Dead Mentors

I have several living mentors. But today I’m writing about my dead ones. I did not have the opportunity to meet these women, but they have taught, advised, inspired and challenged me. 

Instead of introducing you to these amazing women by name, I am going to tease you with fascinating facts about each of their lives. At the end of the post I will reveal their names.

1. She had all her teeth extracted in preparation for serving in China, where snow and distance would make dental treatment impossible. 
2. Her life made such an impact that her funeral was attended by 38,000 people. 
3. As a young girl she prayed that God would change her brown eyes to blue. God later revealed why His choice was best. 
   
4. She was an obscure, middle-aged woman who survived Hitler’s worst concentration camp and became an evangelist who spoke on all continents and in 60 countries. 
5. Blinded by a medical error at 6 weeks of age, she wrote thousands of hymns and was the first woman to speak before Congress. 
6. She gave birth to 19 children in 19 years and homeschooled the 10 who survived. Her son John preached a series of messages that birthed a revival. 
7. A World War II WASP pilot, she helped start Mission Aviation Fellowship.
8. She was expelled from Bible College, rejected by a mission agency, and told her call in life was to remain a housekeeper, but her simple dependence on God led her to life-long missionary adventures. 

How many of my dead mentors did you know?

1. Isabel Maxey Dittemore's story is told in He Leadeth Me, Forty Years in Asia 
2. Catherine Booth is known as Mother of the Salvation Army
3. Amy Carmichael spent 55 years in India (where her brown eyes were advantageous) rescuing children from temple prostitution 
4. Corrie Ten Boom was imprisoned, along with her family, for helping many Jews escape the Nazi Holocaust. 
5. Fanny Crosby wrote so many hymns that she began to use a pen name so her name wouldn't appear on too pages of the hymnal! 
6. Susanna Wesley had 16 house rules. Number 6 was “To teach a child to pray as soon as he can speak.” 
   
7. Betty Greene said when a friend suggested that she use her flying for mission work, “I leaped for joy at the thrilling thought of combining flying with my love for God.”
8. Gladys Aylward’s story is told is several books. Her life is a testimony to one woman's determination to serve God at any cost.  

Do you agree these women make magnificent mentors? How I thank God for their sold-out passion for Jesus! Their earthly lives have ceased, but their impact endures. 

We are surrounded by a great cloud of people whose lives tell us what faith means. So let us run the race that is before us and never give up (Hebrews 12:1 NCV).