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When I was a student I was really blessed by being a financial supporter of a worker. I benefitted from hearing about what the Lord was doing, by visiting them, by hearing back from them and hearing their news.
It goes back to when I was a fairly new believer, I came to faith in my first year at university. I’d had various church contacts growing up, but I didn’t really know what a missionary was. The whole thing was new to me. My church was pretty good at reporting on their different workers, through a board and updates. And then some mission workers, Ed* and Philippa*, who were with AWM came back on home leave and spoke at a church meeting. It was fascinating. I really moved from thinking that my faith was just a personal matter, to realising that the truth is the truth and everyone needs to know. At the time I didn’t think going was for me, but it sounded like a great thing. I thought I probably should have some people that I prayed for regularly – and Ed and Philippa just happened to be the first ones back.
I had a chat with Ed and Philippa which was really encouraging and interesting, and I started going along to a prayer meeting for them. I felt like I needed help in praying for the work overseas. I found it encouraging to hear and have my eyes opened to what the Lord is doing in the world, but also, as a new believer, to hear faithful people praying. I learned so much from their prayers and their faith, their attitude, their care. It was a really important part of my growth to have that prayer meeting in the diary and to pray for the work. Slowly the Lord was working in my heart, so I began to think that maybe He did want me to go. I also remember my relationship with Ed and Philippa as I went to visit them as a junior doctor and got to see things for myself; to tag along and see the work and what life was like overseas. I remember talking to Philippa and she told me that the sending agency is absolutely key, so choose that first.
My husband Mark* and I met at a conference having both been on
short-term trips. We wanted to go overseas and both felt called to the Muslim world. We were open to going, but did not know where we wanted to go. We spoke with Ed and Philippa to hear what they thought, chose the agency, and just followed the open doors from there. It was 14-15 years from first encountering AWM to getting to the field nine years ago.
As students we were told that with a medical degree, you could virtually go anywhere in the world. But as time went on, we realised lots of countries don’t want doctors, but want people with skills in IT or teaching or anything else. But the Lord knows what He’s doing. We heard about a place where you could actually do clinical medicine and went there on a vision trip. At the time getting a visa was fairly easy – not now – and we were amazed at the opportunities to share. I think it was the nature of the hospital and the commitment to sharing and prayerfulness that made us think that this was the place. Even now, if people in the street ask me what we’re doing here, it’s easy to say, ‘My husband works at the hospital’, and then that’s just fine; that box is ticked, and you can talk to them.
Having both been short term, we had some people who already received letters and prayed for us, so that was helpful. One couple, friends I’d had from university, had recently helped another family in their support raising, and they offered to host meetings for us. They committed to pray for us and keep us accountable, and ask, ‘how many people have you spoken to? And what’s the Lord doing?’ And it was really good.
We were also given a book to read and work through. We learnt that we needed to make the bold step of asking people if they might be interested in partnering financially – which, to be honest, we really weren’t that enthusiastic about. But, in His mercy the Lord was moving in people so that often we didn’t need to ask, they just offered; or that when we asked they had already been thinking about it anyway, so the conversation was not at all awkward. It was a real encouragement to see how every step of getting us to the field was the Lord’s work, and it was also confirmation to us that He really wanted us to go.
In recent years, we’ve become less good at keeping in touch with people, but people are still faithful and giving, even people that we don’t hear from or with whom we overlapped for a short time in church or met in a church that we were visiting. They’re all on board. It’s great that the Lord’s plan to move people overseas, or even cross culturally within the same country, involves a network of people from a range of walks of life. The last time we were in the UK we really wanted to meet personally with more people, but COVID made it hard to do anything. So we arranged supporter catch-ups on Zoom. One of the real blessings from that was to see on screen a bunch of people we’ve met in different ways who probably haven’t met each other. We took just a little bit of time at the start of every meeting to ask everyone to share where they knew us from. And so there was a real encouragement in seeing how the Lord was at work, bringing these people together.
It’s really prayer and people’s giving that keeps us here – we’re aware that both of those things are needed to keep us on the field.
Thank you! We know we’re really reliant on prayer partners. It’s a real encouragement for us to know that we’re prayed for, but also that the Lord answers those prayers. It’s really prayer and people’s giving that keeps us here – we’re aware that both of those things are needed to keep us on the field. We’re frequently reminded of the Lord’s provision, and it’s a real testimony to share with our children as we seek to bring them up, aware that we have this kind of slightly unconventional lifestyle in various ways.
I was thinking that I see myself, at the moment, more of a supporter than a doer. Between the house and the children and taking kids to school, there’s not really much time or capacity for me to do anything. Mark’s days at the clinic are really long; they’re really busy. He works lots of weekends. For a few weeks, I did some Bible studies in English with a patient who couldn’t speak Arabic, but generally my role is looking after family and trying to support the hospital community. It’s by our love for one another that they see the Lord. So I’m trying to support Mark in his role. My role at the moment is supporting and praying. We see God answering prayers all the time. The outcome is not always what we expect, but we know that God’s ways are wisest – and He really does know what He’s doing.
It’s really encouraging when people take time to write to us, even just a few sentences, to hear that they’re praying for us, and sometimes people offer medical advice. We’re isolated here, with some really sick patients, and sometimes, the Lord has actually provided unbelieving doctors who will offer opinions, and sometimes our friends are helping out and answering our questions, or helping out in practical ways – such as with a package of baby clothes – when we’ve been in the UK. And it is also about sharing skills, people have all kinds of skills and we can share them from a distance, be that IT or professional opinions or whatever. So I think it’s also important for supporters to remain open to being a channel that the Lord can use to unexpectedly bless a worker overseas.
When I was a student I was really blessed by being a financial supporter of a worker. I benefitted from hearing about what the Lord was doing, by visiting them, by hearing back from them and hearing their news. It might be a step of faith for people. It often feels hard to ask people to give but you are really extending an invitation for them to ask the Lord if they should give. He will provide and He always blesses us more than we can imagine. But it’s not all about money; it’s about people giving their time and their hearts in prayer as well.
*Names changed to protect identities.
