Being Mary White

Oftentimes life imitates art. I didn't realize it until a month ago, but this has been the case in my life!

As many of you know I grew up at Brookdale Baptist Church. It has a long and vibrant past and has been ministering in Bloomfield, NJ for 114 years! Fourteen years ago, when I was still a teenager, Brookdale celebrated their hundreth anniversary. This was a momentous ocassion with former pastors preaching, lots of music and even an original play. I got to play a very small role in that play. The part I played? Mary White.

I'm sure you've never heard of Mary White. If I hadn't of grown up at Brookdale, I wouldn't have either. Mary White was Brookdale's first missionary. She was sent as a young single woman to Africa as a nurse. On the night of the play my "starring role" was to go on stage, alone, with my old fashioned suitcase, spotlight beaming on me, while the narrator read about my life. This was to dramatize Mary's decision to go to Africa as a missionary. I distinctly remember wondering at 16, if I'd ever follow in Mary's footsteps.

Well, as you all know I am following in Mary's footsteps - in more ways than one. I too am going to Africa as a single woman, though not as a nurse. And I too am a Mary White, but the Mary White of Redeemer Montclair. Though my home church, Redeemer Montclair supports several missionaries within the denomination, I am the first missionary to be sent from our congregation. I am honored and excited to be Redeemer's first missionary.

I've chosen as my life verse Jeremiah 29:10-13, "For I know the plans I have for you," declare the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. Then you will call to me and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." Indeed God has known the plans of my life. It was in his plan that I would be Mary White....that I would go to Africa as single woman. My prayer now is that God would prosper the ministry that he's given me in Rwanda and that before I leave and when I'm there I would seek after him with all my heart.