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One brave missionary did not look back, even in the face of great personal loss.

Ruth Senter has written ten books, has two grown kids, and travels with her husband, a seminary educator.

I have often wondered exactly what Jesus meant when he said, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the Kingdom of God" (Luke 9:62). Recently, I got a glimpse of what I think he meant.

I read the story on the wall of a Foreigner's Clinic in Seoul, South Korea. I'd come to see the American doctor for a routine inoculation. The story on the wall was about his mother, who along with her husband, had been a missionary to Korea for many years.

One day, the woman's husband was involved in an automobile accident. At this time in Seoul, there were no emergency vehicles to call. The only transport to the hospital was by taxi. The missionary, still in the prime of life, died in the taxi on his way to the hospital.

Many wives, less stout-hearted, would have packed their bags and headed for home. Or at least, gotten angry. But not this missionary wife. She immediately began raising funds to buy emergency vehicles for the city of Seoul. She gathered enough money from friends and acquaintances, many of them in the United States, to purchase and equip the city's first ambulance. Then, she persuaded medical emergency specialists from her home country to come to Korea and donate their time to lead the first-ever training sessions for Korean paramedics.

Today, ambulances are a common sight in South Korea. People continue to equip them with the latest in modern technology and personnel training.

Now, whenever I see a green and white emergency vehicle, I think: It all began with one brave missionary wife, who, when she "put her hand to the plow" did not look back, even in the face of great personal loss.

May God give us more of her kind.

Copyright © 1998 by the author or Christianity Today International/Today's Christian magazine (formerly Christian Reader).
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