The question had taken me by surprise. It is so many years since I went as a single missionary to the remote land of Papua New Guinea, yes, sixty years ago.
My
memoires, ‘Wings of the Morning,’ had
been published, soon after my husband’s death, twenty years ago, but this
special lady who had invited us round to her Granny flat, had been rereading
it.
She reminded
me of some of the challenges which had faced us in daily life up in the
highlands, but now she was asking, ‘Tell me, how did you do it?’
Words do not
come easily to me these days. How could I recount in few words what I knew had
been a series of miracles which had changed me from a fearful young woman, a
‘stick in the mud’ as one school chum had described me to a woman of faith?
One of our
friends helped me out. ‘Why!’ she proclaimed, ‘We were young.’ And the moment
was passed, but I do want to give an answer to my Sue.
How had I
done it? My pastor had told me I was not strong enough to be a missionary. When
I eventually arrived, my colleagues were not impressed.’ She won’t last a year,
they had said, yet I lasted longer than many of them.
My friend
Esther had gone to Africa seven years before, but she was strong, athletic,
maybe a bit of a daredevil. Yes, she was cut out to be a missionary, but I
certainly did not aspire to follow her.
Yet, in our
church a word was coming again and again, that someone was going to other
shores and would bring revival. I felt a tremendous burden until I asked,
‘Lord, can it be you are speaking to me?’ I knew it was.
For a little
while I was sorry for myself, thinking how hard it would be, until the Lord
showed me what a privilege he was giving me and told me, ‘Rejoice in your going
out.’
So yes, it
was tough. As dear Sue reminded me, I lived in tumble down houses, we had fires
and floods and times when I could have been very lonely but in it all, I knew I
was in God’s hand and he had brought me there.
And if ever
I felt overwhelmed by some of the hardship and challenges and think that maybe
I should have stayed in UK , gone on for a headship as they had wanted me to
and a comfy flat and a car I would remember that God’s hand would still be on
me and I would feel that pressure to go as a missionary.
And this
same wonderful God has been with me, through those happy years back in UK as a
minister’s wife but since then in long years of widowhood.
Thank you
for asking me and giving me the opportunity to recall how wonderful our Lord
has been and will always be.
His name
shall be called ‘WONDERFUL.’
P.S. The
Lord is reminding me of his wonderful
promise of ‘Joy and Peace.’ Not just for those on the mission field but for
each of us, here and now.
