I met the Lord at age twenty-one, and began to read the Bible for the first time in my life. To say I became engrossed with it would be an understatement. I was consumed by it, and it consumed me. Not having been raised in the church, I read it through non-religious eyes. I also took it at face value, believing that what I found in it was to be my way of life, for life. So you can imagine my surprise when I read in 1 Corinthians chapter 14 and 1 Timothy chapter 2 where Paul said that women were not allowed to speak in church. That didn’t seem right to me. There must be some misunderstanding somewhere. I also noted that Paul had just written that women could pray and prophesy in church (1 Corinthians 11:5). How could they do that and remain silent? I learned early on that one of the keys for interpreting Scripture was that one verse should never contradict another. I believed back then, and still do, that there are no contradictions in the Bible, only our misunderstanding of it. If women could prophesy in front of men under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, why could they not teach in front of them?