On a sunny afternoon in September, mission workers Steve and Mary visited the SIM UK office and encouraged the team with stories of God at work during 33 years of overseas mission work.
After completing a short-term assignment in Bolivia during his university studies, Steve felt led back to the country to serve long-term. Serving for so many years allowed them to see a shift in mission work:
“The most exciting thing to see is a country that’s received missionaries for a century, now starting to send their own missionaries. … There are now Bolivian missionaries serving in Kenya, Indonesia and a number of places that are not as open to granting visas to Western countries – but Bolivians can go.”
The Hawthornes used the skills God has given them in medicine and education to further his kingdom. Steve worked 15 years in a rural hospital and Mary used her gifts in education to do Sunday school training. Both were also involved in leadership development among the Quechua churches.
In 2012, they faced new opportunities and challenges after relocating to Potosí, in Bolivia, where there’s a need to share Christ’s love with the mining communities. As one of the highest cities in the world – at 4,090 metres (13,420 ft) above sea level – Potosí was once the largest and richest city on the planet. The sprawling Cerro Rico (literally ‘Rich Mountain’) towers over the city and has been mined for silver for 500 years.
The miners of Potosí work in some of the darkest places on earth, physically and spiritually, and most have never heard God’s good news of salvation.
“Because of the work they do underground, the miners feel like they’re working in the devil’s territory and so make sacrifices to an image of the devil at the entrance to every mine. … If anyone didn’t participate in the offerings to the devil, the miners thought they could bring bad luck to the whole crew.”
Getting access into the mines to share the gospel wasn’t going to be easy, but God used Steve and Mary to shine his light through the darkness.
Every week, a lady would bring her children to the local church the Hawthornes attended. Her husband, Luis*, who had been a miner since his teenage years, didn’t join them. One day, while working in the tunnels far underground, Luis was unaware that NOx, a colourless, odourless gas, which forms after the explosion of dynamite, had collected. Overcome with fumes, he fell backwards and broke his neck.
Luis spent two months in the hospital, with his neck immobilised. One afternoon, a woman from another local church made her regular visit to local patients.
“He still remembers seeing her enter his ward sort of silhouetted – there was a window with the sun setting behind her, lighting her up where her profile was dark but there was this glow around her. She came over and shared the gospel with him, and that’s how he became a Christian.”
This gave Steve the opening he needed to get inside the mines, and he became an occupational health and safety worker for the mining company. Luis, now recovered, invited the Hawthornes and other miners to his house for Bible study, and Steve and Mary were able to help them understand the Scriptures and to help them share the gospel message.
In 2022, Steve and Mary relocated to the States and continue their mission work as part SIM’s Health Ministries Team. They recruit, prepare and journey with healthcare workers, helping them flourish as they make disciples of Jesus Christ in communities where he is least known.
The connections made after many years of faithful service are continuing to bear fruit. Steve and Mary’s background working in South America have enabled them to link Esther, a dentist from Bolivia, with an SIM family in Peru who make trips out into the countryside to give dental treatment in Quechua villages. As a native Quechua speaker and with a heart to use her profession for mission work, Esther will make a valuable addition to the trips.
“That’s what I like about my job – being able to network people that we’ve known, people that we’ve discipled in the past in Bolivia with people who are using their vocation in healthcare ministries to make disciples of Jesus Christ. Join them up to see even more fruit from what they do.”
Pray for Steve and Mary
- As Steve shifts from working overseas to an office-based role supporting those going on mission.
- For the set of guidelines the Health Ministries team are creating for how to do Healthcare Ministries well – that field testing goes well, and these can be implemented soon.
- That the document will be useful to those working in many countries around the world.
*pseudonym used. Featured image: by SeetoPhotography