“The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.”
— Isaiah 58:11
A well-watered garden doesn’t happen all at once. It grows, from seed to small plant, in season and out of season, nurtured faithfully by hands that keep showing up to water and tend, all the while trusting that something is growing even when they couldn’t yet see it.
This is the story of CBWOQ. A movement of ordinary women, who kept saying yes — to prayer, to mission, to one another, and to giving, bit by bit, each month. And those quiet, faithful yes’es, added together across generations, have helped build something much bigger than each of us individually.
As we gathered this past April to mark 150 years of this movement, that garden came to life in the women who filled the room. Among them was Sheila, one of four women from Quebec to receive a bursary to attend the 150th Anniversary Gathering and Gala in Toronto. She arrived not quite knowing what to expect — and came home carrying something she hadn’t anticipated.
“Arriving in Toronto, I felt the weight and the beauty of 150 years of history,” she shared afterward. “I spent the weekend learning about the generations of women who came before us — women who navigated ‘sun-scorched’ times with nothing but faith.”
Those women didn’t always see the fruit of what they were planting. They gave, and prayed, and served — often in quiet, ordinary ways — trusting that their faithfulness would one day mean something to someone they would never meet. And it did. It does. Sheila’s bursary, her seat in that room, her weekend of learning and renewal — these were made possible because women before her said yes.
“Those women weren’t just following traditions,” Sheila reflected. “They were planting seeds for a future they would never see. They were ‘mothers’ of a movement.”
The Isaiah passage that anchored the weekend spoke directly to this kind of faithfulness — the kind that keeps going even in dry and difficult places. Not because the conditions are perfect, but because God promises to be present in the sun-scorched land. To satisfy. To strengthen. To make something flourish where it seemed it couldn’t.
“We often think we need perfect conditions to grow,” Sheila said. “But Isaiah 58:11 says God will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land.”
This is what CBWOQ has always been: a community of women trusting God with their yes, even in imperfect circumstances, even when the harvest feels far away.
This month, we invite you to add your yes to 150 years of them.
Become a part of the ongoing story of CBWOQ through a recurring monthly gift.
Because small acts of faithfulness, sustained over time and multiplied across a community, become something that changes lives. A monthly gift funds the next bursary. It resources the next ministry partner. It waters the next woman who shows up wondering if there’s a place for her — and finds that there is.
As Sheila put it: “When you grow in a scorched place, people notice. When you refuse to stay hidden, you give others permission to step out into the light.”
150 years didn’t happen all at once. It happened because women kept saying yes — month after month, year after year, generation after generation. It continues because they still are.
Will you join them?
Sheila serves as Chairperson of the Deacons at Val Royal Baptist Church in Montreal, Quebec. She attended CBWOQ’s 150th Anniversary Gathering and Gala as a bursary recipient.