Give Me This Mountain by Dr. Helen Roseveare is an autobiographical account of an English missionary/doctor who served in the Congo during the 1950s and ’60s. Dr. Roseveare attempts to show what reality in a missionary’s life is like, how missionaries are very normal people, in the words of Jim Elliot, “Just a bunch of nobodies trying to exalt Somebody.” She does not shy from telling the problems and weaknesses missionaries and evangelists face in their everyday lives, but still emphasizes that there is true honor and nobility in the work, because in our weaknesses, Christ can be strong in us if we allow Him. The title of the book comes from the Scripture Joshua 14:12, in which Caleb, who has been granted by God an inheritance of whatever land he desires, chooses to drive the treacherous Anakim out of Mount Hebron. I found the book quite riveting, because Roseveare, like Caleb, went into hostile and uncertain territory, and learned to not give up until she received the inheritance promised by the Lord.
Helen Roseveare, born in England in 1925, grew up in an Anglo-Catholic home, but in college realized that no ritual or intellectual understanding could get her right before God. The text of Psalm 46:10, “Be still and know that I am God,” spoke to her heart, and she finally grasped the wonder of the forgiveness and reconciliation in Christ. Roseveare applied at the World Evangelization for Christ as a medical missionary. In 1953, she was sent to the Belgian Congo, where she came to realize that missionaries, Christians, clash and make mistakes. In her book, she acknowledges that her own personal ambition often got in the way of what God wanted her to do, and that often she let the present circumstances discourage her, instead of looking at the valleys as paths to mountains. She was utterly amazed that at a point when her spirit was so burdened with her own failings, the Holy Spirit used her to bring conviction to an existing congregation of Africans, who with much weeping accepted God’s redeeming grace. Roseveare went on to establish hospitals and support churches in the Congo before its independence in 1960, learning invaluable lessons about partnership with God and man. During the horrific Simba rebellion of the 1960s when most foreigners fled the country, she stayed, soon to be one of those held hostage for five months, before the Belgians rescued them. Roseveare says that her years in Africa taught her that Christ wanted the preeminence in every area of her life, so that He could use her to show who He is to other people, all over the world. Indeed, the Lord asks this of all of us.
The book Give Me This Mountain by missionary doctor Helen Roseveare is an account of a simple missionary, who wrestled with all the difficulties and dangers a missionary faces, including her own will and ambition. She learned that to succeed in conquering territory for Christ, He must be the motivation and dictator of how that is accomplished. She learned that to obtain a mountain, she had to trust in the Lord’s promise to guide her through the valleys. Roseveare says that her years in Africa taught her that Christ wanted the preeminence in every area of her life, so that He could use her to show who He is to other people, all over the world.
Through this book, I have learned to see very clearly that missionaries are normal Christians, just like you and me, growing in the Lord and learning how to live in His ways. It has also defined once again that the only life worth living is one that is given totally to Jesus Christ, who asks us to carry our cross daily. The Lord does not ask us to do great things for Him, but simply to be obedient tools for Him to do a great work in the nations. Truly this surrender, this bondage, is freedom indeed!
Well, now, I have kept my promise. 
