Suffering for Jesus is a privilege, says veteran missionary

There is no cost in following Jesus, only privilege, says a long-time missionary who once nearly lost her life for the Gospel in the Congo.

Helen Roseveare joined WEC International missionary society in 1952 and went on to serve in the then Belgian Congo for 20 years.

She was asked at this year’s Keswick Convention whether following Jesus had been worth it.

Her answer was not only that it had been worth it, but that it had all been a privilege.

Such an answer would suggest an easy path with few burdens but Roseveare was once arrested by the Congolese authorities, stripped and forced to cut grass before jeering onlookers.

Later, her life was on the line when she was captured by rebel soldiers.

When she was captured, Roseveare admitted she did expect she would die and cried out to God. Rather than showing her the way out, Jesus showed her how to embrace the situation with thanksgiving.

“The Lord met me,” she recalled.

“I I just knew that He was there, He was in charge. He whispered to me 'Can you thank Me for trusting you with the situation?' That was amazing. I had always thought of me trusting Him but this was Him trusting me.

“In saying that, He was really saying: 'Yes, I could have prevented this. I could have stopped it happening, but I, the Almighty God, have a purpose bigger than you can see. I know where this is going to lead to, you don't.

“Can you thank Me for trusting you with this situation, even if I never tell you why?'"

Despite her fear, Roseveare told of how she was able to say ‘thank you’ to God even in that place of despair.

“In that moment of saying ‘thank you’, immediately I was filled with a tremendous sense and understanding of the peace of God.

“Once you thank God, you can’t have any bitterness towards Him. You can’t reject Him.

"And then He seemed to say, ‘Instead of asking is it worth it, and looking at the price you have to pay, would you ask instead: ‘Am I worthy?’ And of course He is worthy.”

Roseveare recalled how she had only been a Christian for half an hour when someone told her that being a Christian would probably involve suffering.

She affirms that statement, saying that Christians should be willing to bear a cross in their lives.

In spite of some harrowing experiences, Roseveare still knows only praise and thanksgiving.

“It is over sixty years since I first came to know the Lord Jesus as my Saviour and in all that time, He has never failed me. He has never let me down.”

She continued: “We talk about counting the cost, but there isn’t really a cost. It is sheer privilege to follow the Master.

“If He indwells me, I have got to go wherever He wants me to go. And that will involve suffering.”

What gave her the courage to suffer for the Lord was knowing what He had done for her.

“He suffered for me: am I willing to suffer for Him? The word privilege has underlined everything for me, and it is all privilege.”