“You no longer want Jesus only, but Jesus plus…” These words of rebuke from the Lord were impressed on Helen Roseveare’s heart as she prepared to leave her lifelong mission work in the Congo and Zaire behind and return to the United Kingdom for health reasons. God’s message to Helen continued; “Either it must be ‘Jesus only’ or you’ll find you have no Jesus. You’ll substitute Helen Roseveare.”
These sobering words from the Lord she had grown to love and faithfully served kept her focused on the Lord the remainer of her days.
A Call to Missions
Helen Roseveare was born in Hertfordshire, England in 1925. Her family attended a high Anglican church, where a Sunday School teacher taught the class about India. At a young age, Helen made a commitment to one day become a missionary.
Though the church gave her a good theological foundation, Helen felt distant from God. All she knew had not yet transformed her heart. When she went off to college, she was invited to join the Cambridge Inter-Collegiate Christian Union where she began attending Bible studies and prayer meetings. Her understanding of the Bible grew, but she still sensed a void in her life.
But in 1945, everything changed. God unveiled her spiritual eyes at a student retreat and she gave her life to Christ. When she gave her testimony on the final night, Bible teacher Graham Scroggie wrote Philippians 3:10 and these prophetic words in her new Bible:
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.”
It was not long after that Helen told God she would go anywhere He wanted her to go and pay any cost He asked her to pay. And God heard her prayer.
She graduate from Cambridge with a doctorate in medicine then went on to prepare for medical missions. She arrived in the Congo (the area was later known as Zaire) in 1953. She was just 28 years old. While there, she founded a training school for nurses, a 100 bed hospital, a training school for paramedics and 48 rural clinics.
In 1960, the Congo became independent of Belgium. Four years later, civil war broke out. All the medical facilities Helen and the other Protestant missionaries had established were destroyed. First, the ten missionaries were put under house arrest. Later, they were imprisoned. When Helen tried to escape, she was recaptured and brutally beaten. Worse yet, she was violently raped. On this dreadful night, Helen felt God had, at last, failed her. He could have delivered her from this terrible trial, but didn’t.
In the quiet darkness, she sensed God reminding her, “You asked Me, when you were first converted, for the privilege of being a missionary. This is it. . . These are not your sufferings. They’re Mine. All I ask of you is the loan of your body.” The words penned in her Bible, years before, were playing out. She was fellowshipping in Christ’s sufferings.
With time and healing, Helen looked back and recognized God was always with her. She began to see her suffering for Christ as a great privilege, much like the apostles in the early church:
“So they (the apostles) went on their way from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His Name.” (Acts 5:41)
The privilege of suffering became a theme that shaped her life and work.
In 1966, Helen moved her work to a new area and established a 250-bed hospital with a maternity ward, leprosy center and training college for doctors. She faced many trials there, as well—trials of a different nature. It was here she began longing for recognition for all her achievements. And it was here God confronted her with her need to long for Jesus only.
Helen returned settled in Northern Ireland in 1973, her body worn from years of faithful service. She traveled as a speaker, wrote several books and acted as an advocate for missionaries still working on the front lines. She joined her Savior in her forever home in 2016. She was 91 years old. But she left behind these words to spur us all on to do great, sometimes difficult, things for our Lord.
“God never uses a person greatly until He has wounded him deeply.
The privilege He offers you is greater than the price you have to pay.
The privilege is greater than the price.” —Helen Roseveare
You can read more about Helen Roseveare’s life and ministry at: A Woman of Whom the World Was Not Worthy: Helen Roseveare (1925-2016)
