Show Notes
Host Kristy Graham takes listeners behind the scenes to meet a staff member who has been serving with Samaritan’s Purse for 24 years. Bev Kauffeldt, who currently leads the apprenticeship program, started with Samaritan’s Purse as an intern. Since then, she has worked in 19 countries with the ministry including Liberia during the height of the Ebola outbreak and the first COVID-19 Emergency Field Hospital in Italy. She shares how these experiences pushed her to trust God more.
Kristy first asked Bev how God prepared her for what she is doing today. It started when she was just a little girl, living in a gold mining camp.
“I think God was preparing me to live in remote areas—even little things like learning how to drive a dirt bike. If you're in the field, especially in Liberia, it’s the main way we got around to different projects.” – Bev Kauffeldt
Bev is humble. Instead of talking about her accomplishments, Bev focused on failure, and how it has shaped her leadership today. She shares her failures with candor both to Kristy in this episode and to the young men and women that she is training as a part of the apprenticeship program.
Throughout her life, Bev has continually been faced with the reality of the deep faith it takes to trust God in every situation.
“I thought I had a lot of trust. I thought I didn't have a lot of fear. I thought I trusted God with everything. I had no idea what was coming. I was so naive, and if I dare say foolish in some ways of thinking that you ever arrive. … I'm going through that and asking those questions. Do I trust that God's in control?” – Bev Kauffeldt
Kristy and Bev go on to talk about resiliency and how challenging circumstances always precede the development of resiliency. The important thing is not our own strength, but learning to rely on God’s strength. This is what develops true resiliency.
“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” – 2 Corinthians 12:9 (ESV)
Bev Kauffeldt has served with Samaritan’s Purse around the world for more than two decades. Her life experience internationally coupled with her own testimony and cancer diagnosis have taught her to rely on God for strength daily. Bev candidly shares about failure and how it has taught her to rely on Christ.
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