sheila - her time as a missionary in India and Bangladesh 1947-69
Sheila now aged 97, has recently had to go into a Nursing Home, but she had such exciting adventures in her younger days, that we wanted to share some of them with you.
This was written at Sheila’s 90th birthday - in 2013
Sheila is 90! Congratulations! (must be all those bananas you have for breakfast!)
Sheila is one determined lady. But also a lady who is devoted to her Lord and Saviour: Jesus Christ. And that combination of devotion and determination has been used by God to bless many people over many years and in many places.
A work colleague introduced Sheila to Hook, and on one Sunday morning, a missionary from India spoke about the feeding of the 5 000. He told the story of a little girl who had come to the mission in India and asked if they would come to her village and tell about Jesus. Sadly they had to answer “no” because nobody was free. The disciples had said to Jesus, “send the people away” - Jesus answered “you give them something to eat”. And Sheila heard the clear call of God: “YOU go and feed them”.
So after some persistence Sheila went to Bible Training college in 1946
In 1947 she went as a missionary to India. It took her 6 weeks on a liner …. Arriving in India, there was no one to meet her. And so in dangerous conditions she had to make a two day journey across India and get on yet another train in Madras. She then had to travel by horse cart, bus and bullock cart to get to the mission house.
Sheila spent 15 years there - no electricity only oil lamps, no running water, no phones or radio. Letters took 2 months to arrive and she spent the first two years learning Tamil, studying and taking exams.
Her missionary work was varied:
· Organizing the evangelists for the villages and sometimes going with them by bus or bullock cart.
· She took charge of a home for approx. 100 girls.
· She ran a primary school for the girls and the village kids
· She also (with the help of a local pastor) arranged marriages
She knew God’s provision and help during her work for him in India
· The first 5 years in India, the rains failed: wells were drying up, palm trees were falling over and whole villages didn’t have any water, cattle were dying… but after prayer God provided enough water in the well to meet everyone’s needs for 1 day - Each night it was empty and each morning there was enough for 1 day. For about three months we saw this miracle until the rains came further upstream and everyone got water back again.
· Another occasion of God’s provision came when she and a party of Indians went walking from village to village through thick jungle to reach the people for Christ. The villagers were often amazed they came. On one occasion they said a dangerous, rogue elephant was on the trail, and we should get past the watering hole before it got too late and the elephant came. Walking on the trail our guide suddenly signalled us to stop and we heard the noise of the elephant ripping the leaves, very close to path. What to do? As we knelt down and prayed, there was a loud noise behind use. Villagers were bringing 100s of cows to the waterhole - the elephant moved away and we mingled with the cattle and safely passed. God answered prayer.
· And its best to ask Sheila how God helped her drive a car load of preachers, through a river when he breaks failed!
She also knew God’s blessing on her ministry as she helped many different kinds of people:
· A leper woman who no-one would have anything to do with.
· A young boy in a boy’s home who made a stand for Jesus and was treated harshly by his teachers.
· And a young boy of around 3-4 years old who had been abandoned in a village when his mother had moved on. Sheila took him in and cared for him; No one knew his name so he was called Archer Samuel!! He is still alive now and has 4 sons, and still calls Sheila his mother!!
After 15 years in India, Sheila then felt the call of God to be a missionary in Bangladesh in 1961.
There she learnt Bengali. And moved around the villages in little boats taking leaflets and starting up a Bible Correspondence course.
Being a Christian was tough in Bangladesh, and being a lady missionary in an Islamic area more so. Money was scarce and sometimes she was in danger, but the Lord provided and protected her each time.
In 1964 Sheila contracted polio. Back in England in Dulwich hospital she lay paralysed except head/arm… 3 doctors said they didn’t think she would walk again… but remember Sheila is one devoted-determined lady, and built up her strength spending hours in the gym and she walked again. She progressed so much that when she moved to Chessington, she could walk without a stick although her right leg was paralysed.
Sheila went back to Bangladesh to continue the Lord’s work there but she found it too difficult getting in and out of boats, so in 1969 she came back to Dulwich to look after parents, and also trained in Social work. Moved to Chessington in January 1988.
Sheila’s determination continues to this day. We see her regularly making her way up the path to church, and then back out again. She is so determined to be in church to worship the Lord because she is so devoted to him. 3 years on 5th October Sheila had a fall whilst visiting hospital and fractured her hip and so was admitted to hospital. Yet on 12th December she was back here at Hook worshipping the Lord with us.
Sheila has given much social advice and spiritual advice to people here in the fellowship and we are thankful to the Lord for you and your continued ministry to us. Though I know you feel you can’t do much these days, yet your determination and devotion is an example to us all.
One of Sheila’s favourite books over the years has been a book called “Streams in the Desert” published in 1925 and written by a lady (Mrs Cowman) who was a missionary in China and Japan. It is renowned for helping you when you are spiritually dry and when you need to draw closer to God. It comprises daily reading taken from the bible, hymns, poems and the writings of many Christians.
The reading and the thought for for 21st September – Sheila’s 90th birthday is so fitting for Sheila, and for us to hear.
September 21
Counting the Cost
"I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord" (Phil. 3:8).
This is the happy season of ripening cornfields, of the merry song of the reapers, of the secured and garnered grain. But let me hearken to the sermon of the field. This is its solemn word to me. You must die in order to live. You must refuse to consult your own case and well-being. You must be crucified, not only in desires and habits which are sinful, but in many more which appear innocent and right.
If you would save others, you cannot save yourself. If you would bear much fruit, you must be buried in darkness and solitude.
My heart fails me as I listen. But, when Jesus asks it, let me tell myself that it is my high dignity to enter into the fellowship of His sufferings; and thus I am in the best of company. And let me tell myself again that it is all meant to make me a vessel meet for His use. His own Calvary has blossomed into fertility; and so shall mine. Plenty out of pain, life out of death: is it not the law of the Kingdom? --In the Hour of Silence
Do we call it dying when the bud bursts into flower? --Selected
"Finding, following, keeping, struggling,
Is He sure to bless?
Saints, apostles, prophets, martyrs,
Answer, 'Yes."'
So do be praying for this wonderful senior saint, that she will stay close to her Lord and Saviour at this time, and find her purpose in prayer and in blessed interaction with staff, fellow-residents and visitors