It has always given me deep comfort and strength that the very first witnesses of Jesus’ resurrection on that early morning were unnamed women—women who, in their time, were considered poor, lowly, and insignificant. Yet their pure love for Jesus placed them at the center of the most dramatic moment in human salvation history.

Recently, I have been reading about the spiritual foremothers of Korea—especially the women of the Enlightenment era—and how their lives were transformed when they encountered the risen Christ. Their stories have shaken my faith in the best way.

One such woman was Ha Nancy, born in Pyongyang in 1875. She became the second wife of a government official in Incheon and cared for his four children from a previous marriage. Through the port of Incheon, she encountered Western culture and heard rumors of a new school for girls—Ewha Haktang. Though she had no concept of what “education” even meant, she went to the school and asked to be admitted. When she was rejected for being married, she boldly sought out Principal Scranton herself. Holding a lantern she had brought in the night, she blew out the flame and pleaded, “We are as dark as this extinguished light. Will you not give us light?” Her courage moved the principal, and she was accepted.

That moment opened the door to her studies in Japan and later at Wesleyan College in Ohio, where in 1906 she became the first Korean woman to earn a bachelor’s degree in literature.

Returning to Korea, she became Ewha’s first Korean professor, working alongside Mrs. Scranton to educate women, teach childcare and home medicine, and raise the consciousness of Korean women. She became the first Korean Methodist lay delegate to the World Methodist Conference and even helped install the first pipe organ in Jeongdong Church in 1918. In 1919, she was poisoned by a Japanese spy. Though her life was short, the gospel transformed a woman who might have lived and died anonymously as a government official’s second wife. Instead, she rose as a bold witness of the resurrection and became a pioneering leader for Korean women.

Another was Rhoda Yang, the first Korean woman missionary sent to Manchuria in 1924. Born in Seoul in 1877 to a noble family, she experienced deep personal suffering through a failed marriage. After leaving home, she began attending Sangdong Church at her brother’s urging and received baptism. She studied at the Women’s Bible School run by Mrs. Scranton, planted many churches, and was eventually commissioned as a missionary to Manchuria. For three years she organized women’s ministries and preached the gospel in spiritually barren places. Returning to Korea, she devoted herself to women’s education and founded Shinkwang Girls’ Middle and High School. She died in 1943. The gospel lifted her from despair and rejection and sent her to shine Christ’s light even to Manchuria. The risen Lord healed her wounds and bore lasting fruit through her ministry.

And then there was Park Chi‑eun. In December 1921, in the Pyongyang High Court, she exposed the brutal torture inflicted on her by Japanese authorities by stripping off her clothes in the courtroom—declaring before all the world the cruelty of the oppressor and her fight for freedom from sin and injustice. Born in 1887 to a noble family, she accepted the gospel at seventeen. She buried her family’s ancestral tablets and spirit charms to keep her faith pure and married Kwak Chi‑moon, a man of strong national spirit. Together they led the March 1st Independence Movement and organized the Women’s Independence Youth Association. Arrested with her husband, she endured horrific torture. She gave birth to a daughter in prison, but the child died from neglect. After her release, her husband also died from the torture he had suffered. She worked as a laborer, later opened a small restaurant, and devoted herself to helping the homeless and the poor. She died while fleeing during the Korean War. Through the gospel, she lived her remaining years fighting for freedom from the sin that crushes the weak.

There are countless other women who met the risen Christ and became bearers of light to a darkened nation and society. Whenever I see the women God has chosen and used, I am deeply moved. These women—despised, overlooked, with nothing to boast of—were lifted up by God through the suffering and resurrection of Jesus Christ and entrusted with His work. What a tear‑stirring grace this is.

On this radiant morning of resurrection, the meaning of Jesus entrusting the joy of His resurrection first to women feels especially new and precious.

— Yoon Wan‑Hee, April 8, 1996