I often say if it was not for my wife Gisela, I don’t think I would be doing what I am doing. I do not know very many individuals in my life journey who have so deliberately embraced the place of being a strength in the background as she has. She is absolutely incredible.
If you come to our GFA World headquarters in the United States, or visit while she is on the field, you will hardly ever even know where she is. She has the greatest difficulty in asking anyone to do something for her. A typical wife of a leader can sometimes operate like the boss. But if you ask any of my senior leaders how she behaves around them, they will tell you of her deep and sincere walk with Christ. She knows God intimately.
I may be the one who is internationally known, but the real backbone of the ministry is Gisela’s commitment. She helps to keep me on the right path and is willing to a say a hard word when necessary. I was ready to leave the ministry so many times in the early days, full of discouragement and disillusionment, but her persistence and encouragement has sustained me. She is such an incredible blessing.
As the world remembers International Women’s Day this week, it is, according to the United Nations, a time to “celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women who have played an extraordinary role in the history of their countries and communities.”
Throughout history, the Lord has used ordinary women to accomplish His remarkable purposes and further the work of His Kingdom. Just think of Esther who risked her own life to bring salvation to her people. Or Deborah, the incredible prophet of Israel who was used to help bring deliverance to the Lord’s chosen people. Or of course, Mary, the mother of Jesus, who found favor in the sight of God and was used by Him to bring our Savior into the world.
What these women had in common was a willingness to be used by God. The Lord takes ordinary things and people and does supernatural things through them. He is simply looking for those who are available to be used.
I want to share about another one of these ordinary women, a GFA-supported worker named Ruth. Before Ruth was born, her parents already had three daughters and were desperate for a son. In their minds, girls were a drain on their limited resources. For each daughter they had, they would have to somehow come up with a large amount money for dowry in order to get her married off. A son, on the other hand, would be security for them, supporting them financially as they grew older.
When this couple’s fourth child was yet another girl, Ruth’s father was furious. He wanted nothing to do with Ruth. He forced her to work in the fields from the age of five and wouldn’t even allow her to eat in the same room as him. This rejection and hate were all Ruth knew from her father.
One day, she met some GFA-supported workers. These women saw the condition she was living in and began to encourage her and care for her. This was the first time she had ever experienced this kind of love from anyone.
In time, she came to understand that God loved her, too, and she found hope and purpose for her life.
Within a couple years, she joined a Bible college so she could offer this hope to others, as well. To her surprise, while she was away studying, her father had a change of heart. When she returned home for a visit, instead of pushing her away, he embraced her for the very first time.
Today, Ruth is a vibrant woman full of joy who is passionate about ministering to others. What an amazing transformation! Here is someone who could have spent her whole life downtrodden or bitter about the life she’d been given. But because a few women simply showed her that they cared, she is now making a difference in many other lives.
My mother is another example of a woman the Lord chose to use to impact lives in a way she never could have imagined. My memory of her is this little village woman who never went to college, never studied philosophy or psychology, ate with her hand, and deeply loved Jesus. Her life’s verse was Psalm 73:25, “Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You.”
Early each morning she would wake up at 4:00 a.m., read her Bible, pray and then wake up the rest of family for family prayer. During the day, she would go from house to house, visiting each family in my village to tell people about Jesus. She was a very quiet, gentle woman.
All her life, her heart’s cry was to see one of her six sons go into full-time ministry. Yet one by one, it seemed each of her children were destined for secular work. All my older brothers seemed content to live and work around our village of Niranam in Kerala, India.
One day, she cried out, “O God, let just one of my boys preach!” Like Hannah and so many other saintly mothers in the Bible, she had dedicated her children to the Lord. That morning, while preparing breakfast, she vowed to fast secretly until God called one of her sons into His service. Every Friday for the next three-and-a-half years, she fasted. Her prayer was always the same.
But nothing happened. Finally, only I, scrawny and little—the baby of the family—was left. There seemed little chance I would preach. I was comfortable on the edge of village and family life, moving in and out of the scene almost unnoticed.
Then, when I was 16, my mother’s prayers were answered. A visiting team came to our village to present the challenge of faraway North India. As they explained the desperate need of the subcontinent, I felt a strange sorrow for them. That day I promised to help bring the love of Jesus Christ to those mysterious states to the North. At the challenge to “forsake all and follow Christ,” I somewhat rashly took the leap, agreeing to join the student group for a short summer team ministering in needy parts of North India.
My decision to go into the ministry largely resulted from my mother’s faithful prayers.
In 1990, I was on the way to South Africa to speak at a conference when I heard my mother was sick in the hospital at the age of 84. I cancelled my trip and immediately went to stay by her side. A few days later, my mother died.
The following week, my brothers and I got together to talk about my mother and settle a few of her affairs. During our conversation, one of my brothers asked, “How much money did our mother leave in the bank?” We all knew she had plenty of money given to her by all her sons, so we imagined there must be large amount in the bank since she never really spent much as far as we knew.
My oldest brother pulled out an old, worn, little diary. He said, “I found this under the pillow of our mother’s bed.” As he looked through the pages he told us, “It looks like there is no money left in the bank—nothing at all.”
Surprised, one of my other brothers asked, “What happened to all the money?”
He responded, “Well, in this book she lists dozens of names of young people who went to the mission field, some of the others are in Bible school. And next to their names, she wrote Rs. 100, Rs. 200, Rs. 500.”
Every month, quietly, without telling anyone, my mother was sending all her resources to workers on the mission field. I started to weep. At that moment, I was struck with a memory of this time when I came back from America, and I saw my mother wearing a torn blouse with hand-stitched patches on it. I was angry. I responded in the flesh. I said, “Mother, what is wrong with you? Don’t you have any feeling for your sons? You are bringing shame upon our head by wearing this old thing!” I was really upset, thinking people would assume her sons were not taking care of her.
After my speech, my mother simply smiled and said, “You little child, you don’t understand nothing. Someday you will understand.” At the time, that made me even more angry. But then as I sat there with my brothers, I just said, “Mother, now I understand.”
My mother didn’t know all the great teachings and theology like we do, but she knew Jesus. She had such love and affection for Him! God found the widest door in her heart to say, “My child, weep with Me, ache with Me, feel with Me for the multitudes that do not know Me.”
That same afternoon with my brothers, my oldest brother started crying as he discovered the last wish of our mother. He read to us her words, “When I am dead and gone, the only thing I leave behind is my wedding ring, my earrings and the gold chain my husband gave me the day he married me. I want you to sell these, these gold items and take the money and give it to someone to share the love of Christ where they never heard His name. I want to meet them in Heaven.”
All her life, my mother never ventured outside her own village, yet because of her love and faithfulness to the Lord, her life resulted in millions around the world being impacted.
Today, GFA-supported women are ministering and impacting other women on the subcontinent in so many ways. They are ordinary women doing their part to change the world around them. They offer literacy and healthcare classes, organize vocational training so women can help support their families and help parents see the importance of education for both boys and girls.
God is calling each of us to come and follow Him, to be His hands and feet to the world. He is calling the women and the men, the young and the old, the rich and the poor to forsake everything and follow Him. I was only sixteen when the Lord called me. If your heart is turned toward God, there are no limitations on how He can use you. Since the beginning of time, God has called ordinary women to do the most amazing things. That is His way.
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Comment below and/or share about ordinary women that you’ve seen God use in extraordinary ways.
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Ever thought of serving with a mission organization? Consider joining staff at Gospel for Asia.
Gospel for Asia’s Home Team Staff: The world bombards us continuously to live for ourselves and for the pleasures of this life. GFA’s Home Team Staff plays an important role in lifting the eyes of believers to see a world that is in desperate need of Christ’s love.
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