Dear Rev. Dr. Renita Weems

I will begin this letter to you first by mentioning how I first came to experience you. It was at the WomanPreach Academy this month in Memphis. You were on skype and a group of women sat and listened to and asked questions of you. Even when the technology failed us, we gathererd ourselves and sat around the telephone and continued the conversation on speaker phone. You touched my life. I am posting this letter to you on my blog and will not recapture the conversation or give your bio to those reading this who may not know you. I will say here though, that reading your blog at somethingwithin.com is a good way to get to know what you are about.

Now, thank you for being a woman who speaks up and encourages women to use our voices. Thank you for using yours so powerfully. And by powerfully, and this is to the readers of my blog, I don't mean that you need to shout. I thank you for speaking clearly about where you stand. Often I find women afraid to make statements that may not be popular in our society. Our society of women, of church, of black folk.

Before I heard you in Memphis I heard of you from Rev. Dr. Valerie Bridgeman who does not often should me or others on anything but when she said you SHOULD hear her and know who she is, well, let's just say I'm no fool. Valerie Bridgeman (again for the readers) is also a very powerful woman. A woman who uses her voice and does not shake when she does. A woman who stands for justice and the empowerment of women. As you do Mrs. Weems.

The intent of this... letter is to express how great an impact you had on me in the hour or so we spent on the phone. Yes, I said we, because that's what it was for me. Though you didn't hear my voice or even know me, I was there with you. Also the intent of this is to introduce to some who may frequent my blog and may not know of you (and Valerie Bridgeman).

Thank you again and I am enjoying your blog. I read it almost every night. Please keep posting, writing, sharing yourself with the world.

Jaha Zainabu