Catherine Booth

In the 1850’s at the age of 17, Catherine Mumford announced she wanted to spend her life “loving God with all her heart.” At that time, women most often showed their love for God by attending worship and caring for children and other women. Little could she have guessed where her love of God would lead her.

She attended the Methodist Church and after awhile because comfortable praying out loud and speaking in public. She became so outspoken that she was asked to leave the Methodist Church. At about that same time, she met William Booth who was an evangelist preaching around the country. They were married and worked together telling others about God.

In 1860 when William was preaching, Catherine asked if she could “say a word” during worship. She went into the pulpit and began to speak to the congregation. At that time, women did not speak from the pulpit. This was unheard of for a woman. But by 1865, Catherine was preaching regularly with William and was even being asked to visit other churches to preach on her own.

William and Catherine went on to found The Salvation Army to minister to the homeless and poor. Women became leaders in The Salvation Army because of Catherine’s involvement and example.

Corrie Ten Boom

Corrie Ten Boom and her family were Christians living in Holland in the early 1900’s. Her father owned a watch shop and they were friendly with the Jews in their community. When the German began discriminating against the Jews, she and her family started helping them.

Corrie wondered how far she should go to help the Jews, but finally said “Lord, Jesus, I offer myself to your people in any way. Any time. Any place.” Little did Corrie know where this would lead her.

As the Germans began to arrest and kill the Jews, Corrie became more and more involved. She and her family remodeled their house to have a safe room in which Jews could hide. She was able to get fake identification papers for some Jews and help them escape to safety.

Eventually though, Corrie’s family was arrested for their involvement with the Jews. Corrie’s father was killed and Corrie and her sister, Betsy, were sent to a concentration camp. After several months, they were told they were being released. Instead they were moved to a different concentration camp that was much worse than the first. At both prisons, Corrie and her sister hid a Bible from the guards. They regularly shared scripture and prayed with other prisoners.

Betsy died in prison, but Corrie was eventually released and spent the rest of her life sharing the gospel and working for peace.

Janani Luwum

Janani Luwum grew up in Uganda, Africa and was a member of a local tribe there. As a boy he attended a missionary school and one day in 1948 heard a missionary speak. Janani became a Christian and said “I am prepared to die in the Army of the Lord.”

Janani became a teacher in Uganda and shared his faith with his students. He wanted to do more to share the gospel and later went to England to become priest in the Church of England. He was eventually chosen as a bishop to his people in northern Uganda and returned there in 1969.

The government of Uganda was unstable and a man named General Amin took control in 1971. At first people thought he would be a good leader, but soon realized he was brutal and unfair. Christians were arrested and killed. Janani spoke out against President Amin and his treatment of the people of Uganda. Even though this was risky and made Janani a target for arrest and death, he continued to share his faith and speak against President Amin. But in 1977, Janani was killed by government officials.

Brother Andrew

In 1955 Brother Andrew visited Warsaw, Poland. He was invited to speak at several churches and at one a man thanked him for remembering those who were struggling there for Christ. Until then Brother Andrew had never considered how difficult it was to be a Christian in a communist country.

As Brother Andrew thought about what he could do to help the churches in communist countries, he read a verse from the book of Revelation. This verse said “Awake and strengthen what remains and is on the point of death”. To Brother Andrew this was God’s instruction to him to do what he could to help those struggling churches.

After several more visits to communist countries, Brother Andrew realized the biggest need in all the churches was for Bibles. He began smuggling Bibles each time he visited a communist country. For several years, he did this by himself. He raised money at home, spent it on Bibles for the countries he would visit, went to that country, gave out all his Bibles and started all over again.

After awhile, others joined Brother Andrew and his work is now called “Open Doors”. This program provides Bibles and information to Christian churches in all parts of the world where the church is persecuted or struggling.

Elizabeth Fry

Elizabeth Gurney was born into a wealthy family and her growing up years included lovely clothes and fancy parties. At age 17 she wrote in her diary that she had “no religion”. However, a year later she heard an American preacher that influenced her greatly and her faith began to grow. Some time later at a church meeting someone said that during her life, Elizabeth would be “a light to the blind, speech to the dumb, and feet to the lame.”

Elizabeth married Joseph Fry at age 20 and she looked for ways to serve God. She helped at various charities and in 1813 she heard about awful conditions at a women’s prison in London. Elizabeth organized a group to take clean clothes to the women and children at the prison. Elizabeth began regular visits to the prison and eventually started a school for the children. She helped the women prisoners sew clothes to sell. Elizabeth felt her most important contribution at the prison was to read scripture and pray with the women and children every day.

News of these changes at the prison spread to other prisons and started a movement of prison reform throughout England. Elizabeth continued to support prison reform throughout her life, but she also started homeless shelters, women’s missions, and training for women as nurses.