Light the World
The Ben and Helen Eidse Story as told to Faith Eidse
by Faith Eidse

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From the wheat fields and bargain stores of rural Manitoba, Ben and Helen Eidse were the first missionaries sent overseas by their conference. On the African savannah they partnered with the Chokwe-Lunda who taught them language, culture and proverbs, which Ben used to explain salvation. Helen delivered the leprosy cure, mothered orphans, cared for the excluded, sick and poor. Their partners helped establish 80 churches, translate the Bible and run 24 clinics. They deepened their faith in spiritual battle against sorcery and corruption. The Eidses sought to empower the powerless and raise a family despite revolution, disease and disability. Back in Canada, Helen took in the homeless and Ben became president of Steinbach Bible College. As first chancellor, he continues a counseling, healing prayer ministry.

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“A pilgrimage of faith with a remarkable missionary couple,...exploratory, exciting, humorous, tumultuous and dangerous but always immensely rewarding. Descendants of rugged Russian Mennonite immigrants, ...among the Lunda-Chokwe, [they showed] genuine love..., a respect [for] their cultures,... an open door [for those] seeking counsel, help and prayer;...a readiness to intervene in defense of the defenseless even at personal risk, Helen's constant availability as a nurse and midwife, Ben's mastery of the local language,...tribal proverbs and legend.... Braving serious physical illnesses .., they persevered…. Many...remember them with gratitude and call them blessed -Jim Bertsche, a missionary colleague and past AIMM Executive Secretary

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Faith Eidse, Ph.D., is Adjunct Professor of English at Barry University, an environmental writer and author of the award-winning oral history, Voices of the Apalachicola. Ben and Helen Eidse won a Lifetime Service Award from the Association of Anabaptist-Mennonite Missiologists and were recognized for their cultural sensitivity. Ben is at work on his Ph.D. dissertation, The Lunda-Chokwe View of Witchcraft and Its Implications for Biblical Discipleship. Ben and Helen were inspired by sermons, tracts and autobiographies, to write articles, diaries and letters about their work in Congo. Faith was born in Congo where she wrote high-adventure letters to her cousins in Canada. They collaborated with Helen before her passing in 2010, to write a book that would glorify a loving God who transforms lives, heals all our diseases, delivers good news to the poor, freedom to captives and recovery of sight to the blind.

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Contributors

Author

Faith Eidse

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