Helen Roseveare (1925 - date)
An incredible story of a faithful woman
Dr Helen Roseveare present to us a spirit of willingness to follow God wherever He leads as well as the struggles, pain and success that are accrued to following Him. What an incredible story of a faithful woman and an extraordinary God.
Helen Roseveare was born in England in 1925. Feeling steadily drawn to medicine she enrolled to do it at Cambridge University. While a medical student at Cambridge University, Helen Roseveare attended a missionary gathering in North England. There she declared publicly, “I’ll go anywhere God wants me to, whatever the cost.” Later, she remembered: Afterwards, I went up into the mountains and had it out with God. "O.K. God, today I mean it. Go ahead and make me more like Jesus, whatever the cost. But please (knowing myself fairly well), when I feel I can't stand anymore and cry out, 'Stop!' will you ignore my 'stop' and remember that today I said 'Go ahead?’. Several times during her life, the Lord was to remind her of this bold commitment. She became a Christian as a medical student in Cambridge University in 1945.
At the university she listened keenly to the words of Paul to Philippians in (Philippians 3:10,11), ‘I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.’
When she gave her testimony on the final night, Dr. Graham Scroggie, a veteran Bible teacher wrote in her new Bible, Philippians 3:10: “That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death.” He said to her,
Tonight you’ve entered into the first part of the verse, “That I may know Him.” This is only the beginning, and there’s a long journey ahead. My prayer for you is that you will go on through the verse to know “the power of His resurrection” and also, God willing, one day perhaps, “the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death”. She had no idea on that night of joy how literally these words would be lived out in her experience.
After graduating from Cambridge as a Medical Doctor, she applied to the World Evangelization Crusade (WEC) for service in Africa. After of orientation and training coupled with French language study in Belgium, and a course on Tropical Medicine in Holland she left for Africa at the age of 28 years. She was assigned to the north eastern part of Democratic Republic of Congo where she was the only doctor for two and a half million people. One day while driving to a meeting, her supervisor spoke to her of the Lord’s dealings, of the possibilities of success as a missionary.
If you think you have come to the mission field because you are a little better than others, or as the cream of your church, or because of your medical degree, or for the service you can render the African church, or even for the souls you may see saved, you will fail. Remember, the Lord has only one purpose ultimately for each one of us, to make us more like Jesus. He is interested in your relationships with Himself. Let Him take you and mould you as He will; all the rest will take its rightful place.
In her book ‘Give me this Mountain’, She tells her story in the most down to earth terms, from playing cricket for the ladies' university side , to her return to Britain after five months as a hostage in rebel terrorist hands. Her completely candid account is an antidote to any delusion that missionaries are saints who float about an inch off the ground, who generally see a blinding light from heaven when they receive 'the call'. She almost failed in missionary school, although they were keen to send out a doctor, her personal failings almost sank her. Her own admitted stubbornness, pride, know-it-all attitude, and inability to work with others made her a liability. The final decision to send her overseas came when an incident with a broken washing line proved that she at least had a sense of humour in the face of adversity. Physical dangers and her personal ambition in the Congo often almost sank her, but her faith and hard work brought her through. Her story is one of bright mountains, conquered after experiencing the dark valleys and learning to give the glory to God.
In 1975, sharing candidly of her personal tests and trials she underwent while serving as a medical missionary in the Democratic Republic of Congo, including pride, marital longings, prolonged illnesses, and beatings, rape and imprisonment by rebel forces. The cost of declaring the glory of the Lord Jesus costs all our heart, soul and body. “The branch,” Roseveare says, “had to lose its leaves and flowers to become an arrow;” such is the privilege of sharing in the sufferings of the Lord Jesus.
Within eleven years, a 14 acre plot of land had been turned into a 100 bed hospital and maternity complex with all the necessary buildings and services. Many tens of thousands of sick were treated, scores of whom would have died without the help of the hospital. Each year 100 patients underwent surgery; 100 young men and women were trained as hospital orderlies and assistant midwives; and all the patients heard the Gospel through the ministry of the hospital chaplains. In addition, she established 48 rural health clinics in the immediate vicinity of the hospital.
During this period God was dealing with her irritability and resentfulness towards her colleagues. Also stress and strains and she was exhausted from overwork. She had conflicts with her African colleagues. Her time with the Lord had suffered greatly, and she had less and less interest in prayer and Bible study. At this moment God a pastor Ndugu to her life and the Lord broke down her heart the barrier of pride, the frigid restraint and revealed much to her. In her own words she says, ‘He helped me unburden my heart to reveal the rottenness and sense of failure, the fears and criticisms, the pride and selfishness.
During her time in Africa she became very lonely and she hungered for marriage; the companionship of a man with whom to share the burden or ministry. Instead God asked her to let Him lead the way but deep inside she kept longing for a husband. Repeatedly, but insistently, the Lord began to deal with her, showing her that her hunger for marriage had become an idol. He brought her to repentance and obedience.
Not only the eternal conflicts of heart were going on but also the external forces caused immense pain and grief. She tells of the horrendous story in the hands of the rebels when she became a virtual prisoner for five months.....
“They found me, dragged me to my feet struck me over head and shoulders, flung me on the ground, kicked me, dragged me to my feet only to strike me again—the sickening searing pain of a broken tooth, a mouth full of sticky blood, my glasses gone. Beyond sense, numb with horror and unknown fear, driven , dragged, pushed back to my own house—yelled at, insulted, cursed” Later, speaking of that night of horror she shared an incredible response.
Through the brutal heartbreaking experience of rape, God met with me - with outstretched arms of love. It was an unbelievable experience: He was so utterly there, so totally understanding, his comfort was so complete - and suddenly I knew - I really knew that his love was unutterably sufficient. He did love me! He did understand!
He understood not only my desperate misery but also my awakened desires and mixed up horror of emotional trauma. I knew that Philippians 4:19, "My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus," was true on all levels, not just on a hyper-spiritual shelf where I had tried to relegate it….He was actually offering me the inestimable privilege of sharing in some little way in the fellowship of His sufferings (R: Cost).
Later after returning to Africa, after a year’s furlough, she gave seven years’ service in an inter-mission (comprising five missions and churches) medical project, at the Evangelical Medical Centre of Nyankunde, to establish a 250 bed hospital/maternity complex and leprosy-care centre. Her passion was to train Africans for leadership on the practical level. She established a training college for national para-medical workers, including a midwifery course of study for young women. She founded several regional hospitals and dispensaries with a radio-advisory link-up throughout the medical services, a “Flying Doctor Service” through the Missionary Aviation Fellowship, to all regional hospitals, and a central supply depot for drugs and equipment.
At the end Dr. Helen Roseveare reflects by asking, Was it worth it all? Worth the leaving home, the singleness, the hard work, the suffering – the cost? In her book, ‘He gave us a valley’ She closes with this summary reflection after the evening of the staff farewell: I suddenly knew with every fibre [sic] of my being that these twenty years had been worthwhile, very, very worthwhile, utterly worthwhile, with no room left for regrets or recrimination”. I have looked back and tried "to count the cost," but I find it all swallowed up in privilege. The cost suddenly seems very small and transient in the greatness and permanence of the privilege.
Now that I have given up everything else—I have found it to be the only way really to know Christ and to experience the mighty power that brought him back to life again, and to find out what it means to suffer and to die with him (Philippians 3:7-10).
Dr. Helen retired from mission and went back to Northern Ireland where she lives up to date.