Jack Voelkel
The fellowship of His suffering: Helen Roseveare cont.
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During this period she had her most humiliating experience. A rebel soldier sought to abuse her.
She tried to escape, but it was useless: “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” (Burgess, p. 45).
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).
Finally, the national army, with the help of mercenaries, defeated the rebels; she was rescued, and flown back to England. As she related in future messages what had happened during those dark days, her theme was not one of anger or self pity, but how the Spirit had enabled her to thank Him for trusting her with that experience, even if He never explained “why.” He gave her repeated opportunities to counsel other women who had been abused.
Building a training college
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.
During these years, mingled with the joy of using her gifts and seeing concrete results, she continued to experience the cost of serving the Lord. The newly independent nation was pushing for national recognition of its institutions. To achieve such recognition required months and years of dealing with bureaucrats, who seemed to enjoy their newly won authority. It cost her long, tedious, and seemingly endless trips to offices in provincial and national capitals, to repeatedly hear: “you need another paper signed, come back tomorrow; no, I won’t recognize this paper because too much time has elapsed; sorry, the director is away, come back next week, etc., etc.” Her persistence, patience, and the excellence of her work finally paid off. Her training school was not only given official recognition but achieved the highest score.
Rejection
But the most painful struggle was with her students. Independence seemed to bring out the worst in many of them. The radio was full of tirades challenging the youth to insist on their rights, not to be pushed around, especially by the “whites.” Proud of their two years of High School before entering the training program, some felt it was beneath their dignity to do manual work in the early days, as she worked with them to cut down trees to build their first facilities. The female students rebelled against the idea of being channeled into the midwifery course; they wanted to be “equal with the men,” though everyone knew that single women would not be accepted in the villages as para-medical workers and there was a staggering need for mid-wives throughout the whole province.
But the worse was yet to come. After the official recognition of the medical school and the development of all the services, she felt her time was coming to an end. The mission had appointed a new couple, both physicians, who were on the way. She felt it was time to turn things over to younger leaders. She planned a combination graduation ceremony, a welcoming party for the new doctors, and a farewell for herself. She was encouraged that the government was now not only paying partial salaries for the medical personnel, but was also budgeting subsidies for the students’ education. She and her colleagues decided to generously give 20% of these subsidies directly to the students for personal expenses, a higher percentage than any other institution was giving.
But the students felt that they should receive more. They went on strike. They accused her of stealing college funds, of lying, of duplicity, and of falsifying the accounts and report sheets sent to the Government. “Mud was flung at many others besides myself, particularly anyone who tried to reason with them or show them how stupid they were being” (R: Gave…p. 175). At last, to break the deadlock, she submitted her resignation, which was gratefully received.
[The students] left on Saturday. Not one came to say good-bye or to shake hands. There were no photos of this qualifying class, my last group of students. There was to be no diploma day. All August festivities were to be cancelled—including the choir, despite five months of hard practicing, and no recordings to take home…my pride was truly laid in the dust and trampled upon. ‘Is it really worth while?’ (p. 176).
As she pondered this fundamental question, the Lord began dealing with her. She had come to Africa to serve Jesus. This was true. But subconsciously she had also wanted more: respect, popularity, public opinion, success, and pride. She had wanted to go out from a farewell-do that she had organized for herself, with photos and tape recordings to reveal what she had achieved.
She had wanted the other missionaries to be worried about how they would ever make it without her. But the Lord said to her, “’No you can’t have it. Either it must be ‘Jesus only’ or you’ll find you’ve no Jesus. You’ll substitute Helen Roseveare.’ A great long silence followed—several days of total inner silence. At last I managed to tell Him that with all my heart I wanted ‘Jesus only’” (R: Valley…p. 181).
Before she left, the new doctors arrived and she had the joy of introducing them to the hospital complex, the training school, and friends in many other communities. The Africans put on a farewell party for her. For two hours individuals expressed their appreciation and love for her. Even a small group of students sung an original song asking her to remember them as her sons who loved her and to let God blot out from her memory the sore wound they had tried to inflict on her in their stupidity. Then it was time to leave.
Was it worth it all?
But the question remained: Was it all worth it? Worth the leaving home, the singleness, the hard work, the suffering – the cost? She closes one of her books 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 worth while, very, very worth while, utterly worth while, with no room left for regrets or recrimination” (R: Valley, p. 188). 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 (R: Cost).
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, The Living Bible).
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(Note: Following her 20 years in Africa, Dr. Roseveare traveled and lectured for the World Evangelistic Crusade (WEC) and served on the staff of their Missionary Training College in Glasgow, Scotland.)
Bibliography
Alan Burgess. Daylight Must Come: The Story of a Courageous Woman Doctor in the Congo (New York: Dell, 1975)
Roseveare, Helen. He Gave us a Valley. A story of frustrations, failures & triumphs. Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 1976.
Roseveare, Helen. Give me This Mountain. Gleanies House, Fearn, Ross-shire, Scotland: Christian Focus, 2006 (First published in 1966).
Tucker, Ruth A. Guardians of the Great Commission. The Story of Women in Modern Missions. Grand Rapids: Academie, 1988.
Tucker, Ruth A. From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya. A Biographical History of Christian Missions. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2004.
Helen Roseveare spoke at three Urbana Conventions
“The Cost of Declaring His Glory,“ A plenary address given at Urbana 76.
“The Spirit’s Enablement,” A plenary address given at Urbana 81.
“Motivation for World Missions,” A plenary address given at Urbana 87.
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