Women’s Ministries
A Story with a Purpose
By Jamie Pettett, Missions & Outreach reach M
y husband and I were on a walk in our neighborhood and stopped to chat with some neighbors in their front yard. A few minutes into the conversation, one of their daughters came out holding a globe. Alex made the quip, “Whoa, you’ve got the whole world in your hands!” The girl smiled and said she was looking for Prince Edward Island where Anne of Green Gables took place. This moment, while minor in our day, stuck with me. A story drove this little girl to carry around the world to search for a place that she read about.
Books and stories reveal to us a world much larger than what we are living in day to day. As a high school freshman, I read the biography of Darlene De- ibler Rose, Evidence Not Seen. She was an American missionary to the primitive were sent to separate prisoner of war camps. He died in prison, while Darlene endured four years at a women’s camp. After the war, she returned to the states, together they ministered in Papua New Guinea for thirty years in a variety of ways including teaching, preaching, providing medical care, and building land- ing strips. The Roses also ministered in the Australian Outback before retiring. Darlene’s story was one of strength of faith and character. Her faith enabled her to endure her time in the prisoner of war camp, including the extreme mal- Her faith led her return to Papua New Guinea to a people forgotten by time to spread the gospel to the ends of the earth. As a high schooler, I can remember this story leaving an impression on me.
It prompted me to question how I would have responded in a similar situation. Was my faith strong enough? Was I clinging to the comforts of the West? It also made me wonder how God was continuing to work among the people of Papua New Guinea. We are all moved by stories. It is why Jesus used parables to teach his dis- ciples and us. We are expected to respond. Thanks to books like Evidence Not
Seen, Through the Gates of Splendor (Elisabeth Elliot), The Hiding Place (Corrie ten Boom), God’s Joyful Runner (Eric Liddell) and others we are able to travel to other times and places and see how God used ordinary indi- viduals to live extraordinary lives, to withstand challenging circumstanc- es, and to stand for principles. Stories educate and inspire us. Once a month on Wednesday nights, I have been visiting the chil- dren’s ministry at our church for a “minute for missions”. I tell the chil- dren a missionary story at an age- giant map where in the world this story takes place. We have talked about missionaries with World Wit- ness that our church supports using prayer cards from those missionar- ies. I’ve introduced them to Lottie Moon, a missionary to China, with a children’s book and Adoniram Jud- son, a missionary to Burma, from a collection of stories. We spent one Wednesday night thinking about Bi- ble translation. I brought in my Turk- ish Bible and asked for a volunteer to read it. This led to talking about how we got the Bible in different languag- es and to pray for a church member involved in Bible translation. We end each time with the children praying for missionaries, lost people, and oth- er countries.
My hope and prayer is that through
a story, these children will see or- dinary individuals like themselves obeying a call from God to bring the gospel to the ends of the earth. I pray that these pilots, teachers, pastors, academics, and doctors, will be the inspiration for the next generation of missionaries and missionary sup- porters. Let us pray this together!
Knowing, loving, serving, Jesus ARPWM 20 The Associate Reformed Presbyterian
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