Adventures with God

From an early age Muriel Butcher wanted to be a missionary – the question was where, and when?

An ideal preparation

The support and guidance of her local church pastor in Bournemouth was instrumental in helping Muriel complete a New Testament correspondence course through London Bible College. It became clear to her that God was calling her to North Africa, so she applied to the North Africa Mission. NAM leaders decided she needed to broaden her horizons and sent her to the Bible Training Institute in Glasgow for a year. She felt, she said, ‘like a bird let out of a cage’, loved the challenge of the course and the international mix of students, and followed it up with the Wycliffe Summer Institute of Linguistics course. Here she learned the phonetics and phonemics that gave her a head start in language learning when she finally arrived in North Africa at the age of 26.

Doors open for ministry

Between 1957 and 1962, she alternated between Morocco and Tunisia, perfecting her French and Arabic language skills and training to be a camp leader, but what she calls her ‘big adventure’ began when she was invited to be part of a small mobile team based in Oran, Algeria’s second largest city and a busy seaport. She arrived with a fellow team member, Libby, in a city ravaged by the war that led to independence for Algeria. Armed only with the address of a French Pastor, they bought a street map and made their way to his address, only to discover that he was away for a few days. His housekeeper suggested they could bunk down in a scout hall, and there, in the drawer of a desk they found a key, with Muriel’s name on it. In this remarkable way God led them to their first home in Oran.

A month later, two other team members arrived, and the four set up an office in an abandoned French church. This became the base from which they undertook many forays into the surrounding area, sharing the gospel wherever they had opportunity and distributing flyers for the Bible Correspondence courses. Muriel and Libby concentrated on the women and girls, visiting homes, doing Bible studies and following up the Correspondence course students. Muriel stayed for 20 years, during which time pressure slowly began to increase and some workers were asked to leave the country. Muriel and her long-time teammate, Barbara, hosted weekly meetings in their sitting room, as little by little the Algerian Church grew through the 1970s. Camps ministry was a highlight of those years as God blessed and brought a number of people to Himself.

Faithful to the end

Muriel was one of the last workers to leave, in 1983. She had been ill with hepatitis, experienced an earthquake, and seen her teammate and good friend needing to go home for cancer treatment. She herself testified to shedding many tears as she left those she considered as her family – brothers, sisters and children. It hurt, but she knew they belonged to a Father who knew best how to take care of them, and she was comforted.

In due course she was asked to move to Montpellier to join the staff of the Missionary Training Centre. This seemed a good fit, and with Barbara, now returned from the USA, they set up home in a large housing complex on the edge of town which was home to many North Africans. Here they had wonderful opportunities to share the love of Christ. Camp ministry continued in the form of the Summer Bible Schools and Muriel also threw herself into writing Bible studies for the ministry of PALM. After a further sixteen years, in 1999 she finally retired aged 68, after 42 years of serving overseas. Unsurprisingly, Muriel threw herself just as wholeheartedly into the life and ministry of her local church in Worthing.

In January 2021 Muriel Butcher died at the age of 89. Her memoirs, New Every Morning, will be published later this year.