I have picked up a book that was given to me in the summer of 1999 at an 8 week Summer Project. I brought it with me to South Africa in 2003 because I thought, I love this woman's life and I will definitely read about her life as soon as I get there. Well here I am 9 years later, 13 years from when I got the combined auto-biographical book Give Me this Mountain and He Gave Us a Valley by Helen Roseveare. Her wisdom is not lost on me and I see God's timeliness in having me read her story now. Dead missionaries have much to teach us but so do some old living ones. Helen is still with us(87 years old and counting) and yet has so much wisdom to bestow upon us all. Here is an excerpt from her auto-biography on her understanding of being a missionary.
“I believe that, at its simplest, a
missionary is one sent by God to live a Christian life, usually amongst people
other than his own. It is living which counts. This may include formal preaching,
but it will certainly include personal relationships, and these often have to
be worked out under most trying conditions.
For example, many missionaries discover that it is far from easy to
adapt themselves to a completely different climate. The native foods may be hard, not only on the
digestive system, but also on the aesthetic tastes. The language barrier may constitute a
difficult problem, especially in early years.
One cannot choose one’s friends. Two missionaries of vastly different
backgrounds, likes and dislikes may be thrown together for several years with
no choice of other companionship. One is
often expected to do jobs for which one is not trained, and which may be
actually distasteful. Yet in all this,
one is called upon to reveal Christ, to live a Christ-like life, to be a ‘missionary.’
It
is then that one realizes it is not the journey in the steamer that changes one’s
nature. I did not escape from myself by going to Congo. Rather, I came to know
myself better, perhaps more as others had already seen me. The ordinary trials and frustrations of life
that meet us all were just as real in Congo, and in some ways, were more
pronounced, as there were fewer ways of avoiding or circumventing them. For
myself, it was only as I allowed the Lord to show me my own pettiness, or
wilfulness, or pride, in different circumstances and problems, that I became
willing to let the Lord teach me of himself.
‘Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me,’ the Lord said ‘for I am meek
and lowly in heart.’ “
When I was a student involved with Campus Outreach, she came and spoke at one of our New Year's Conferences. I came home thinking, "wow, I want to be like her, I want to be a missionary." Her life and testimony inspired me deeply. I found the wisdom she spoke over us. You can enjoy it below as I and many other young women did that day. The question is not "is IT worth it? The answer would often be no, the question is "is HE worthy?" Yes, always yes! Thank you Dr. Roseveare. Thank you very much.
http://kiwi6.com/file/5c7xvagi1b
