Helen Roseveare

Helen Roseveare was born in Haileybury College in Hertfordshire, England in 1925.[http://www.urbana.org/great-cloud-of-witnesses/helen-roseveare-courageous-woman-doctor-in-the-congo Helen Roseveare: Courageous Woman Doctor in the Congo]. (broken link) Retrieved 28 March 2011. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110411053351/http://www.urbana.org/great-cloud-of-witnesses/helen-roseveare-courageous-woman-doctor-in-the-congo |date=April 11, 2011 }} Her father was Martin Roseveare, the designer of ration books for the United Kingdom used during the Second World War. Her brother, Bob Roseveare, was a wartime codebreaker. She became a Christian as a medical student at Newnham College, Cambridge in 1945. She was involved with the Cambridge Inter-Collegiate Christian Union, attending prayer meetings, Bible study classes and evangelical events.{{Cite news|url=https://urbana.org/go-and-do/missionary-biographies/courageous-doctor-congo|title=Helen Roseveare|newspaper=Urbana|access-date=2016-12-09}}

After completing her studies, Roseveare applied to WEC to be a medical missionary. In 1953, she went to the Congo, where she was assigned to the north-east provinces. She built a combination hospital/ training center in Ibambi in the early 1950s, then relocated to Nebobongo, living in an old leprosy camp, where she built another hospital. After conflict with other staff at the hospital, she returned to England in 1958.{{cite web

|url=http://www.thetravelingteam.org/helenroseveare

|title=Helen Roseveare

|author=Rebecca Hickman

|work=Travelling Team

|access-date=2011-10-25}}

She returned to the Congo in 1960. In 1964 she was taken prisoner by rebel forces and she remained a prisoner for five months, enduring beatings and rapes. She left the Congo and headed back to England after her release but returned to the Congo in 1966 to assist in the rebuilding of the nation.{{Cite web|url=http://www.christianfocus.com/item/show/959/-|title=CFP {{!}} He gave us a Valley {{!}} Helen Roseveare|website=www.christianfocus.com|access-date=2016-12-09}} She helped establish a new medical school and hospital, as the other hospitals that she built had been destroyed, and served there until she left in 1973.

After her return from Africa, she had a worldwide ministry speaking and writing. She was a plenary speaker at the Urbana Missions Convention three times. Her life of service was portrayed in the 1989 film Mama Luka Comes Home.

Her touching story about the prayer of Ruth, 10-year-old African girl, for a hot water bottle to save a premature newborn baby after its mother had died has been widely forwarded by email.[http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/h/hotwaterbottle.htm Truth or Fiction, The Hot Water Bottle: The Story of the Dying Baby, a Hot Water Bottle, A Child's Prayer, and A Children's Doll-Truth!] Retrieved on March 28, 2011 She survived rape and trial during the Congolese civil war in 1964 because of the intervention of the villagers she had helped previously.[http://www.suffering.net/thank.htm Can you Thank Me? An interview with Helen Roseveare] Retrieved on March 28, 2011

Roseveare died on 7 December 2016 aged 91 in Northern Ireland.[https://www.downanddromore.org/news/2016/12/Bishop-Harold-Millers-Tribute-to-Helen-Roseveare#.WEmTwDKcaRs Bishop Harold Miller’s Tribute to Dr Helen Roseveare]

• Doctor among Congo Rebels (1965), Lutterworth Press, London
• Give me this Mountain (1966), Christian Focus Publications{{Cite web|url=https://worldmissionbooks.com/index.php/hikashop-categories/helen-roseveare/product/25-give-me-this-mountain|title=Give Me This Mountain|website=worldmissionbooks.com|access-date=2016-12-09|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161221041259/https://worldmissionbooks.com/index.php/hikashop-categories/helen-roseveare/product/25-give-me-this-mountain|archive-date=2016-12-21}}
• Doctor returns to the Congo (1967), Lutterworth Press, London
• He gave us a Valley (1976), Christian Focus Publications{{Cite web|url=https://worldmissionbooks.com/index.php/authors/helen-roseveare/product/26-he-gave-us-a-valley|title=He Gave Us A Valley|website=worldmissionbooks.com|access-date=2016-12-09|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161221041142/https://worldmissionbooks.com/index.php/authors/helen-roseveare/product/26-he-gave-us-a-valley|archive-date=2016-12-21}}
• Living Sacrifice (1979), Christian Focus Publications{{Cite web|url=http://www.christianfocus.com/item/show/1114/-|title=CFP {{!}} Living Sacrifice: Willing to be Whittled as an Arrow {{!}} Helen Roseveare|website=www.christianfocus.com|access-date=2016-12-09}}
• Living Faith (1980), Christian Focus Publications{{Cite web|url=http://www.christianfocus.com/item/show/1115/-|title=CFP {{!}} Living Faith: Willing to be Stirred as a Pot of Paint {{!}} Helen Roseveare|website=www.christianfocus.com|access-date=2016-12-09}}
• Living Holiness (1986), Christian Focus Publications{{Cite web|url=http://www.christianfocus.com/item/show/1173/-|title=CFP {{!}} Living Holiness: Willing to be the Legs of a Galloping Horse {{!}} Helen Roseveare|website=www.christianfocus.com|access-date=2016-12-09}}
• Living Stones (1988), WEC Publications{{Cite web|url=https://worldmissionbooks.com/index.php/component/hikashop/product/101-living-stones|title=Living Stones ebook|website=worldmissionbooks.com|access-date=2016-12-09|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161221041254/https://worldmissionbooks.com/index.php/component/hikashop/product/101-living-stones|archive-date=2016-12-21}}
• On Track: the Girl Crusaders' Union 1915-1990 (1990), Girl Crusaders' Union, London
• Living Fellowship (1992), Hodder & Stoughton{{Cite web|url=https://worldmissionbooks.com/hikashop-categories/product/34-living-fellowship|title=Living Fellowship|website=worldmissionbooks.com|access-date=2016-12-09|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161221041011/https://worldmissionbooks.com/hikashop-categories/product/34-living-fellowship|archive-date=2016-12-21}}
• Digging Ditches (2005), Christian Focus Publications{{Cite web|url=http://www.christianfocus.com/item/show/938/-|title=CFP {{!}} Digging Ditches: The Latest Chapter of an Inspirational Life {{!}} Helen Roseveare|website=www.christianfocus.com|access-date=2016-12-09}}
• Enough (2011), Christian Focus Publications{{Cite web|url=http://www.christianfocus.com/item/show/1435/-|title=CFP {{!}} Enough {{!}} Helen Roseveare|website=www.christianfocus.com|access-date=2016-12-09}}
• Count it All Joy (2017), 10Publishing{{Cite web|url=https://www.10ofthose.com/products/23181/count-it-all-joy|title=Count it All Joy by Helen Roseveare|last=www.thoughtcollective.com|first=Thought Collective|website=10ofthose.com|access-date=2018-02-26}}

• Burgess, Alan, Daylight must come: the story of Dr Helen Roseveare, London : Joseph, (1975); pbk. London: Pan Books, (1977), {{ISBN|978-0-330-25063-4}}.
• Lagerborg, Mary Beth, Though Lions Roar: The Story of Helen Roseveare : Missionary Doctor to the Congo, (Faith's Adventurers), {{ISBN|978-0-87508-663-7}}.
• Isaac, Peter, A History of Evangelical Christianity in Cornwall, — privately published (Polperro) by the author (2001).

• [http://vimeo.com/2495731Mama Luka Comes Home] original by CTA
• [http://www.cross.tv/78482 Mama Luka Comes Home] Cross.TV

{{Reflist}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20140802171832/http://www.cmf.org.uk/publications/content.asp?context=article&id=758 Helen Roseveare's seminar on 'maintaining spirituality']
• [http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/ConferenceMessages/ByConference/37/2415_A_Call_for_the_Perseverance_of_the_Saints/ A Call for the Perseverance of the Saints] delivered at Desiring God's 2007 National Conference
• [http://s3.amazonaws.com/urbana.org/general_session_audio/urbana-76-helen.roseveare-cost.of.declaring.his.glory.mp3 Message at the Urbana 76 Conference]
• [https://blogs.thegospelcoalition.org/justintaylor/2016/12/07/a-woman-of-whom-the-world-was-not-worthy-helen-roseveare-1925-2016/ Article of Tribute on occasion of her death]

{{Protestant missions to Africa}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roseveare, Helen}}

Category:1925 births

Category:2016 deaths

Category:Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge

Category:English Protestant missionaries

Category:English evangelicals

Category:Protestant missionaries in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Category:Female Christian missionaries

Category:British expatriates in the Democratic Republic of the Congo