Rae Hussey
Anyone who has been on a short term missions trip to another nation knows that life can be radically changed by the experience. That was certainly the case for Rae Hussey when she went on a small team to Russia 15 years ago. She had been teaching for 37 years. She had also been a children’s ministry leader and a member of our church’s missions committee. However, she had no plans to personally pull up her roots, move to another country and serve as a missionary; but God had different ideas.
Each month we will post a chapter of Rae’s story. It is a story of God’s hand graciously but insistently compelling her to reach out incarnationally to the children of Belarus. As Jesus came to dwell among us, Rae went and lived among the people of Belarus. As God has a heart for children, Rae has demonstrated a heart for the children of Belarus.
Blacksmith, Christian Donke, at Khatyn War Memorial, Belarus.
I visited Rae a number of times while she was in Belarus. One of my vivid memories was seeing the Khatyn war memorial. At the memorial there is a confronting statue of a Blacksmith carrying his dead son. He had returned to his home village after it was destroyed by an army patrol in World War Two and discovered his son had been killed along with 75 other children. The Blacksmith illustrated to me God’s heart for his children in Belarus. There is still a social and economic battle going on in that nation and the victims are often children. Communism has eroded family values and left a moral vacuum in family life. Rae understood that God’s heart is like that of the Belarussian Blacksmith. He weeps over lost children.
As you read Rae’s story, my prayer is that you will be encouraged, stirred and motivated to pursue God’s heart in your own journey. We all have a story, and God has called each one of us to a life of courage, risk and impact. What will be the next chapter of your story?
– Andrew