Before You Ask

The following is from today's "Slice of Infinity." - J

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Helen Roseveare was an English missionary from 1953 to 1973 in what is now
the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire). She used her skills as a
doctor to minister to the many physical needs in a politically unstable
country, founding hospitals and a medical school, while at the same time
sharing her faith with people who had known great suffering.

Throughout her ministry Roseveare found herself in need of financial support
to carry on her work. In spite of many pressing needs, early in her
ministry she established the practice of tithing (giving ten percent) of any
gift that came in, giving it back to God in faith.

One morning in her first year of clinic work, she slipped away to her house,
hoping for ten minutes of quiet. She found on her doorstep a man with his
wife and two small children. He informed her that he had been sent to her
for work. She told him that she didn't have any work for him, and that he
should inquire of the missionary down the road who might hire him. The man
adamantly insisted that he would work for her, and informed her that he had
been cooking for missionaries for eighteen years. When Roseveare asked why
he had left his previous employers, he rolled up the sleeve of his shirt.
Roseveare recognized at once that the man was infected with leprosy.

The young missionary doctor's heart sank. She felt a deep conviction that
this man's coming meant God wanted her to begin a new work for the treatment
of lepers. She was not afraid of leprosy, but the stigma the disease
carried meant they would need separate facilities, costing more money and
more of her already scarce time. Yet though she clearly could see the cost
that this work would entail, Roseveare believed that if God wanted it to go
forward, He would provide the resources. In faith, she hired the man named
Aunzo to be her cook.

They built a small mud-and-thatch building to serve as a leprosy clinic, and
sent off for medicine, bandages, and equipment. The supplies came with a
bill for 4,320 Belgian Congo francs, money that Roseveare did not have. She
prayed that God would provide the money, then slipped the bill into her
Bible.

The mission had a strict policy that all bills must be paid by the end of
the month. As the month's end drew near, Roseveare expected God to provide
the needed amount, but no funds appeared. As the first day of the next
month dawned, Roseveare went to work discouraged and confused.

At lunch time, Aunzo greeted her with a large brown envelope. It had been
delivered the previous day to a different missionary by mistake! Inside the
envelope was money that came to the sum of 4,800 francs. Roseveare quickly
subtracted the tithe in her head, which left 4,320 francs, the exact amount
needed to pay the bill for the supplies. She writes:

"The total was made up of three gifts, from an unknown couple in North
America, from two prayer partners in Northern Ireland, and from a Girl
Crusaders' Union class in southeast England. The North American gift had
been on the way some four months, transferred from our Philadelphia office
to the London office, from London to Brussels, Brussels to Leopoldville
(Kinshasa), and finally upcountry from Leopoldville to Paulis (Isiro).
Every transfer involved a certain percentage cost. At the end, the three
gifts had arrived together to make the exact sum needed, and two of the
gifts were designated: 'for your leprosy work'-and I did not have a leprosy
work when the money was actually given!"(1)

God does not always work so neatly and obviously, but extraordinary
provisions such as this one serve as a reminder that, "your Father knows
what you need before you ask him" (Matthew 6:8). God had a leprosy clinic
in mind long before Roseveare thought of it, and he put it in the hearts of
his children to give the money for that work. In the days to come, days
which would bring scarcity, hard labor, and very real danger, this was a
promise that Helen Roseveare could keep close to her heart. Even as you
read this, God is anticipating your needs and making provision for them.
You can bring them to him with joyful anticipation that He is expecting you.

Betsy Childs is associate writer at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries
in Atlanta, Georgia.

(1) Helen Roseveare, Living Faith (Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1980), 43.

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Copyright(c) 2005
Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM).
Reprinted with permission.

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