Marcia Strauss (SIM USA) retired from SIM on June 1, after serving for nearly 40 years in Ethiopia and the US. Here she shares her reflections on her life in ministry.
“My advice to myself and to mission workers young and old is: Prayerfully turn, trust and rest in the sovereign, loving care of our Father. My choice is full reliance.”
After all those years in ministry, I am sometimes asked, “What advice do you have for younger mission workers?”
I have so many memories of how God showed himself faithful, powerful and gracious as his people turned to him for help.
During my 19 years in Ethiopia, I watched God grow an underground Bible school for church leaders, eager for training as they ministered under communist oppression.
In awe, I waited with God’s Ethiopian people, who persistently prayed for an end to the 30-year civil war and the 17-year reign of communism: God answered! The war ended, and the new central government declared religious freedom throughout the country. God moved powerfully as his people relied on him.
And, very personally, I experienced God’s protective grace as I gave birth to my third child in less-than-ideal conditions. I’m so grateful for these memories of God’s faithfulness.
I also remember times when I did not depend on our all-sufficient Father. Those memories are not so wonderful. The results were wounded relationships, frustrated efforts, regret and a lack of peace. Although I’m deeply grateful for our Father’s forgiveness and patience, I want my life pattern to be full reliance on God for everything in my life.
Since January of this year, God has used a verse in Isaiah to remind me to depend on him. I quote it almost daily. I hear the grief in my Father’s voice as I repeat the last line of this verse.
This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says:
“In repentance and rest is your salvation,
in quietness and trust is your strength,
but you would have none of it.”
Isaiah 30:15
I have an hourly choice to make: Will I turn in dependence on him and experience the rest and delight of allowing my Father to work in me and through me? Or will I journey my way?
My advice to myself and to mission workers young and old is: Prayerfully turn, trust and rest in the sovereign, loving care of our Father. My choice is full reliance.
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