A powerful testimony of what happens when women support women

After going to Bible college in America, Letitia Shelton was offered a role as youth pastor in her father’s church in Toowoomba, Australia. She immediately started looking around to see how the church could serve the city (her father had always taught her that church leaders pastor the city, not just the church). 

Even though Toowoomba looked lovely on the surface, hidden underneath lay problems of homelessness, drug addiction, abuse and prostitution. In 2001, there was a gathering for the women from different churches in the city, and the female mayor was invited to speak. She challenged the audience: “You ladies are doing nice things inside your church, but why don’t you get outside the walls of your church and do something for the young women outside?” That night, City Women was born.

“We ran a camp for 20 teen girls from the community, and the mayor came along. What we thought would be one camp, over the years, turned into over 74 camps for vulnerable young girls”, says Letitia.

If the gospel is good news, then a city free from pornography is good news!

In 2005, City Women became the umbrella organisation of many projects run by over 200 women across the churches to “make Toowoomba a better place for girls and women”. Letitia is convinced that “unity releases blessing. The pastors from the city met to pray together every week. There was no competition between the churches, and we built trustworthy relationships, which meant we could come together, move and mobilise really fast. Our unity gave us credibility in the city, and we have worked closely with our mayors and politicians over the years.”

Tackling porn in her city

Having worked with so many young women that had suffered abuse at the City Women camps, Letitia was horrified when she read that “porn fuels abuse”. At that moment, she felt God speak to her about tackling this issue that, unbeknown to many, was the root of much destruction. “If the gospel is good news, then a city free from pornography is good news!” In 2016, with the support of the current mayor, City Women started a campaign to educate people about the realities of pornography and its devastating effects on mental health, relationships and the family.

“The number one sex educator for young people is porn, so they deserve to know the facts. Every year we run our ‘City Free from Porn’ rally because we believe in giving young people education on this subject that no one else wants to talk about. We run social media campaigns, put billboards up and provide lists of where to get support. Jesus died and rose again for freedom from porn. There is no porn in heaven, so there should be none on earth!”

‘Before you women all call down fire from heaven on me, I want to tell my story…’

When one media campaign went viral, word about ‘City Free from Porn’ got out all over the world and Letitia even received a phone call from the assistant to the French president, who asked her to come and “help us do the same because porn is destroying our communities!” She explains: “In the end, he didn’t get  re-elected, so I didn’t go, but I felt God say: ‘You want cities free from porn? I want nations free from porn.’ Last year, I ended up as a member of a Fijian government task force campaigning to ban porn for kids in Fiji. Of course there is a long way to go, but lots of nations are waking up to the devastating effect of porn.”

Simply loving those we meet 

City Women works out of Christian values in all their projects and shares the gospel with the girls at their camps, seeing several come to faith. In 2010 the government opened a brothel in Toowoomba, stipulating that it would contain the industry, make it safer for sex workers and reduce rape. “The reality is there was nothing safe about the brothel! The workers call their industry ‘paid rape’. We rallied to sign petitions and speak up to our politicians. Then a group of us went to the brothel door with a plate of food and said, ‘Hi, we’re here to love the women who work here’, which was the start of a beautiful 14-year-long relationship with the managers and sex workers.”

City Women invited the brothel manager, Leyla*, to their bi-annual breakfast, and Letitia asked her to be the guest speaker and share how the City Women team had supported her team of sex workers. She arrived after working all night at the brothel and said: “Before you women all call down fire from heaven on me, I want to tell my story. I was adopted into a pedophile ring as a child and was abused all my life. I became pregnant at twelve. I had four sons in my teenage years, all of whom were born with disabilities, so of course, getting paid well for my abuse at the brothel makes a lot of sense in my world.”

It happened to be her 43rd birthday that day, and City Women, instead of giving her one birthday gift, wheeled in 43 gifts in a wheelbarrow! Leyla broke down and wept as 250 women applauded her for being born. Leyla went on to accept Jesus, and eventually the brothel closed this year. 

“If we want to change our cities, we need to fully lay down our agendas. People like Leyla are his precious children, and He has them on a journey. Jesus told us to ‘go’, and I want people to come to know Jesus, but I don’t go to them with an agenda; I go to love them. We need to create spaces where those hungry can come and be church. At the end of the day, sex workers aren’t going to come to church on a Sunday!”

Letitia reminds us that God is near the brokenhearted. It is so easy to stay in church and around Christians, but if we want to reach our cities for Jesus, we need to let him squeeze out this religiosity!

“Let’s grasp the point of the Church and let this shape our missiology: the function of the early Church was the fulfillment of the Great Commission – and they did it city by city. As Christian women, we are God’s instrument to transform cities. As women, we always run to the pain, so look for the pain points in your city. For example, when City Women started the pregnancy support centre it was because we learned 70 per cent of women had abortions due to the fact that there was no support. 

“I would also say it’s vital for women to create spaces to share their hearts so they can connect in unity with other churches. The resources are there! As John 17:22-23 says: ‘I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one – I in them and you in me – so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.’”

Letitia is founder of City Women and City Free from Porn. She is author of Still Fighting for our Daughters and the Disruptive Women series. She speaks internationally and nationally encouraging women to disrupt darkness with light and hope of Jesus. citywomen.com.au 

*Name changed

Words by Becky Hunter Kelm