[Continued discoveries from our month of April in Cambodia.]
The Christian life isn’t always easy or perfect. But through this Australian woman’s faithfulness we can see that the Lord is always faithful and because of who He is – we really can say “no worries” in all seasons.
I love Australia. I love the accent. I love the people. I love the land.
I’ve adopted a lot of Aussie lingo (“no worries, mate!”) into my vocabulary since I spent some time down under a few years ago. So it was a double blessing that God brought some Aussies into our lives during the past several months. One of those inspirational Aussies I’ve met is Glenys, age 60, a missionary to Cambodia.
Part of the school/church we stayed at also ran a hostel, which is where we met Glenys, Val, and Libby, three lovely ladies from Australia, crowned with a bit of gray splendor. What amazed me about Glenys and her friends was their commitment to the Lord in all seasons of life. While many their age would choose the luxury of retirement and comfort, they’ve been gifted with good health and have chosen to serve outside their comfort zone.
Nothing in Glenys’ bubbling personality would give way to the heartache and despair she has faced over many years. Her life is a story of faithfulness – God’s faithfulness to her, and the fruit of the Spirit of faithfulness in her own life, clinging to God through all of life’s storms.
Glenys didn’t wait until later in life to serve the Lord. After reading The Cross and the Switchblade when she was 17, Glenys asked the Lord into her life and heard God clearly say, “You will speak my words.” She pressed in, becoming involved in the Methodist church with discipleship groups and youth ministry. She left the Methodist church to attend a Bible College in New Zealand.
“I always said I would never be a missionary, did not want to work with children, and would not want to go to a place like Papua New Guinea (PNG),” Glenys says. “On my graduation weekend of Bible College, God called me clearly to PNG as a missionary to work with children.”
Beginning in 1972, Glenys (21) worked in PNG with children in villages, learned the language (Pidgin English), did some translation, secretarial work, and preaching, then returned to Australia where she continued working with children ministry.
She couldn’t shake the call for PNG. Glenys returned several times with short-term mission trips performing dramas, preaching and visiting villages. In 1980 she moved back to PNG to teach at a Bible College and train nationals in children’s ministry. During this time in Port Moresby she met an Australian pilot. Four years later they married in Brisbane and returned to PNG together. While he flew small aircraft around the country, Glenys served the locals.
Turbulence hit. Their first baby died, and Glenys almost lost her own life in delivering the stillborn. Soon after this, she again almost died in a serious car accident. But again, the Lord sustained her and she used her second stint in the hospital to witness to many about God’s amazing saving power. The hospital became her ‘mission field.’
Glenys had practically adopted a teenage girl during her previous time in PNG named Grace. “I had met her on a little island in PNG when I was running a girls camp. We nicknamed her ‘Amazing Grace’ as she had a vibrant personality,” says Glenys.
Glenys and her husband had longed to adopt children together. They flew to the Philippines for a 6-week trip to help in various missions. They had completed adoption papers and were accepted for adoption from the Philippines. On that very trip the agency offered them three siblings for adoption – 12 ½ years, 18 months and 8 months. It was another example of God’s amazing provision in their lives.
The next several years the family went back and forth between PNG and Australia.
During one segment of time in PNG, Glenys took on a number of different jobs but also worked with 600 children in the slums of Port Moresby. “We screen printed t-shirts for them, did a feeding program, and preached the gospel in a ‘Faith Club’ each Thursday afternoon,” says Glenys. “This became the passion of my life, and I dropped back on my paid job to spend more time with the poor children. I also ran Christian Education programs in the International school where my children went to school.”
“I trained children’s workers, and when I left, handed the work over to a local woman and 20 leaders. God used her to expand the vision and to this day the work continues with many of the original children now being leaders; there is school there, and accommodation for widows being built, all with the vision of this local woman who does not even speak English. It was God’s vision, and God has continued it.“
Due to the damage caused when Glenys almost lost her life giving birth to her first child, the doctors said she would never be able to conceive again. But God had a miracle for her. Glenys became pregnant and delivered a healthy baby boy in 1990.
Quickly following such an incredible miracle, turbulent times hit again. Lack of financial management and inappropriate behaviors by her husband put a huge strain upon their marriage, which finally buckled after many years of counseling. Glenys stayed, believing God through great times of hardship, trusting that there would be a change. However, after years of repeated behaviors, Glenys felt she could stay no longer, and the couple divorced. The Lord drew close to her during this time – again displaying His faithfulness to her through this tragedy. It was certainly not the path in life she expected!
In 2002, Glenys attended a conference where a missionary spoke about Cambodia. She heard the Lord speak that she would go there.
“I held on to that word, but committed myself to bring up my children, and do the best I could despite the sadness of my broken relationship,” says Glenys.
Through all of the waves of despair and disappointment, Glenys did not walk away from God. The scripture Habakkuk 3:19 Amplified version became her legacy.
‘… He makes my feet like hinds’ feet and will make me to walk [not stand still in terror, but to walk] and make [spiritual] progress upon my high places [of trouble, suffering, or responsibility]!’
“Never did I feel the call of God lift off me, but continued to feel His strength and encouragement as I journeyed on through many difficulties,” explains Glenys. Even while watching her grown children walk away from the Lord, Glenys has clung to the Lord and believes to see them come back to the ways of God.
As her 60th birthday approached, and having spent 24 years bringing up her children, Glenys felt it was time to launch out to the mission field again. Glenys met Val and Libby on the Sunshine Coast, Australia. “We all have a hunger to know God in a deeper way, and to have the fire of God manifest in our lives, to touch the nation of Cambodia.”
Glenys and Libby pointing out their home in Cambodia.
“My 60th birthday was my send off to the mission field, and in February this year (2011) I relocated to Cambodia,” Glenys says. “I am not receiving support from my church, but trusting God for finances to remain on the mission field. He has been providing wonderfully.”
Glenys serves in Siem Reap doing children’s work in villages and teaching English where there is hardly any Christian influence. She is also working with a few single moms in a village and teaching them English. It is real pioneer work.
Glenys wants to serve on the mission field for as long as she can but has committed to serving God no matter where she is, promising to find a way to serve Him and share of His faithfulness. She speaks of a 98-year-old woman who found a way to serve God by knitting large clown dolls for children to hug when they are sad. That encounter inspired Glenys to want to be like her when she “grew up.”
“I love my life, and can testify to the faithfulness of God in my life,” Glenys says. “When I was young, I went out on a limb with God, and promised Him that I would serve Him all the days of my life, and to keep His hand on me, no matter what! He has done that.”
What the world may set up as boundaries and limitations – age, singleness, finances – the Lord says, “no worries.”
[For more photos of a visit to the village where Glenys serves click here.]
