What we do > Networks > AAWOL
What is AAWOL?
Asian American Women on Leadership (AAWOL) emerged out of a gathering of evangelical women in September of 2005. Through the retelling of our leadership journeys in subsequent meetings, the Holy Spirit worked in amazing ways to empower us and create an experience of healing and wholeness in community. The result was a God-given realization of the important needs for safety and creating legacy. In this process, it became clear that our stories resonated and intersected with the stories of many others. Out of the realization that these stories should be shared, and AAWOL was born and continues on…
What is AAWOL’s Mission?
AAWOL exists to gather the scattered evangelical Asian American women for leadership renewal and development. We believe that by creating sacred spaces, we can build a vital team for God’s purposes. Through team building, seminars, and the documentation of the legacies of Asian American evangelical women (AAEW), AAWOL will collectively produce a leadership program that will renew and foster AAEW leadership for the church, campus and community at large.
What are the qualities of AAWOL?
A: Adaptive A: Accountable W: Worshipful O: Open L: Labyrinthine
Our digital age demands leaders who are adaptive to constant change and uncertainty. For quality leadership, the ability to adapt must be accompanied by accountability and advocacy. Without accountability, community building and deep trust among a team is difficult. Authentic accountability must be rooted in a common spirituality through a worshipful attitude. Advocacy must occur through partnerships, and the transformation of AAEW occurs through mentoring and empowerment from others along the journey. Through the common allegiance to a higher power beyond our individual selves, AAEW will interact with one another with open hearts, despite our labyrinthine context of a globalizing world.
What does AAWOL desire to offer?
- Networking opportunities. To gain solidarity for individuals and systems. Through supportive networks that provide a sense of togetherness, we will relate issues of shared heritage through information gathering and exploration of our rooted-ness by connecting with the legacies of AAEW, past and present. - Intentional mentoring. To explore gifts and skills through “safe” generational/intergenerational mentoring relationships that also provide advocacy in areas such as the process of ordination, the church world and structures, “calling” to vocational ministry, conflict resolution, etc.
- Training events/workshops/conferences/day retreats – To build upon our biblical/theological foundations as AAEW in order to integrate our cultural uniqueness, intercultural ethics, and egalitarian partnerships. This will be accomplished through “immersion visit” reflections, connecting our church experience and our daily lives.
-- Bridging praxis and academia. Through shared experiences, we create networks of communal learning to bridge seminaries and churches, male and female, etc. through relationships and technology.
