My wife and I were reminiscing the other day about the fact that next month we will be celebrating eleven years of marriage, and we were amazed how quickly the time has passed. We also remembered that it will be twelve years in September with Princess Diane and Mother Teresa of Calcutta died.

Although an Evangelical Christian, I have nothing other than respect and admiration for the amazing achievements on behalf of the poor, by the dedicated life of Mother Teresa. The following is but a ‘snapshot’ of that amazing life, surrendered to Christ, and displaying throughout her life her total reliance and absolute certainty of the promises of Jesus Christ given on a Galilean hillside two thousand years ago.

“Therefore, do not worry, saying, ‘what shall we eat?’ or ‘what shall we drink?’ or ‘what shall we wear?’……for your Heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”  Matthew 6:31-33

In the afternoon of August 16th 1948, Sister Teresa came to Calcutta with nothing more than a small suitcase, five rupees and her confidence in the call of God. She was thirty eight, frail in health, small in stature, but entering a future with the single weapon of her immense faith and the certainty of the call of God and His abiding presence in her life.

Her first hours in the city were desperate. Within a short period of time, she had given four of her five rupees to a poor man, and the last to a priest who approached her with a money box. With nothing left but her small suitcase and a few personal belongings, her faith did not falter, but her strength did, and she was tempted to return to the comparative comfort of her former convent. She overcame her feelings by reflecting on how the loneliness and the lack of basis necessities must weigh on the poor. She garnered strength from an inner conviction that confirmed her decision… “My God I feel so weak, I feel I lack everything. Come to my aid. You! Only You Lord.”

She would set our each morning, with a sandwich in her pocket, to work in the slums among the abandoned. The sandwich usually became someone else’s lunch, which usually left the tireless nun fasting until she returned to the Asylum for the elderly in the evening. Her streetcar money usually disappeared in the same way; someone needed money for food or clothing or medicine. I was not unusual for her to walk home on an empty stomach.

World Recognition.
In 1979, thirty one years after following the call of God to launch out with five rupees, a small suitcase of personal belongings, the work of Mother Teresa of Calcutta was internationally recognized. She became the recipient of both the official Nobel Prize for Peace and Popular Prize for Peace. Mother Teresa returned to Calcutta with a cheque for approximately $400,000. The poor cared for by the Missionaries of Charity became the beneficiaries. As Mother Teresa noted, “For the poor God performs a miracle every day.” There are abundant examples of these many miracles.

God Provides.
Many people believe that the global reality Mother Teresa called Providence acts by secondary causes. In other words God usually uses people. For example, instead of miraculously filling the Little Sisters of the Poor's pantry, clothing racks, or medicine chests during the night. God softly awakens a human heart in people of generous means around the world, often when those people have more than enough. When least expected a truck driver will arrive at a soup kitchen, and say, "Let's see Mother, I've been given this load paid in full, to be delivered to this address. Where do you want me to put it?"

One of the most unforgettable stories Mother Teresa ever told was about a woman who, like many in Calcutta, had been born and raised in the streets without ever knowing the protection and warmth of a home. She found her dying on the streets. Her body covered with worms and a gangrenous leg had been half gnawed away by rats. Mother Teresa picked her up, carried her to the shelter, bathed her in warm water and placed her in a bed. The dying woman struggled to express what she was feeling. Finally she managed a few whispered final words. "I have lived like an animal in the streets. This is the first time my body has rested between two sheets. Finally I'm going to die like a human being, and in a few hours I'll be surrounded by love and care for ever." Mother Teresa ended the story by saying, "A most beautiful smile formed on her lips. Perhaps never in my life have I seen a smile so serene as that."

At her death, one of the many descriptions of Mother Teresa proclaimed her  “As one of the most powerful women on earth!”
She was that and more, simply because what she achieved in her remarkable life was accomplished only by her faith, her absolute belief in the promises of the bible, her love for the poor and her total and complete surrender to the will of God.