Our Called-Out Heroines: Part Five
Hello Called-Out Woman!
This is the final part. Eight more women of the New Testament, closing out a full thirty-four heroines across the whole of Scripture, from Eve to Phoebe.
As with Part Four, each entry closes with a Legacy Note, written for you as a businesswoman thinking generationally about what you are building for your children and grandchildren.
Transformed into a Messenger
The Samaritan Woman at the Well
John 4:1–42
“The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did.” John 4:28–29
This woman came to the well alone, at noon, the hottest and least crowded hour, likely to avoid the other women of her town who knew about her five failed marriages and her current living arrangement. Jesus, a Jewish rabbi speaking to a Samaritan woman, something culturally scandalous on two counts, engaged her directly, exposed her history without condemnation, and revealed Himself as the Messiah to her before He revealed it plainly to almost anyone else in His ministry.
What she did next is the remarkable part. She left her water pot, the very reason she had come, and ran back into the town she had been avoiding, publicly inviting the very people whose judgment she had structured her whole day around avoiding. Scripture says “many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman” (John 4:39). A woman with a reputation she had spent years managing became the first evangelist to an entire town, and many came to faith because of her testimony before Jesus ever spoke to them directly.
This is the businesswoman today who has spent years managing a past she is not proud of, avoiding certain rooms, certain circles, certain conversations, out of fear of being reduced to her history. This woman shows her that the very testimony she has been protecting herself from telling may be the exact thing that opens doors for other people's faith and change.
For You
Your story, including the parts you have managed carefully or hidden, may be the very testimony that gives someone else permission to believe change is possible for them too. Stop guarding it so tightly that it never gets to do that work.
Legacy Note
Decide now what version of your story you want your children and grandchildren to eventually hear from you directly, not from rumour or reconstruction. A woman who can tell her own redemption story plainly gives the next generation permission to be honest about their own struggles rather than hiding them the way she once did.
Declare This Over Yourself
Father, I release the years I have spent managing a past I am not proud of. Let me run toward the very people I have been avoiding, carrying my testimony boldly, trusting that my story can still lead others to You.
Persistent
The Woman with the Issue of Blood
Mark 5:25–34
“For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.” Mark 5:28
This woman had suffered a chronic bleeding condition for twelve years, which under Jewish law rendered her ceremonially unclean and cut her off from normal social and religious life. Mark tells us plainly she “had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse” (Mark 5:26). By the time she reached Jesus in a crowded, jostling street, she had exhausted every conventional resource available to her.
She did not approach Jesus directly or ask for a formal audience. She pressed through a dense crowd, reached out, and touched the hem of His garment, believing that contact alone would be enough. It was, and Jesus stopped, asked who had touched Him, and when she came forward trembling, He called her “daughter” and told her that her faith had made her whole. Twelve years of financial loss, social isolation, and failed treatment ended in a single moment of desperate, faith-filled persistence.
Think of the businesswoman today who has poured resources, time, money, expertise, into solving a problem that has not resolved, a health issue, a stalled venture, a broken system, and who is running low on both funds and conventional options. This woman shows her that persistence is not the same as giving up quietly. Sometimes the breakthrough is one more determined reach away, even after everything else has failed.
For You
If you have exhausted conventional solutions to a long-standing problem, this woman's story tells you not to stop reaching. Twelve years of failed treatment did not disqualify her from a single moment of complete healing.
Legacy Note
Teach your children and grandchildren the difference between quitting and releasing what genuinely is not working. This woman spent everything on physicians before she ever reached for Jesus, and that was not wasted time, it clarified exactly what she needed. Model for the next generation how to know when to try one more determined thing, rather than simply telling them to never give up on anything at all.
Declare This Over Yourself
Father, when I have exhausted every conventional option, let my faith still reach for You. I trust that one moment of desperate, persistent faith is enough to make me whole, even after years of loss.
Bold Persistence
The Syrophoenician Woman
Matthew 15:21–28; Mark 7:24–30
“Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table.” Matthew 15:27
This Gentile mother approached Jesus on behalf of her daughter, who was tormented by an unclean spirit. Jesus initially responded in a way that sounds strikingly dismissive by modern standards, telling her His mission was first to the house of Israel, and using language comparing Gentiles to dogs receiving children's crumbs. Rather than being offended into silence, she engaged His own metaphor directly and turned it into an argument for her daughter's healing, and Jesus commended her, saying “O woman, great is thy faith,” and healed her daughter that very hour.
What stands out is her refusal to be talked out of the request by a difficult initial response. She did not walk away wounded, nor did she argue angrily. She reasoned with wit and humility, essentially agreeing with the premise while still pressing her case, and her persistence was rewarded not despite the difficulty of the exchange but because of the quality of faith it revealed.
This is the businesswoman today who has pitched an idea, requested funding, or advocated for her child and received an initial no, a dismissive response, or terms that felt unfair. The Syrophoenician woman shows her that a difficult first response is not always the final answer, and that engaging thoughtfully, without either collapsing or becoming combative, can be exactly what turns the conversation.
For You
This mother's boldness was not aggression, it was clear-headed persistence rooted in love for her daughter. If you have received a difficult first response to something you are advocating for, her story shows you how to keep engaging with wisdom rather than walking away or lashing out.
Legacy Note
Show your children what respectful, persistent advocacy looks like, not the version that gives up after one no, and not the version that burns the relationship down in frustration. This mother's negotiation on behalf of her daughter is a masterclass in holding your ground with grace, a skill your own children and grandchildren will need in boardrooms, schools, and hospitals long after you are gone.
Declare This Over Yourself
Father, I will not walk away wounded from a difficult first answer. Give me the wit and the humility to keep pressing my case in faith, trusting that persistence rooted in You is never wasted.
Generational Faith
Eunice and Lois
2 Timothy 1:5; Acts 16:1
“When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice.” 2 Timothy 1:5
Timothy, one of Paul's closest ministry partners and the recipient of two New Testament letters, is described as having a Jewish mother, Eunice, and a Greek father, and Acts tells us he was well spoken of by the believers even before Paul recruited him. Paul, writing near the end of his own life, does not credit Timothy's faith to a single dramatic conversion moment, he traces it back two full generations, naming both his mother and his grandmother by name as the source of the faith now living in him.
Neither Eunice nor Lois performed a public miracle recorded in Scripture. Their entire legacy, as far as the biblical record shows us, is that they raised a young man whose faith was “unfeigned,” genuine and without pretence, and that faith was strong enough to make him useful to Paul and ultimately to the entire early church. Two generations of quiet, consistent faith at home produced one of the New Testament's most trusted leaders.
This is the businesswoman today who wonders whether her quiet, consistent faith at home, without a platform, without public recognition, actually matters in the larger picture. Eunice and Lois show her that some of the most consequential ministry in Scripture happened entirely inside a household, and that its fruit was not visible until it showed up fully formed in the next generation.
For You
Eunice and Lois were never given a public platform in Scripture, yet Paul names them directly as the origin of Timothy's faith. Your consistency at home, unseen and unrecorded as it may feel, is doing exactly this kind of foundational work in the people you are raising.
Legacy Note
This is the most direct legacy passage in this entire series. Ask yourself plainly what faith, what values, and what unfeigned convictions are currently dwelling in you that you are actively passing to your children and grandchildren, not through a single big conversation, but through the accumulated pattern of how you actually live in front of them day to day.
Declare This Over Yourself
Father, let my quiet, consistent faith at home matter in ways I may never see. I trust that what I build without a platform, without recognition, can still shape someone else's entire future.
Industrious Charity
Dorcas (Tabitha)
Acts 9:36–42
“This woman was full of good works and almsdeeds which she did.” Acts 9:36
Dorcas, also called Tabitha, lived in Joppa and used a practical skill, sewing, to run a sustained ministry of provision for widows in her community, making coats and garments for women who had no other means of support. When she died, the widows she had served gathered around her body weeping, holding up the very garments she had made as evidence of who she had been. Peter was sent for, prayed over her body, and she was raised back to life, becoming known throughout Joppa, and many believed as a result.
Dorcas is one of very few people in the entire New Testament who is called a disciple using the feminine form of the word directly in the Greek text, and she is the only person in the book of Acts whose resurrection story is recorded in this much detail outside of Christ's own family circle. Her legacy, though, was not built on a single dramatic act. It was built stitch by stitch, garment by garment, in a consistent, skilled, hands-on ministry that the whole community could point to and describe in specific, tangible detail.
This is the businesswoman today who has built her enterprise around a genuine skill, sewing, catering, design, planning, and who quietly channels a portion of that skill and its proceeds toward people who could never afford to pay for it themselves. Dorcas shows her that a business built on real skill, offered generously, can become a community's evidence of who she truly is, the kind of evidence people will hold up and describe specifically long after she is gone.
For You
Dorcas's ministry was not abstract generosity, it was specific, skilled, hands-on provision that people could hold in their hands and describe by name. Let your own business skill become a tangible form of ministry to someone who could not otherwise access it.
Legacy Note
Build a specific, describable giving practice into your business now, a set number of hours, garments, meals, or services given freely each season, rather than leaving generosity as a vague future intention. When your children and grandchildren are asked what kind of woman you were, you want them to be able to hold something up, the way those widows held up Dorcas's coats, and describe exactly what you did.
Declare This Over Yourself
Father, let the skill in my hands become ministry, tangible enough for others to hold up as evidence of who I have been. I trust that a legacy built stitch by stitch, faithfully and consistently, is never small in Your eyes.
Teaching Partner
Priscilla
Acts 18:1–3, 24–26; Romans 16:3–4
“Whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly." Acts 18:26
Priscilla and her husband Aquila were tentmakers by trade, the same profession as Paul, and it was through this shared business that Paul first came to know them, working and living alongside them in Corinth. Their household became a base of ministry, hosting a church in their home (1 Corinthians 16:19), and when the eloquent, Scripture-trained preacher Apollos arrived teaching accurately but incompletely, it was this couple together who took him aside privately and explained the way of God more fully to him.
What is notable, and unusual for the culture and period, is that Priscilla's name is listed before her husband's in four of the six New Testament references to the couple, including in the account of correcting Apollos, a detail many scholars read as an indication of her prominent role in their shared ministry and teaching. Paul calls them both his “helpers in Christ Jesus,” and notes that they “have for my life laid down their own necks” (Romans 16:3–4), language reserved for the most trusted and sacrificial of his co-workers.
This is the businesswoman today running a company or ministry in genuine partnership with her husband, where both of their names, and both of their gifts, carry real weight in the work. Priscilla shows her that a marriage built around shared trade, shared theology, and shared hospitality can become a training ground that shapes even the most gifted leaders passing through it.
For You
Priscilla's ministry was inseparable from her marriage and her trade, all three worked together rather than competing for her attention. If your business, your marriage, and your ministry currently feel like they are pulling against each other, Priscilla shows you they can instead become one integrated calling.
Legacy Note
If you are building a business alongside your husband, be intentional about both of your gifts being visible to your children, not just his title or hers, but the genuine partnership itself. Priscilla and Aquila's household became a discipleship centre precisely because their marriage, their trade, and their teaching were fully integrated. That is the kind of household your children and grandchildren can model their own partnerships after.
Declare This Over Yourself
Father, let me walk in genuine partnership, using my voice and my discernment fully, even in rooms where I labour alongside someone I love. I trust that You see the fullness of what I bring to the shared work.
Entrepreneurial Faith
Lydia
Acts 16:11–15, 40
“And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened.” Acts 16:14
Lydia was a businesswoman in the literal sense, a dealer in purple dye and cloth, an expensive luxury trade that placed her among the more prosperous tradespeople of her era, since purple dye was famously costly to produce. She was already a worshipper of God when Paul arrived in Philippi and preached by the riverside, and Scripture says plainly that “the Lord opened” her heart to receive Paul's message. She was baptised along with her entire household and immediately opened her home to Paul and his companions, becoming the first recorded convert in Europe and the founding host of what became the church at Philippi.
Lydia's business was not incidental to her ministry, it was the platform underneath it. Her household had the means and the space to host a church, and her standing as a legitimate, respected tradeswoman gave her credibility in the city. When Paul and Silas were later released from prison in the same city, the very first place they went was “to the house of Lydia” (Acts 16:40), her home remaining the stable centre of that fledgling church community throughout.
This is the businesswoman today whose commercial success, her income, her property, her professional credibility, is not separate from her calling but is in fact the very platform God intends to use for it. Lydia shows her that being “a seller of purple” and being the founding host of a movement of faith were never in tension. They were the same assignment.
For You
Lydia's business gave her the means, the space, and the credibility to become the founding host of a church that outlasted her lifetime. Your own business success is not a distraction from your calling, it may well be the very platform your calling is designed to stand on.
Legacy Note
Think concretely about what your “house of Lydia” could be, the physical space, financial stability, or platform your business provides that could become a stable centre for ministry, mentorship, or community long after the initial excitement fades. Building that kind of lasting infrastructure, not just a single event, is what your children and grandchildren will actually inherit and be able to keep using.
Declare This Over Yourself
Father, let my success become the platform beneath my purpose, not separate from it. I trust that my income, my property, and my standing were given to me so that Your work would have somewhere stable to stand.
Trusted Courier
Phoebe
Romans 16:1–2
“I commend unto you Phebe our sister, which is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea… for she hath been a succourer of many, and of myself also.” Romans 16:1–2
Phoebe is described by Paul as a deacon, or servant, of the church at Cenchrea, and as a “succourer,” meaning a patron or benefactor, of many people including Paul himself. Most scholars believe Phoebe was the one entrusted to physically carry Paul's letter to the Romans, arguably the single most theologically significant document in the New Testament, from Corinth to Rome, and quite possibly the one who read it aloud to the Roman church and was prepared to answer questions about it on Paul's behalf.
Think about the weight of that responsibility. Phoebe was not simply a courier in the casual sense; she was entrusted with an unpublished, unprecedented theological letter that would shape Christian doctrine for the next two thousand years, and Paul asks the Roman church to receive her “in the Lord, as becometh saints,” and to assist her in whatever business she had need of. She was trusted with both the document and the diplomacy required to deliver it well.
This is the businesswoman today who has been entrusted with something significant on someone else's behalf, a critical negotiation, a sensitive document, a message that needs to be delivered with both accuracy and wisdom. Phoebe shows her that being the trusted one, the person whose judgment and character qualify her to carry something of enormous weight safely to its destination, is itself a significant calling, even when her own name appears only briefly in the record.
For You
Phoebe's name appears only twice in Scripture, yet she may have personally carried and explained the book of Romans to its first readers. Being entrusted with something significant, even when your own role stays largely behind the scenes, can shape history far beyond what your name recognition might suggest.
Legacy Note
Build the kind of reputation for discretion, competence, and trustworthiness that causes people to hand you the things that matter most, and pass that same standard on to your children and grandchildren. Phoebe's legacy is not that she was famous. It is that when something irreplaceable needed to travel safely into the right hands, she was the one people trusted to carry it.
Declare This Over Yourself
Father, when I am entrusted with something significant, a message, a negotiation, a responsibility that matters, let me carry it with both diligence and grace. I trust You to prepare me for the weight of what You hand me.
Always Remember:
I love you all — but remember, God absolutely dotes on you. 💖
Thirty-four heroines, one thread of faith, from the garden to the early church, now yours to carry forward into your own legacy.
Marian Bonney-Ankrah is a Financial Protection Specialist and the Founder of The Called-Out Woman, a community that empowers women to live set apart, lead with wisdom, and influence every sphere of life through faith, purpose, and excellence.
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