CONSIDER with me the single woman and her contribution to the cause of God. I have often thought of Paul's words in 1 Corinthians 7:8: "I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I." As a bachelor whose every waking thought was dedicated to telling the world about Jesus, Paul knew whereof he spoke. His singleness of interest made possible that dedication, which might otherwise have been divided by home matters, heartstrings that might have shortened his journeyings for Christ. He might never have walked the Appian Way.
There are women in the Advent cause today who are walking the Appian Way, service for Christ their one objective and concern. I have seen them now and then some of them missionaries working at lonely outposts or (equally lonely) working at mission stations where everyone else is married and wrapped in the interests of his own family. Let me name a few.
Petra Hovig, of Norway, worked alone at Liumba Hill Dispensary for years, caring for the sick without even the aid of a physician, venturing into uncivilized areas with only her national carriers. Her salary well, the dispensary and its needs came first, and that was where her salary went. Few in America have heard of her, yet she is one of God's great women.
In Finland two single women have given their lives to God in public evangelism, holding public meetings, preaching, playing their guitars and singing, pointing the people to Jesus. I met them at a General Conference session, and saw Christ alive in their faces. Hundreds have come to know Him through these two women A. Lektoluoto and E. Luukkanen.
Two sisters, in England now, brought home permanently because of that relent less crippler multiple sclerosis, helped establish a school of nursing in Africa. There was an urgency about them that brought their work into exceeding sharp focus for greater accomplishment in a shorter time. They knew that soon their work must cease, as it did. But behind them they left countless young people who achieved healing skills through the self-sacrifice of Beryl and Sylvia Turtill at the Ahoada County Hospital in East Nigeria.
The single women in nursing, who have given the Adventist medical work its en viable reputation who can number them? I would hesitate to begin to name them directors of nursing schools, teachers, leaders in the profession the joys of family life set quietly aside in response to God's call for total commitment.
And speaking of teachers, around the world scores of women spend their lives in instilling in children of others the high principles of Christian education women who will never have their own children to teach because they walk the Appian Way to which God has called them.
I think of one, now unable to hear well enough for classroom action, who numbers her children in the hundreds. Still devoted to teaching, she spends her days at an office of the Home Study Institute. A bulletin board above her desk is covered with pictures of "her children" many of whom, now grown, still love her.
Who has not listened to the Voice of Prophecy program and savored of the rich alto voice of Del Delker, another single woman whose gift of song might have been captured within a home or a single community if she had married. But God saw fit to widen the influence of her talent.
Emblazoned on the heart of many a girl is the name of her college dean of women. Perhaps the most exacting work of any the church can offer a single woman, deaning is often a thankless task with impossible hours and occasionally impossible problems. Young girls can be cruel. But young girls need someone with a fantastic combination of love, firmness, wisdom, and infinite patience. Monuments to the dedication of just two of these women are Rees Hall at Union College (in memory of Pearl Rees) and Lamson Hall at Andrews University (named for Mary Lamson, whom some consider the dean of deans).
In an isolated corner of South India two women physicians spend their lives in service. Dr. Elizabeth J. Hiscox has been caring for Giffard Memorial Hospital patients for some thirty years. Adding up nearly twenty years of like service there is Dr. Genevieve McWilliams.
Less glamorous are the women who serve their Lord in offices. Again it would be impossible to name them, for they are legion. No home duties divide their attention. They do not count the hours. They are committed to a work, and though they may not now have the satisfaction of seeing the results of their labors in terms of people healed or helped or souls brought into the kingdom, nevertheless some starlight must accrue to their crowns laid up in store for them in heaven.
"Unclaimed blessings" some have termed these single women. Quite the contrary. God has claimed them, and they will be His throughout all eternity.
