Dr Helen Roseveare

can you tell us a little bit about yourself for example your name would be good where you live and what you do my name is Helen Rose beer it's a Cornish name over here I'm the only rose fear down in Cornwall about 200 recipes and has brought up in Cornwall and in South England enormous of the family and lots of sisters one brother and we we went to church as children but it didn't mean anything to me and I wasn't very interested in it then I went to a Church of England School where we no more interested then then as a teenager I began to think there must be more to life than what I understood it then and I went to a summer camp really run by a strange group of people but they were there were mission reminding people and there I really did make a commitment the Lord and under guidance by the leader there I really didn't kneel and pray that hymn written take my life and let it be consecrated Lord me and with all my heart at that time I really meant I wanted then on to live for Jesus when you prayed those words and if as you thought about those words did you consider and how much might be involved in serving Christ and on the cost that might be involved no I don't think I thought about that at all at that stage in fact it wasn't till suddenly two three years later that I actually realized that what Jesus had done for me and dying for me on the cross I didn't become a Christian at that time I just knew I wanted to serve God and so the nature was God brought it to himself and told me Jesus had died for me and then I really began to put into practice with a song in that him that I wanted to serve him and him only but I don't have any idea of what cost meant thank you you studied medicine at University and and you it said in your book and it gave me this mountain that you'd planned out in your mind that you would be a missionary and while universally can you remember and any costs of serving Christ or following Christ not really no I know that him I became a Christian in my first year at university and that was just wonderful I suddenly had friends and it was tremendous to get into a Christian group and to learn Christian hymns and that's why I started reading the Bible and I sometimes say I really I fell in love with Jesus and it was I didn't really think about cost in those days okay there were people who ignored us and there are other people who Jesus though if you who thought we were mad but in methods I loved the Lord Jesus and there I would have done anything for him well em after university some might say that you were mad but you went the Congo as a missionary in 1953 and in 1953 it strikes us that we've been harder to get the Congo that would be today and can you tell us about about how you got there yes I went to visibly training school six months then I had to go to Belgium and retake my degree in French which I didn't know any French had to learn French first and do that and then after packing up we sailed by ship all down through the Mediterranean down the Red Sea and round to the east coast of Africa then we got onto a small gauge railway track which took us up to Nairobi and Kampala and then we had to get into quite different type of trance when I got onto an ox cart with all my bits pieces of luggage and then we eventually got to the lakes in central Africa we got onto a lake steamer and so it went on and it took us a long trip we left it was about five weeks to get to where you can now you can get there now in two days just flying when you left England and for an unknowing life in the Congo did you feel that you were paying a big cost for serving God not really at that time I began to understand that later you know I was in my twenties it was exciting as going out to a new life and I did love the Lord Jesus and it was such a privileges owes to me in such an amazing privilege but God would actually let us serve Him and I'd look for this for so long that going out there was just it was exciting and it's just a new life so I didn't really think in terms of cost particularly I was challenged by gotta learn new language I got to learn a new type of lifestyle I gotta learn new type of food but was all exciting initially well you talk you talk about it being exciting now in your book you talk about some very good times in Congo could you maybe give us an idea of some of your fondest memories of the people there I love them but one of the things about Africans is back here in UK if you want to make a new friend with someone spend time then you get to know them when you decide whether you do or don't like them then you decide with you will or be their friend in Africa they don't do that they just because I had gone out to tell them of Jesus but just read they just loved me without bothering to get to know me first and that was wonderful and then they go on loving you even when they do get to know you but their love was very very real and they worked with you we with nothing then I got out there had to start by building a hospital I had no idea about building than anybody else had had to learn how you make bricks burn bricks put bricks on bricks and then there was no one else to work with so instead of being a junior doctor with lots and lots of seniors over you certainly I was the senior consultant of everything and they have a very terrifying read which was funny it was overwhelming because you had this name doctor so everybody thinks you know everything that's what dr. Samantha now and you just know you don't and the load of work minutes we used to say I know it's a joke we say we worked 25 hours a day eight days a week fifty three weeks of the year that they'd never stopped day or night it never stopped and the burden of responsibility was never easy but there was always a group of Africans who supported me were with me helped me and encouraged me and they that was Marla's ood you just and into an entirely new life who lived as an African alongside of Africans and the joy of training Africans to do the medical work alongside me there was a terrific challenge and I enjoyed it I enjoyed writing the courses in teaching thank you and your book also talks about some very hard times it mentions different things about illness you know talks about rebel armies and captivity talks about beatings can you give us a brief outline of some of the costs that you have to pay for serving God in common I think initially I would say that finishes as a doctor when a patient came to me and I knew what was wrong and I knew what I should do but we didn't have the particular medicine that we needed or I didn't have the particular instrument for doing the operation the frustration of patients who died who wouldn't have died if they'd been back in the UK and there were those frustrations there were the difficulty of language trying to train Africans not only to do medical work but also to know the Bible and love the Lord Jesus but I was in another language which friends the word grace when you tried to talk about the grace of God but there was no word grace in the Swahili language we had to make a word up and then I teach them what it meant there were those sort of things that were difficult there were the tremendous problems of weather downpours every single day always rain and then in between the rain its sunshine and it steamed so everything's all wet you close doors down shoes were was damp and getting used to that type of living and then as you say there was a civil war after independence was granted to what used to be the Belgian Congo became Congo today is the Democratic Republic of Congo but after independence there are a lot of difficulties the African government people didn't want any pale skinned person in charge of anything but there weren't any African doctors at that time at all so it was difficult to work under the leadership of an African who wasn't trained design was and there was those things and then after four years of that there was a civil war and that was very very vicious and for five months rebel soldiers in our area fighting against the government and we were taken captive and team I was held under rebel soldiers for five months and that was very savage who have savagely beaten up on several occasions we were abused and it wasn't easy to live through that and yet even in the middle of that I suppose it was one evening and I've taken captive during the night and possibly is the first white woman to be taken captive opponent only being the men they fought against and you take a deep breath new I think in the middle of that night I felt God had left me I just feel he wasn't there I want to cry out God where are you what's happened why are you letting this happen and then in the middle of it all it was this amazing I can't explain what it was it wasn't a vision I didn't need a voice I just knew God was there and he was big and he was able to handle the situation he hadn't left me and it was as though he spoke to me he said 20 years ago you asked me for the privilege of being a missionary this is it don't you want it and really in the middle of that night I think I wanted to say no I don't want it none of it means this and he just said really very lovingly he said you know they're not beating you they're beating me in all I ask of you is the learn of your body would you allow me and suddenly there's this amazing sense of privilege that God was actually asking me to do something for him instead of him doing things for me and the suddenly sense of privilege all right Lord yes and suddenly even in the midst of all the hurt and the pain there was suddenly tremendous peace in my heart and it was wonderful and in that moment I think all my life ever since I was a kid I used to ask is it worth it any other ask though is it worth it and I thought I have to learn locked in for GCSEs I said what on earth thoughts a dead language is it worth it and then I was told you won't get university if you haven't got Latin so it's worth it's an idea did those horses and in that night I think God said to me instead of saying is it worth it Malou say instead is he worthy in English it sounds almost the same is it worth it is he worthy if you always ask is it worth it you'll come today we'll say no you'll say the costs too high you're not prepared paid did you say is he worthy you'll always say yes and instead of seeing the cost you'll see the privilege that what he is giving you as the privilege of serving him thank you you've already touched on and what the the motto of the mission that you were in Congo with was if Jesus be God and died for me there no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for him and looking back on the suffering injured in Congo can you still say that's true yes absolutely he's so worthy he's so wonderful he never fails you he never let you down he may lead to get into a difficult situation but he's there with you in it and and he has a purpose I think to realize that he always has a purpose once you've given your life to him to serve him you'll never fail you but he has a purpose which you can't always see you can't always understand but just trust him and keep on keeping on and he'll never fail you and that's what I was going to ask you about there's lots of young people across thanks camps and they're having to think today about the cost of serving in a Christ and they make this persecution and they may face and difficulties what advice would you give them for keeping on and keep walking with God and living out their their Christian faith when you start out on the Christian life just fall in love with Jesus and make that your biggest love in your life read the Bible get to know Jesus better pray be with Christian people go to where you learn more about Jesus that your love for him grows and grows and grows and if you love Jesus that you won't think in terms what it costs you'll just know it's a privilege to serve Him he is worthy of anything you can give him he died for you he paid the ultimate cost he's not asking you to die for him he's asked me to serve him and he's worthy of your service and I think the verse of scripture that I learned that really carried me through it where he Paul says that will God spoke to Paul and said my grace is sufficient for you and it is it's not my grace will be sufficient it's not my grace was sufficient it's all present tense whatever comes doesn't matter whether you're in primary school secondary school University or where you are in life God says you my grace is sufficient for you today take it believe it and live it out guys each one of you thank you very much

Channel: St Elizabeth's Church, Dundonald

Views: 11,130

Rating: 4.8978724 out of 5

Keywords: Helen Roseveare, St Elizabeth's

Id: R2sYsThg5ZE

Length: 14min 32sec (872 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 07 2016