The Tribune

By ALESHA CADET

Tribune Features Reporter

acadet@tribunemedia.net

BINDING together as a chastity group known as “Pinky Promise,” Bahamian women are starting a movement they hope will encourage and build strong bonds of sisterhood.

The faith-based group operates on the principles of honouring God with “your body and your life.” Women of the two established group, Pinky Promise Nassau, Bahamas and Pinky Promise Bahamas, gather monthly to support one another and grow in their relationships with God. They all made a promise to stay pure before God in every single way. It is a promise that says, “I won’t test the boundaries in my relationship to see how far I can push it sexually, but instead, I want God to have my heart.”

It was Simone Gibson and Kiara Culmer, two young Bahamian women, who discovered the international “Pinky Promise” movement, which was founded in the United States by Heather Lindsey.

They decided to contact Ms Lindsey and relationship grew from there.

“The movement has been spreading like wild fire. There are currently groups all over USA, Europe, Africa, the Caribbean and the Bahamas is no exception,” said Simone.

“God gave me a vision and the passion to spread the message of the movement to every woman possible in the Bahamas,” she said.

Meeting twice a month, the 60 members that include both groups, gather to discuss a new topic each month. The topics have ranged from salvation, trusting in god, contentment and health.

For Simone, the “Pinky Promise” movement is not just a hobby. She said it is her job and most importantly, it is a huge part of her life.

“It’s amazing how I went from career woman to practically a missionary,” she said.

On a day to day basis, Simone said she is on the road either visiting churches or dropping off letters and information about the movement to get women on board. Wings of Hope, another group Simone is apart of, is currently planning a conference in November to feature “Pinky Promise” and its ideologies.

Simone said people always associate a group of Bahamian women gathered together as women “gossiping and full of drama”. The “Pinky Promise” movement is far from that. It absolutely stays far away from negativity, she said.

“The group is about support, empowerment, encouragement and building a strong sisterhood and growing in our personal relationships with God. It’s an outlet that has been void from society for a very long time, a lot of women are hurting and walk around with pretend smiles because they don’t want to be judged. We however, don’t judge in our groups because we all go through things, most of the time the same experiences,” said Simone.

She said it is phenomenal to see a diverse group of women, despite different backgrounds, ages, and at different phases of life, going through the same struggles sometimes. Just to sit and share, is therapeutic at times, she said.

“Releasing that tension, anger, hurt and pain is refreshing but to receive an outpouring of love and support from women that understand is amazing,” said Simone.

While the group encourages women to develop their own personal relationship with God, Simone said they do not force their views on others. She said they prefer to allow the women to see the relationships they have developed with God and to be inspired by that alone.

“We are also accountable to and for each other, we believe in looking out for one another; there are times when we’re so down and out and cant even pray, we have sisters that pray for you. The amazing thing about the movement is we acknowledge that we live in a real world and practice doing real life things, we don’t just go to church and pray; we have fun, we talk about our stories, we go out to dinners, we bond and truly live the life that we are preaching. Women are looking for positive things to be a part of and this movement is it,” said Simone.

Interested women can contact Pinky Promise at wingsofhopecharity@gmail.com or pinkypbahamas@gmail.com for more information.