Book review
In her book, Faithful Women and Their Extraordinary God, Noël Piper beautifully describes how five women faithfully served God and followed the calling He placed on their lives. Sarah Edwards, Lilias Trotter, Gladys Aylward, Esther Ahn Kim, and Helen Roseveare all lived incredibly different lives. But Piper highlights to us the one thing that brings them together – ‘they had an extraordinary God who enabled them to do extraordinary things’.
Piper’s introduction to this book explains how these women, though they mainly didn’t know each other, passed the baton of faithfulness and service to God onto one another. And now Helen Roseveare, who passed away only a few years ago, is passing the baton onto us.
Each of these stories inspired Piper and in turn have inspired me to think about God’s calling on my life. In her re-telling of Lilias Trotter’s story, who is one of our founding members, Piper asked herself these questions:
Could you prayerfully ask these questions of yourself too and see where it takes you?
While some of the details of each of these women’s stories were sometimes unclear, Piper clearly shows us the cost of following God’s call on their lives. God never promised us that following Him would be easy, in fact He says that it will have great earthly cost.
In Lilias Trotter’s life we can see that she gave herself completely to the work the Lord had called her to, at the expense of becoming a world-renowned artist. To earthly eyes it seemed preposterous that she would give up a life of fame to proclaim the gospel in Algeria. But God blessed her for her faithful service to Him.
In some ways her journey was similar to many who have heard the call – the soft, yet persistent whispers they’ve heard just as Lilias heard ‘North Africa’ each time she prayed.
Are you hearing God’s call to mission through these soft
and gentle whispers? If so, contact Dan, Mission Mobiliser,
on danw@awm-pioneers.org to start your journey to mission
in the Arab world.
