The Red Tent is a missional community of women in Cincinnati that helps reshape their relationships with each other and provides a vehicle for coming together to change the world by helping women and children in poverty globally. The Red Tent welcomes women of all ages, life stages, and ethnicities – mothers, daughters, grandmothers, single women, married women, divorced women, and widows. The Red
Tent is being started by two women who attend Crossroads Church in Cincinnati (Vivienne Bechtold & Usha Sklena) but it is open to women beyond Crossroads and we partner with a number of other organizations like Back2Back, the Freedom Center, and others. We work on a variety of projects that help orphans, under-resourced children, women rescued from human trafficking, and women in poverty who are trying to make a better life for themselves and their families. Where did the name Red Tent come from? The “Red Tent” was inspired by Anita Diamant's book “The Red Tent”. The original function of the biblical Red Tent was to provide a place for women to gather following pregnancy and during menstruation. It was a spiritual practice, a sacred woman’s place, an enjoyable and a non-judgmental space, and part of a women’s movement. Why the focus on women and children in poverty globally? God has a special heart for the orphans (children without fathers) and widows (women without husbands) and calls Christ-followers to care for them. “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world”. (James 1:27 NIV) There are an estimated 162 million orphans globally. While there are people in the US who live in poverty, the vast majority of people living below the poverty line reside outside the US (50% of the world lives on less that $2.50/day and 20% live on less than $1.25) and these people are generally off the radar screen for most Americans. Women and children are the most helpless and vulnerable due to lack of rights and limited access to jobs/income to provide for themselves. What are the details on the monthly Red Tent Big Gatherings? The monthly big gatherings will be focused on food, fun, information-sharing, and meeting other women who share a common interest. Normally, the Red Tent will meet on the second Fridays of each month at 11305 Terwilligersknoll Ct., Cincinnati, Ohio 45249. What kinds of things do the women in the Red Tent do? In addition to our monthly Red Tent Big Gatherings, the Red Tent organizes a variety of opportunities for women to get involved in based on their interests - all will be focused on things that help women and children in poverty globally. Some of initial ideas are:
•Train to run or walk in the Flying Pig on May 3 to raise money for Back2Back (Jan-Apr)
•Volunteer to work at the Compassion International weekend at Crossroads for Nicaragua orphans (March 28-29)
•Volunteer to work on the Freedom Concert & Freedom Summit with Freedom Center (May 18-20)
•Participate in vision/serving trips to places like Nicaragua, India, Mexico
•Support purchases from Freedom Glass, Polished Pearl, and other social entrepreneur ventures to help women rescued from s*x trafficking
