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By Sue Sprenkle
International Mission
Board
Sitting in the
hospital waiting room, a woman prays. She's been watching the swinging doors
to the surgery hall for hours- waiting on a report from the doctor.
The waiting
woman, a missionary nurse with the International Mission Board, tries stretching
the exhaustion out of her tired, lanky limbs. This Arkansas native is not your
normal missionary. Charlotte Bowen lives in Johannesburg, South Africa and
ministers to other missionaries from all across Sub-Sahara Africa. Many
missionaries live where medical care is not adequate. Bowen and two other
missionary nurses offer assistance in any way possible.
With a tired
laugh, Bowen tells of the time one missionary sent a digital photo of a rash. He
could get medicine, but didn’t know what to take.
"This job is
full of surprises and odd hours," Bowen says. "I thank God for the privilege
to feed His sheep. There was a time when I thought my missions dream was gone. I
was a single mother on food stamps - I didn't see how God could use someone
like me!"
On the Run
Bowen grew up
in a Christian home with loving parents. She met her husband in high school.
They both wanted to be missionaries and married at the age of 18. After becoming
a pastor, the couple had two sons.
"On our 10th
wedding anniversary, my husband said he was leaving me for another man," Bowen
recalls. "I thought that was the end of the world, but one year later - my
8-year-old was able to tell that he had been sexually abused by his father."
A warrant was
put out for Bowen's ex-husband. He was convicted, but released on appeal. A
threat caused Bowen and sons to take to the road for their own safety. The trio
traveled from state to state trying to thwart danger. They lived anywhere they
could - in the car, in hotels or in shelters.
The running
finally came to an end in Michigan. Bowen aspired to finish nursing school. She
tried taking classes full-time and working, but after running from danger for so
long, the boys needed more of her time. She finally applied for food stamps and
welfare.
"I would go
shopping at midnight because I was so embarrassed about using food stamps. We
lived for years on what my parents could give us and welfare," she says. "We
couldn't even afford a television."
Overcoming
Pain
Bowen graduated
from nursing school in 1991 and returned to Arkansas. She found a job and began
to get back on her feet. While she and the boys attended church, the problems of
the past kept her from really joining in whole heartedly.
"I was so
hurt by church and religion that I didn't want anything to do with it or to be
involved in anything," she says.
Then, one
morning, the pastor announced the church was going on a mission trip. He
challenged anyone who had ever been interested in missions to go. The invitation
singed a hole in Bowen’s heart. She brought up the topic to her sons and
before she could even finish - they began rushing excitedly around the house.
"The boys
decided that I needed to go on this trip even though we couldn't afford it,"
she recalls. "So, they went around the house gathering everything we had that
was not a necessity. We sold everything and made enough money to cover my trip
expenses."
It was on this
trip that God broke Bowen's heart completely and called her back to Him. Ten
months later, Bowen went on another mission trip. This trip was the one that led
her into full-time missionary service through the IMB's International Service
Corps program.
"On this
second trip we went to work with missionaries at their annual retreat," Bowen
recalls. "I was reading my Bible one day and God told me, 'If you love Me,
then feed My sheep.' That's when I realized that our missionaries need
people to take care of them. They are broken and weary and need someone to love
them."
After her
youngest son graduated from high school, Bowen contacted the IMB. Never in her
wildest dreams did she imagine that she would be able to serve as a missionary.
"I kept thinking, I haven't got anything to give. They'll never want
me," she says with a knowing smile. "But you know what? God takes all of the
trash and hard experiences in your life and uses it for His good. Look where I
ended up - feeding His sheep exactly like He told me. And He has taken my sons
and allows them to use their past as a ministry tool. One is now a pastor for an
inner city church and the other is planning to attend seminary."
The white doors
loudly swing open and catch Bowen's attention. Two doctors dressed in scrubs
walk over smiling, indicating that surgery went well.
"It's a privilege that I get to do this," Bowen says on her way to phone the missionary's parents back in the States. "By feeding His sheep here in Johannesburg, it allows the missionaries to go back to the bush healthy and spread the Word of God."