Helen Roseveare (Inspiring Women in Missions, Pt. 4)

Helen Roseveare was an English missionary to the Congo, focused on doing medical missions. Despite enduring extreme suffering, she kept focused on God.

Helen Roseveare
(Inspiring Women in Missions, Pt. 4)

This week's devotions are written by my friend Jessica Hermann, former director of our college ministry at Great Hills Baptist Church.

- Pastor Danny

"That I may know Him and the power of his resurrection,
and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death."

(Philippians 3:10)

Helen Roseveare was an English missionary to the Congo, focused on doing medical missions. She studied medicine at Cambridge University, and during her studies, she entered into a relationship with Jesus and established plans to serve God as a missionary when she finished school, a realization of a childhood dream she had from growing up in church, despite never really knowing Jesus until she was in college.

Helen's story is one of great mountains and low valleys, yet her testimony of faith and her understanding of a theology of suffering that penetrated far beyond head knowledge into every fiber of her being are both inspiring and incredibly challenging.

When she first arrived in the Congo in 1953, she set off establishing hospitals and clinics as well as training nurses to go into villages to meet medical needs and preach the Gospel. However, a few years in, a devastating civil war broke out in the country, and Helen was taken captive and put in prison, where she was abused and violated in every possible way. She would continue to serve the Lord in Africa for years following her release and later in Northern Ireland, but not before enduring and witnessing some of the most brutal atrocities.

Years later, as she was reflecting on this situation in an interview, Helen was asked if she ever thought amidst all of this suffering if it was all really worth it. She admits that perhaps there was a moment where she wondered if the price was too high, if things had gone too far, and the suffering just wasn't worth it anymore. She says it was easy to ask the question, "Is it worth it?" However, she recalls the Lord speaking to her heart and turning the questions saying, "Am I worthy?"

Wow. This stops me in my tracks. What a perspective on suffering. Paul writes in Philippians of his desire, "that I may know Him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death." (Philippians 3:10)

Christ suffered for us. He gave it all for us so we could come to have a relationship with Him. He then invites us to share in His sufferings as we proclaim His Gospel to others. He is supremely worthy of our full devotion. He gave His life to save us from our sin and so we get the privilege of living with Him and for Him. It is a privilege to suffer for Christ. Helen Roseveare once said, "The privilege He offers you is greater than the price you have to pay." And we know that the price she was asked to pay was not a small one. Yet she counted the privilege of being used by Christ in her sufferings to be far greater still.

If you ever find yourself in a situation where you are having a hard time seeing if following Jesus is really worth it, or you are questioning if enduring the suffering that has been placed before you is really worth it all, ask yourself instead: Is the Lord worthy? Is the Lord worthy of my wholehearted surrender? Is He worthy of me testifying to His goodness and using my suffering as a way of helping others one day?

When we're tempted to ask if it's really worth it after all, may we learn from our sister in Christ, Helen, and turn the question on its head. Is He worthy?

He most surely is.