Helen Roseveare – Faithful in Loss

I found Helen Roseveare’s biography the most compelling not least because Piper allows Helen to speak largely for herself. It is an account of a gifted, somewhat arrogant and insecure woman who over decades of medical missionary service in the Congo grew into the likeness of the Lord Jesus. Congolese Christians brought her to an awareness of her own pride and incipient racism: her rape and imprisonment at the hands of the Simba rebels taught her humility, forgiveness and insight into suffering. The question arises: Why does God allow His servants to suffer?

Helen’s story shows two things that we need to apprehend. First we often enter ministry with the intention of “doing something for the Lord,” but God’s intention is that He will do something in us. Secondly the imagining of danger and suffering is often worse than the reality where we do indeed find that God’s grace is sufficient.

Picture of Helen Roseveare from http://www.desiringgod.com/.