Hey there, I'm Shari. One of my favorite things to do is read about or study the lives of those who have gone before us or who are walking beside us in this endeavor of being a missionary lady.*
Their stories challenge me, encourage me, and teach me. My hope is that these "silhouettes" or glimpses of their lives will do the same for you.
Their stories challenge me, encourage me, and teach me. My hope is that these "silhouettes" or glimpses of their lives will do the same for you.
Each silhouette contains a small synopsis of a lady’s missionary service, a particular story from her everyday life that resonated with my own, and a short Bible study about a truth that I learned from it. I hope that as you read these posts you might be challenged to find out more about these great ladies, that you might find something that speaks to your heart or helps you in your own ministry, and that ultimately you will be encouraged to remain faithful to your calling.
So grab a cup of tea, sit back and enjoy, and let me tell you about her story.
Silhouette:
In
1882, two Australian ladies, Ellen Arnold and Marie Gilbert, went to India as
missionaries. After six months Miss Arnold returned home due to health reasons.
Once she recovered, she travelled extensively throughout Australia and New
Zealand encouraging and challenging people to consider giving their lives to
the foreign field for the furtherance of the Gospel. She especially made her
appeal to single ladies who could be “Zenana” missionaries in India. Zenanas are the
inner apartments of the middle and upper class houses where the women of the
family are semi-cloistered. Only female
missionaries could gain access to them and so the need was great for teachers and
nurses who could offer their services to the families as well as evangelize
along the way. By late October, 1885, four well-educated Australian women in
their 20’s were prepared to return with Miss Arnold. The famous Silas Mead
preached their farewell service and used the story of the Feeding of the Five Thousand
for his Scripture text. In his sermon
he made the comment, “Tonight we are bidding farewell to five women going to
the millions of women in what I shall designate the Australasian District of
East Bengal.” And with one final question he phrased to the audience, “What are
so few among so many,” the group was nicknamed “The Five Barley Loaves.”
Due
to the appeals made by Silas Mead and Ellen Arnold, excitement for mission work
had captured the hearts of the Christians in New Zealand, as well. Although it
was a time of economic depression, and their country was very young, the 26 established
Baptist churches decided to work together and form the New Zealand Baptist Missionary
Society. Their intentions were to send missionaries to the district of
Brahmanbaria in East Bengal, India. Within
a year, their first missionary, Miss Rosalie MacGeorge was ready to be
sent.
Rosalie
was born in 1860, and grew up in Dunedin on New Zealand’s South Island where
she was a member of Hanover Street Baptist Church. It was at a meeting where Miss
Arnold made her plea for zenana missionaries that Rosalie first felt the Lord
tugging on her heart. Although she was a trained teacher, she surely must have
wondered if she had what it would take to accomplish this great work, but she
decided she would go.
When
she arrived in India, she joined the Five Barley Loaves in their work and moved
into the house where they all lived. Their friendships grew as they lived
together, studied Bengali, and learned the methods of zenana work. Although the
language study was hard they were excited about the doors the Lord was opening
for them. As they began to become more
familiar with the customs and the language, the ladies spread out into
different areas to reach more people.
They set up seven mission stations that would serve as home bases for their
work and for new missionaries who were arriving.
Because
the women had no influence with the Indian men due to the patriarchal society
of India, an appeal went out for men to join the group, as well, and two single
men volunteered. The number in their
group fluctuated greatly with each new year as missionaries arrived and
left. It eventually grew to include 26
missionaries in total. People continued
to call them “The Five Barley Loaves,” but often added, “and the Two Small
Fish” much to the men’s chagrin.
Within
just a few months of Rosalie’s arrival, she began her work on her own. She
gained access to 30 different homes where she taught over 100 people each week.
She also ran a Sunday school and set up the mission station at Comilla. She was
relentless in her pursuit of helping those that the Lord had called her to, and
she worked tirelessly to reach as many as she could for Christ.*
The
hot weather and harsh elements of India took their toll on Rosalie’s health. By
April, 1891, after only five years on the field, she was forced to go back home
to try and recover. With hopes of being able to return one day, she set sail
for New Zealand. She only made it to
Ceylon where she passed away and was buried. She pioneered New Zealand’s
mission work at the cost of her health, but by 1930 over 500 New Zealanders had
answered the call and had gone overseas as missionaries not only to India but
to a wide range of other destinations. She is a true example of a lady of whom it can be said, “She hath done
what she could”!
Her Story/My Story:
Since
travel between the mission stations was difficult and expensive, Rosalie
decided to begin a round robin type of correspondence so the ladies could stay
connected, be an encouragement to each other, and maintain some semblance of
identity. She entitled it “Our Band,” and wrote her first letter in February or
March of 1889. She sent the letter to the next station where it was read and
another letter added from that station. The letters were then sent on to the
next station, continuing in like manner until they arrived back at Rosalie’s
station. The round robin letters continued in this format for a few years until 1893 when it was decided to print new updates in one publication that could be
sent to all the mission stations as well as their supporters back home. The
“Our Band” publication continued to be in print until 1933 and provided great
insight into the lives and ministries of the missionaries who ministered in
East Bengal. The original handwritten
letters can be found in the Global Interaction archives in Hawthorn, Victoria.
Some
might look at Rosalie’s story and think it was less than perfect. It is true that she could have had more
training before she left. She could have
worked with a partner or at least not worked so hard. She could have stayed
closer to where others were so she could get the medical help she needed
sooner. For that matter, she could have stayed in New Zealand where she was a
young, healthy, vibrant woman, and continued to serve in her local church. Some
might even go so far as to say her life was wasted. What did she accomplish save a few handwritten
letters and a few short years of missionary service? I don’t know that anyone knows the entirety of
her accomplishments during her short time in missions work, but God does, and
those she reached during that time, whether few or many, will for eternity be
grateful. I can tell you that her life
inspired others to become missionaries themselves, that those who came after
her picked up where she left off and built upon her work, and, that over 125
years later, her life and short five years as a missionary continues to
challenge all those that read her story, myself included.
I
started my deputation in October of 1993. I always tried to make sure that my presentation, my display board and
table, my outfit, etc. were first class so as to represent the Lord as well as
I could. Early on my mother gave me a
small framed quote that says, “To be God's Ambassador is the greatest honor." I still have it, and it is a great reminder
to me of the importance of my job and to try to do my best. Although it was
always my intention for everything to be just perfect so as to make a good
impression on the pastors of the churches I was visiting, sometimes I failed
miserably. Here is a case in point:
I was less than an hour away when I was forced to take a backwoods
detour due to a rock slide. I followed
the detour exactly, but when I came back onto what I guess would be considered
the main road, nothing on my sheet of instructions was matching what I was
seeing. I had to find a pay phone and try to explain to the pastor where I was,
get a new set of directions, and apologize that I would be arriving late for
dinner. Believe it or not, there was
another rock slide and a second backwoods detour. You guessed it, I had to find a payphone
again and call the pastor to try to tell him where I was now, ask for more
directions, and apologize that I would be even later. Somewhere after this point I got completely
lost and all the red barns and black horse fences seemed to run together, and I
had no idea where I was. I refused to
call the pastor a third time lest he think I was a silly girl and wonder how I
was ever going to find my way to Africa if I couldn’t even find my way to his
house.
I soon came upon a gas
station, pulled in, quickly hopped out leaving the car running, and asked for
directions. When I finally felt I knew
which way to go, I went back to the car and much to my surprise found the
driver’s side door had locked itself. The gas station had no tools to help me open my door and instead called for
the police to come and help me. A
policeman arrived and forty-five minutes later my door was open…not by the
policeman, mind you. He got his SlimJim stuck in my car door and had to call a
local mechanic to come. The mechanic,
who I’m sure was not pleased about having to work once his weekend had already started,
took his good old time to get there but eventually arrived and rescued both of
us. Somewhere along the line while we
were waiting, my gas ran out. After buying
some gas I set off again in hopes that I would soon arrive at my destination.
As I wound up and around the hillsides I
finally saw the church, and turned to go up the long, steep driveway that would
lead me to the parsonage that sat quite a bit further up on the mountain. There wasn’t much room for cars and I was
forced to park on a bit of uneven ground that left my car sitting at an incline
and leaning to the right. It was now
past dinner time and I was quite late. Once inside, they told me that the electricity had just gone off but
that the food was ready, as I’m sure it had been for some time. The pastor and
his wife and I ate dinner and sat around chatting by candlelight until the
power finally came back on at eleven o’clock that night.
It was then that I went to prepare my things
for the next morning and realized I hadn’t transferred my dress shoes from my
car to my father’s car. I about died. How could I possibly wear my white tennis shoes with my outfit, which by
the way was a double-breasted suit complete with football shoulder pads and a
silk scarf draped over one shoulder. Don’t forget it was the early 90’s. Timidly and with great embarrassment I knocked
on their bedroom door and told the pastor’s wife my predicament. Thank goodness she had a friend in the church
who wore the same size shoe as I did and was willing to loan me a pair of
beautiful shoes that happened to match my suit.
The morning service went well and we had a great lunch together at the
parsonage. I felt that whatever thoughts
the pastor might have had about me being a silly school girl from the night
before, I had been able to change. That
was until I went to leave. Because the
church was so close to where they lived, it was their habit to walk to the
services. I ended up walking with them
and left my car where I had parked it the night before. That afternoon when I opened the door for the
pastor to help me put my things inside, we were both bowled over by the smell
of lilacs. It was so strong. I couldn’t
figure out why in the world the car smelled like that, but I knew my dad would
not be pleased. Then I saw it, wax all
over the dashboard, and I knew what had happened.
As I had been travelling the day before I
thought I’d be clever and put a small Yankee Candle, which were new and all the
rage at the time, on the dashboard. As I drove the warm sun caused it to give
off a faint smell, but now after sitting through the heat of the day, it had
completely melted. Because my car was
sitting on an incline, the wax ran down the dashboard in strips towards the
steering wheel and all down the front and back vents. I just grabbed the stuff from the pastor,
said thanks for everything quickly, and took off. I didn’t want him to know what was causing
the smell lest he think I was an idiot. I was eventually able to get the wax
off the dashboard, but since there was no way to clean inside the vents, I’m
afraid it smelled like lilacs for quite some time any time the air conditioner
or heaters were turned on.
Nothing more tragic happened that day or at least I
didn’t record anything else tragic happening in my journal. I have absolutely
no idea what shoes I wore at the next church I went to that evening or if anybody
noticed that I smelled like the inside of a toilet bowl by the time I
arrived, but in the end, both of the churches
took me on for support. My journal entry
started out with “Woe is me!! What a trip.” and ended with “God sure can make
sense out of all my confusion.”
Study: Perfection is Overrated
In
today’s day and age when perfection is thrown at us from every corner, it is
easy for us to let what we "think" our inadequacies are keep us from doing all
that we could for the cause of Christ.
I
think this mentality starts when we are young and focused mostly on
ourselves. Many teenagers make these
kinds of statements:
If
only I was tall it would be perfect.
If
only I was pretty…
If
only I was sporty…
If
only I was creative…
If
only I was popular…
This
kind of mentality that focuses on self and some idealistic form of perfection
has pride as its base. It is easy for us
to recognize this as faulty thinking, however it often carries into our adult
thinking as well. I don’t know about
you, but one of my biggest hindrances to stepping out and trying to accomplish
anything for God is wanting to make sure that I have the ability to do it, that
all my ducks are in a row, and that everything will turn out perfectly. How many times have you said to yourself
something like this:
If
only I was older I could do _______________ for God.
If
only I was younger…
If
only I was married…
If
only I was single…
If
only I didn’t have children…
If
only I had children…
If
only I was not afraid to live in a foreign country…
If
only I didn’t have to learn another language…
If
only I didn’t have this debilitating disease…
If
only I was financially free…
If
only I was more outgoing…
Often
we tend to look at ourselves, our abilities, our character traits, our
limitations, our location, etc. and decide what God can and cannot do with
us. We put our own limitations on
God.
The
list of these limitations can go on and on, and even those of us who have been
in the ministry for many years can fall into this trap when the Lord is
speaking to our hearts about some work He has for us to do.
Whenever
I find myself succumbing to the thought, “If only I…” and being tempted to put
off doing something I know God has asked me to do, I remind myself of these four things:
1.
God made me as I am, at this time, and wants to use me now.
Jeremiah
1:5 “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest
forth
out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the
nations.”
2. I will never be perfect until I get to
heaven, and if I wait until then it will be too late
to do anything for God.
I
Corinthians 1:27 “But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to
confound the
wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound
the things which are
mighty.”
3. It is not a matter of me being the most talented,
the most accomplished, the most
eloquent, or the one with the most abilities to
accomplish what God is asking me
to do.
It is a matter of my willingness to do it.
II
Corinthians 8:12 “For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted
according to that a
man hath, and not according to that he hath not.”
4. I have more power to do the will of God when
I don’t trust in my own talents and
abilities and instead rest in His.
II
Corinthians 12:9 “And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my
strength is
made perfect in weakness.
Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that
the
power of Christ may rest upon me.”
About Shari:
I’m single. I’m 45. I’m tall. I like the color red, flying kites, and Peanut Butter M & M’s. I love playing squash, scrapbooking, and playing games. I enjoy being a little “cheeky,” and I love a good Kakuro puzzle. This is starting to sound like a dating ad, and I am not looking. No really, I’m not looking.
I’m just a girl who dreams of doing something great for the Lord with her life. I’ve had a few extraordinary days in my years of being a missionary, but mostly life is filled with ordinary days and mundane tasks and the desire to remain faithful where the Lord has placed me until He calls me home...heaven that is, not America...or maybe New Zealand if I happen to be in Thailand...or Thailand if I happen to be in America....real-life missionary struggles - where exactly is home?
I’ve been a missionary for the past 22 years. I served in Nigeria, West Africa for 2+ years, New Zealand for 10+ years, and now in Thailand for almost 8 years. And, yes, if you do add up those numbers they don’t add up to 22, but I always include my year and a half of deputation in my total number. (Why on earth people don’t claim their deputation time as part of their missionary ministry is beyond me. I surely wasn’t driving all over the country for my own health and pleasure. I was doing mission work, promoting the work of missions, raising awareness, challenging others, etc., and so I count it!)
Anyway, I love the Lord, and I love that He allows me to use my life for His service. I count it a privilege and a challenge daily.
If you’d like to know more about me or my ministry, please visit my website.
I'd love to hear about your story, too. Feel free to leave a comment, or friend me on Facebook, or visit me in Thailand. I have a great guest room. :)
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*Disclaimer:
I have chosen to highlight the life of these ladies because of what they have accomplished for the Lord not because I agree with their doctrinal beliefs. As with all study of man, our focus should be on the character traits they bestowed in their lives that allowed the Lord to use them, how the Lord used them, the methods of ministry they incorporated that allowed them to be effective, etc. We do not study man to get our doctrine. Our doctrinal beliefs should only come from the Bible. To that end you may find you don’t agree with the doctrine of a particular person that I write about, but I believe there is still much wisdom we can gain from studying their lives.
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* This is a general picture of a lady doing zenana missionary work with Hindu ladies. The lady's name is not known.
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Resources & Book List:
Rosalie
MacGeorge : Pioneer Missionary, By Margaret McClure; New Zealand Baptist
Historical Society.
[Auckland, N.Z.] : [N.Z. Baptist
Historical Society], [1989]
http://www.globalinteraction.org.au/globalinteraction/media/documents/Moved/Extras%20Others/Gooden-Five-barley-loaves.pdf
http://www.baptist.org.nz/uploads/PDFs/Intranet/Ministers%20Registration/Who%20Are%20the%20Baptists.pdf (Page 39)
3 comments:
Great post!
Again, wonderful! I had heard of the Zenana missionaries but never knew anything about them. How interesting! I especially loved your "Im not perfect" applications and verses. Thank you!!!
Love this!!
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