A few weeks ago I met a missionary named Jean.  She was amazing.  She's very old now having retired from mission work but still an inspiration even today.   She told us story after story of her travels as a missionary to the Congo  She was there for 42 years starting right after WWII when she was only 22 years old.  She's now 84 years old and gets around with the help of a walker.  Physically she's limited but mentally she's as sharp as ever from what I could see and hear. 

It's amazing how God works.  More than 84 years ago, while pregnant with Jean, her mother had a burden for the Congo.  She prayed for her sixth child and offered the soon to be born baby to the Lord possibly to do the Lord's work in the area for which she had a burden.  So this child, dedicated to the Lord before he, or what turned out to be she, was even born.  How amazing that she would be the hands and feet of Christ later on in the land her mother had a burden for. 

Jean said sometime later as a young girl she heard his call.  She heard his voice.  She said, "Who would not follow if you hear his call?"

It was 1946 when she, as as young 22 year old girl, found herself in the middle of the Congo.  She was engaged to a boy who was somewhere involved in the war when she left, not knowing exactly where he was.  She spent 36 hours in the air and then later traveled by truck to her destination. 

The first thing she saw were girls dressed only in grass skirts. What a sight.  They were on their way to be circumcised.  "It's pretty awful"  she told us. 

She found herself in a new country with new customs, new food, a new langauge and so young.  There was no communication with family back then, like today.  She was away from her family and was very homesick.

Soon after she got there one of the other missionary families had some trouble.  A pregnancy tragically ended in the death of the mother.  She remembers having to go to the hospital for something when she found herself witnessing the happenings surrounding this birth.  The mother went into convulsions because of clampsia and died soon after the baby boy was born.  She remembered vividly the new father holding his newborn at the funeral wondering what could have possibly been going through his mind in the middle of the Congo with such a young child to take care of. 

Jean found herself in charge of the boys and girls school. Many of the girls were there to hide out and escape the dreaded circumcision.  Satan was very much at work her she told us.  One night early on a man woke her in the middle of the night.   At a pajama party that night one of the girls became demon possessed.  This demon entered her body and was throwing her into the fire.

Jean had no idea what to do.  She was very green and was terrified.  Then she remembered being told that she would have much spiritual warfare in the Congo and to remember that she could do nothing herself, only Christ can.  When confronted with such things she had no other choice but to call on His name and His blood.  So in the middle of this night she told us she prayed and said, "please, please, in the power of your blood in your name, please release this girl."

She heard a terrible screech and the girl fell fast asleep.  Later on Jean found out that this girl's entire family was given over to demons.

Sometime later her engagement to the pilot was broken.  He had no desire to come to Africa and she ended up marrying the man with the baby.  She continued, for eight years with no furlough home, to direct these schools.

She recounted a story where she would take the girls in the back of the truck and drop them off two by two to preach the gospel in the tiny surrounding villages.  They would meet and chat with many people.  One story vividly stuck out in her mind.   She remembered going to one village speaking to an old lady in her small kitchen.  She said they sat down by the fire and she began to tell this old lady about Jesus.  She talked about a wonderful place that Jesus had waiting for those who followed him and how he had a wonderful gift just waiting for her.   Abruptly this woman got up and spit on Jean.  She said she still remembers how hot it felt running down her chest as this old woman spit on her three times and yelled at her to go home.  She remembers standing there in that kitchen with tears streaming down her face not wanting this woman to face a Christless eternity. 

Then she told us a story about a man named Pelepele.  He was having troubling swallowing.  It turned out to be throat cancer.  The doctor was afraid to tell Pelepele the news of his impending death.  At most he had three months to live.   Africians, she said, were very afraid of death.  Very afraid.  There was one man, upon death, who was buried with his five wives.  They were still alive.

But Pelepele knew the Lord.  He was not afraid.  When he was told of his impending death, his face beamed as he said, "I'll see Jesus."  He wanted to tell his family.  It soon got to the point where he could not swallow, he could not talk.  She told us how she went to see him near the end and soon after saw his wife coming towards her home as she looked out the window.  She knew Pelepele was dead.  Jean ran out asked her, "Is Pelepele in heaven?"  The wife smiled and said "yes." 

But before he died he said one word, "read."  So his wife opened up the bible and read John  where it says "in my house are many mansions, I go to prepare a place for you."  She looked up as she read this and saw he was looking into the face of Jesus.

Sometime during this time the Congo was fighting for their independence and there was much unrest.  They were evacuated two or three times and it was awful.  These were hard years.  One time they were traveling in their station wagon and came upon a guard station where the guards were drunk.  By now she and her husband had four boys.  They all were told to get out and with guns aimed at their stomachs she found herself praying that the Lord would take all of them together to heaven and that her boys would not be left behind.  It was terrifying.  Right then one of the guards looked into the car and found a few matchbox cars.  The guards put their guns down and started playing in the dirt with these tiny cars like little boys.  Jean said they gave them the cars "as a gift from us" and they all got in the car and drove away.  What a miracle.  God uses the ordinary.

They were soon transferred to a town called Watsa in Kenya for four years and were the only whites there but she said she felt the most protective there even baptizing a witch doctor during this time.  She had lots of stories to tell us from this place. 

One involved a graduation.  It was November 28 and she was asked to give the devotion for this day.  She decided to focus on songs.  There are many songs in scripture.  There were many music students at this graduation so she thought it a very appropriate subject.  She told them how God always gives us songs in hard places.  They can go to the hard places because God will be with them.  She read to them from the book of Job and talked about how a widow's heart sings for joy even in her hard places.

The very next day her husband came into her study and sat down in a chair.  She turned around and when she turned around again, he was GONE.  He died of a cerebral hemmorage just like that. 

There were no coffins to buy there.  Her students made a box and she lined it with a mattress and a sheet.  She was mourning and despondant when she told her students at the funeral that it wasn't true.  She had no song.  She looked at us and told us, "I didn't have a song."

She told her students that the bible is not true.  She told them not to go to those hard places because there is no song.  She was going to go back home and tell all it was just a lie.  "If God doesn't give me a song, all is a lie and none is true."

She went to bed with a heavy heart and her students stayed up all night to pray for her.  They prayed that God would give her a song.

She looked at us with a twinkle in her eye, as she told this story, and said.  "I stayed another 20 years.  God gave me a song." 

Over the years she taught 900 pastors in her ministry.  Recently there was a conference in her honor and over 9,000 people came because of her.  Her son was the main speaker.  Today three of her four sons are in active ministry.  One is still in the Congo as a Pastor.  Another is a Pastor somewhere else and another is on the board at Wheaton College in Illinois. 

She still had many more stories to tell us, but the night was getting long and she had to go.  We all talked about going to visit her soon to hear more of the many stories just waiting to be told from a little ol' lady dedicated to her God.  What a blessing she has been to many over the years.  What a blessing it was for me to sit in her presence drinking in all she had to teach us.