbuilding and wondering why God had not told the Brother of Jared to build an ark like Noah’s or a ship like Nephi’s. Then I heard these words in my mind’s ear: “What do you think I was doing for those four years?”
It was perplexing to think that the people of Jared, whom the Lord had guided in a cloud and given specific directions, would arrive at the great sea and then just stop praying altogether. The whole idea of the Lord chastening the Brother of Jared for three hours made a lot more sense if it was because he had been receiving further directions and had failed for some reason to follow them. But why hadn’t the Brother of Jared listened and acted? We know how great his faith was because of what happened soon after. So what had prevented him from following through like Noah and Nephi?
I thought I had the answer to that question mostly figured out until last year when it all became a bit more personal. In the couple of years since I had taken a break from civil litigation to be a full-time stay-at-home-mom, I had been receiving regular promptings that I needed to be writing. The problem was that I didn’t know what to write and I didn’t think that I could do it even if I had known what to say. Nevertheless, the promptings kept coming, each time with greater force.
When MWEG took on Teresa’s deportation case, I found myself responding timidly to an urgent call for help that Sharlee Mullins Glenn had posted on the main page. I wasn’t an immigration attorney, but I did have some experience with immigration law, and if she was really desperate, I thought my help was probably better than no help at all. So I responded.
In the months that have followed, I have found myself writing practically around the clock — calls to action, explanations of legal issues, at least a dozen op-eds, Sabbath devotionals, principles of peacemaking, Fifteen Declarations on Ethical Immigration Policy, open letters to the President of the United States and a US Senatorial candidate, correspondence with Congressional representatives, a proposal for a FAIR comprehensive immigration reform bill, and even a published book (The Little Purple Book available for $7.95 on amazon.com). Just typing this out makes me weep with some combination of disbelief, exhaustion, awe, and deep gratitude. You see, all of these things were written in collaboration with other women — remarkable, talented, inspired women, many of whom are professional writers and editors. Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined any of this months ago when the spirit was so clearly prompting me to write something — anything!
I am sharing this with all of you now because it is time for MWEG to build an ark, or a ship after the manner of Nephi’s, or better yet, how about a cruiseliner with an open buffet, a gorgeous pool, and no internet. Haha! You can read in our Little Purple Book about how our fearless founders accidentally and miraculously fit 4,000 women aboard a little makeshift raft that, like the Brother of Jared’s barges, has brought us “into the wilderness,” “across many waters,” “into that quarter where there never had man been,” “being directed continually by the hand of the Lord.” But, like in that story, “the Lord would not suffer that they should stop” there. God has greater plans in store.
With all of this in mind, MWEG’s founders would like to introduce a re-envisioned MWEG tree — a new organizational structure that will be a means of “schooling God’s daughters” for years to come. We have prayed and studied and labored over this new organizational structure, which we believe will help solidify our mission and sustain (even promote) our growth and influence.
In this new iteration of the MWEG tree, the roots (our foundational underpinnings) are our Four Core Attributes — Faithful, Nonpartisan, Peaceful, Proactive — each overseen by a founder. The limbs are our four broad objectives — Encircle, Educate, Empower, and Engage — each overseen by a senior director. The trunk, overseen by our managing directors, will house all of our internal support teams and resources.
These are our new broad objectives:
- Encircle: Provide a forum for women to gather together to be strengthened and spiritually uplifted as they work alongside sisters united in a common cause.
- Educate: Provide resources and instruction to help women understand ethical standards, constitutional principles, current events, and effective research strategies that will help them be informed, prepared, and discerning citizens.
- Empower: Provide opportunities, training, tools, organizational structure, and networking for women to develop the skills and confidence to raise their voices and be leaders at every level of public service.
- Engage: Mobilize women to the cause of ethical governance through personal engagement as citizens, collaborative research and problem-solving in committees, and strategic and powerful collective action as an organization united in prayer and guided by the principles of peacemaking.
We feel strongly that an organization like this can be an extremely effective way for women to strengthen and utilize a variety of skills in ways that will facilitate leadership and professional development. We also believe it can be a perfect place for women to mentor and be mentored by other talented, faithful women. In order to facilitate these important priorities, we intend for our members to rotate in and out of roles periodically to provide as many different opportunities for as many women as possible. We hope to provide opportunities and job titles that will look impressive on a resume and will be helpful to our members in the outside world while remaining committed to developing an altogether different, more collaborative, more organic, more divinely feminine type of organizational structure.
Now we need women to help us build! Please ask yourself whether there are things that, like me, you have been consistently prompted to do and consider whether those things might fit within one of our four new objectives. Please look at our list of open positions and prayerfully consider whether you have the time and talents to serve in a specific role. Please pray about which skills or abilities God might want you to share or even develop and then decide whether MWEG might be the right vehicle. We need women who can mentor and women who are willing to be mentored. We are all in this to grow and receive God’s schooling together.
Please reach out to us about your interest by emailing our Interim Senior Limb Directors, our Managing Directors, or our new HR Director.
- Maren E. Mecham – Encircle@mweg.org
- Erica Eastley – Educate@mweg.org
- Joey Hall – Empower@mweg.org
- Molly Hogan – Engage@mweg.org
- LeAnn Erickson Lomax – HR.manager@mweg.org
- Emma Petty Addams/ Wendy Dennehy – Internal.support@mweg.org
Thank you, all of you dear sisters, for taking this exceptional journey with us! We can’t begin to express our love and gratitude for all of you. Onward!
Diana Bate Hardy is an original member of the core leadership team at Mormon Women for Ethical Government.
