Women of Reverence welcomes Kea Modise-Moloto as a guest blogger.
Kea is one courageous and inspirational woman that has overcome hard circumstances yet has not lost her commitment and deep desire to inspire and encourage women from all walks of life. She has through the last 12years established long standing organisations that connect, inspire, uplift women : Spiritually, personally and in business.
Through Bontlebame NPO she focuses on empowering especially teen girls from rural and township areas – because she believes that with knowledge and visible opportunities, they can exist their difficult circumstances for a better future.
She also does this through arisemagz.com , the Christian Women Business Network - creating a safe space for women to connect, network and build a Sisterhood to enable each other to thrive in different spaces. One of the issues she is pushing through this ministry is to encourage women to identify their life’s purpose and ensure that it is delivered in their daily jobs or businesses but most importantly to be the Salt and Light in the market place.
She recently launched the global Christian Women Business Directory to open connections between business women in different parts of the world. She says this will also be an effort to elevate and advertise their businesses or profiles.
Looking back to where I have come from, and what I have experienced to be where I am and who I am right now, humbles me and deepens my reverence for God.
Amongst a few things, I always knew that I would be a business owner. At a young age, around my twenties, I thought I was going to establish a fancy business that everyone would want to be associated with, situated in one of the posh locations. I thought that everything about me, from looks to car to penthouse apartment, would spell success.
Now as an older and maturing woman, I look back and realise that dream was a mental dream and not at all what my spirit yearned and longed for. It was a dream I misunderstood and was informed about by the world…a dream I perceived based on what the world had taught and what the world expected success to look like. I say this because, with maturing and growing up, I know clearly that my soul and spirit do not relate to fancy, posh or flashy, not in the way the world does and it never has, but more to unique and authentic. Sometimes my unique stands out but it is not at all with the motivation or intention to be flashy or get attention, but simply due to the need and the confidence to dance to my own music and respond to my true being, the being created by God and not by the world. It is an ongoing journey of learning self, understanding God and giving myself enough time to look inside, trust what I find and "God-fidently'' activate.
This journey and process is exactly how I started the businesses or organisations that I am currently leading and directing, under God, as CEO.
During the most difficult time of my life, when I questioned God’s love for me and the necessity for me to be here on earth, the idea of the Christian Women in Business Network was planted in my heart. I say “my heart” because my headspace, at that time, was not a good space for the germination of anything positive. At that time, I was thinking more of death and suicide than creating. But God was persistent and in Him healing and pulling me from the valley of death, I became more and more convinced that women needed a different type of healing and support than we are all used to, than we have experienced before. We needed healing that was not packaged in theory or experience but in grace, support and love, especially in areas least expected. I also based the mandate for the Network on understanding the privilege I had of being surrounded by women of God during the week, weekly and on working days. I will build the Christian Women in Business Network (CWBN) to be a safe space for business and career women to leave their desks and offices to congregate, for each other’s sake. I took the step to launch the now 3-year old Christian Women in Business Network and, today, the organisation has an international footprint.
This part of my journey confirmed the message in my favourite quote, “Circumstances and situations do not determine our purpose,” as true. Because I see the fruit in following my calling and pursuing my purpose during my life’s most challenging phase and season.
This also teaches that it is important to identify, know and trust our purpose and calling because in it is our victory and the Kingdom’s growth. The Network - even though I facilitated the launch in tears and fear - highlighted not only my talent, but the necessity of my purpose and what I am called to do. The very thing I feared the most and had many good reasons not to pursue became the very thing that deleted and cancelled thoughts of death, suicide and being irrelevant and unnecessary.
Upon reflection, the woman that I am today and what my journey has revealed to me is that what humans and the world call ‘talent’ is in the Spirit or the Kingdom defined as a calling. In the world it is called success but in the Kingdom it is called Victory and Grace. My purpose was victorious against the enemy that was encouraging me to end my life.
When we think based on our power, capability and situation we may delay and find reason not to act but when we do it for God and in God with the understanding that we lack capacity, we depend and lean on Him for way forward.
This is the foundation of CWBN.
This ‘success’ does not look like what I imagined as a young girl in her twenties – posh location, fleshy possessions and business that everyone wanted to be associated with, but it is victory from death and a vehicle that is continuously teaching and leading me to eternal life – life I at one point wanted to end.
We have a bigger responsibility as business women, because we occupy positions of leadership in many spaces, to understand our purpose and calling so that we ensure ourselves, businesses and positions are channels for God’s plans – because that is exactly what calling and purpose are: God’s chosen tools, channels and resources for His great plan to manifest. So, when we hold back and do the opposite of what we know we are called to do, then we become the opposition of God’s plan.
What is your purpose?
What is your calling?
How and where is this delivered daily?
Your purpose and calling are not limited to space, emotional state or head space. You are God’s purpose and calling packaged in the person that you are, ready to be delivered and only you will stop the delivery thereof.
I learnt the above also while I was in a dark place in my life, experiencing a different kind of darkness and abandonment. I again questioned if I was necessary or relevant to God. The fact that I was alive, was the answer to that question – if I was not relevant or necessary, God would have ended my existence on this side of life.
If I am here then what am I here for? Do I have the means to deliver or execute the reason or duty God has for me? But how will I do it when I am full of doubt? If I do not have the strength, knowledge and enthusiasm?
And then through these soul- searching questions, I realised that because I have no access to any tools I must be the tool. The tool to fulfil the duty, reason and purpose He has created me for.
Who am I?
What am I?
In the answer, I gained tools to follow my calling and walk the path I trust, without a doubt, that God has set for me, not for my sake, but for His sake and especially for the Kingdom’s sake.
I serve women who are businesswomen through the Christian Women Business Network, Arise Magazine and Bontlebame. Along the way, these became institutions that needed financing and therefore must create income so that they deliver and remain sustainable. Based on this, the world calls these institutions and what I do “businesses” but for me, these are channels for God’s purpose and calling for my life.
I love saying that our dreams and aspirations are seeds to the life that God wants us to live. Remember that for the woman with the issue of blood, it started with a dream, a desire, an aspiration to live a normal, healthy life without the persistent discharge of blood. She must have thought, “Maybe, if I touch His garment…maybe I will be healed….”
What are your thoughts? What is burning in your heart and mind that is difficult to ignore? Can you imagine what would happen if you acted on it?
I built on my thoughts, my spiritual needs and the directive by God, instead of focusing on building the business and, still, the journey continues.
Love
Kea
Website: www.christianwomenbusinessnetwork.com a safe space connecting Christian business and career women to support and uplift each other towards thriving spiritual and business life with God in the lead and centre.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christianwomenbusinessnetwork/
www.arisemagz.com Instagram https://www.instagram.com/arisemagazineint/ - An inspirational magazine elevating and promoting women’s businesses and brands through sharing their business journeys with God as partner.
www.bontlebame.com – Non-profit focusing on teen girls in rural and underserved communities.
www.christianwomenbusinessdirectory.com - A platform connecting, elevating and creating access for businesses and brands owned by Christian women from all over the Globe.