Women make up over two-thirds of the global mission force. Women have been involved in missions since the beginning (such as Priscilla of Priscilla and Aquilla fame). I’ve been blessed to have been a part of the missionary life since 1987. My husband and I spent ten years as BBFI missionaries in Kenya, church planting and teaching in a Bible college. We then came to serve in the world mission service center in Springfield, MO in 1998. Two women have had a special impact on my life, as far as missions is concerned. The first is my husband’s mom, Jeannine Konnerup. She served with her husband as pioneer missionaries in Ethiopia from the early 60s to the late 70s. She lived under very difficult conditions, starting out living in a tent, cooking over an open fire, walking a distance to get water, and sending her older children to boarding school 12 hours away. She saw them every three months, when they had a break from school. In the late seventies, they had to leave Ethiopia because of political unrest. In 1978 they went south to Kenya to continue their missionary work. She served the Lord with gladness, and continued serving even when diagnosed with cancer, and returned to the field because that’s where God had called her, and where she wanted to be. Sadly, cancer took her life in 1985, just two months before Jon and I were married. She was a brave woman, and a godly example for many other women.
Jon’s dad, Richard Konnerup, remarried in 1990, to a godly widow, Ann Monroe Maddy. She had been a school teacher, a principal of a Christian school, and had served as a missionary in the Bahamas. After their marriage, she came to Kenya to serve the Lord, and be a blessing to her new husband. She ministered to women and children, and taught in the Bible college. While on furlough in 2000, she underwent serious health issues, and was diagnosed with COPD, related to her asthma. For 15 years, as her daughter- in- law and friend, I saw her suffer with the ups and downs of this illness. She did not complain. She was only sorry that she was not able to accompany Richard on his trips back to Kenya. Ann was a prayer warrior, and always wanted to know what was going on in my life, and in the mission office world, so she could pray for me, my family and many others. She spent much time in the hospital, and even some stints in the nursing home, but the Lord gave her strength no matter what challenges she faced. In July of 2015 the Lord called her home—an end to her physical suffering.
So many times when we start out in missions, we think we know how the future will play out. We surrender, we raise our funds and prayer support on deputation, and we go to the field where we assume we will stay for the rest of our lives. But our plans are not always God’s plans. Even when a life and ministry is seemingly cut short, or is changed, we can rest peaceful in the knowledge that God is working all things together for good, and is in the process of conforming us to the image of His son Jesus Christ. Since we don’t know how long we will live on this earth to serve the Lord, let’s make sure we are redeeming the time. We never know how God will use us to be a blessing to others!

by Pam Konnerup