Hi there and welcome back to Van Life Devotions Season Two, where we are sharing amazing stories of ordinary Australians who with a bit of faith, achieved much for the Kingdom of God and for others, and for some it cost them dearly. For today’s remarkable person, their faith and hard work among the poor ended up costing their life.
Irene McCormack was born in 1938 in Kununoppin, which is a small rural community in outback Western Australia. Because it was such a small community, Irene was initially educated by the Sisters of St Joseph, and then boarded at Santa Maria College in Perth. It was while she was there that Irene developed her two great loves: serving God and educating children.
By the time Irene was 15, she heard the call to become a nun and, in 1957, she entered the Sisters of St Joseph in Melbourne. She qualified as a teacher and spent the next 30 years teaching in country areas of Western Australia. Sister Irene felt that the less privileged children in outback Australia deserved the same resources and attention as the privileged children in the city. To Sister Irene, education was not a privilege, it was a right to all children.
After 30 years of teaching Sister Irene felt led by God to serve the poor. She arrived in Peru in 1987 for missionary work. Irene's first assignment was in El Pacifico and then after two years left to serve in Huasahuasi, an impoverished village of 5000 people in the Andes Mountains. Sisters Irene and Dorothy Stevenson were asked to supervise the distribution of emergency goods. Sister Irene continued her ministry of providing a library, teaching, and helping children in their homework. Her letters to her family and congregation express her sense of belonging with the people which can be seen in her smiling face in the photos posed with the local children.
On 17 December 1989, the Catholic priests in Huasahuasi were warned of danger from a terrorist group, so they and the two sisters left the village for Lima. McCormack however, felt that the church could not abandon the villagers at this time, so she and Sister Dorothy returned a month later. Huasahuasi went 12 months without a resident priest. During this time the two Sisters served the people, providing spiritual leadership by regularly conducting services and communion as no priests were available to go to the village.
Then, on the evening of 21 May 1991 a terrorist group known as ‘Shining Path’ invaded the village taking four men from their homes to the town's central plaza. They then went to the convent ordering Sister Irene to come out. Sister Dorothy was in Lima receiving medical treatment. Eventually Sister Irene came out and was marched to the plaza and made to sit on the benches alongside the four men. For an hour the five victims were interrogated and shouted at. Several local people interceded for the victims' lives, calling them good people and not wrongdoers. Sister Irene was accused of dispensing "American food" and spreading "American ideas" by providing schoolbooks. Local people vouched for her, arguing that she was Australian, not American, but this did not deter the group. At night, young villagers surrounded Sister Irene in darkness, managing to move her back into the crowd. The terrorists noticed her absence, located her and forced her back onto the bench. Eventually the five prisoners were ordered to lie face down on the ground. Each was shot once in the back of the head. On 23 May 1991 a funeral Mass was held before her burial in a Huasahuasi cemetery plot donated by a parishioner.
I can’t begin to imagine what Sister Irene went through in her final hours. David and I have always admired, supported, and prayed for many missionaries who leave our shores to serve God and others. We know of several ladies who have served in other countries like our good friends Joy Atkinson and Sally Burton who as young single women served for decades in Papua New Guinea in different areas, and Ruth Oatridge who served faithfully for years in Tanzania. Never easy leaving family and support networks to serve in third world countries, particularly as a woman, yet each of these people have left amazing legacies that include the translation of the Bible in various tribal languages – a precious gift that is still impacting people within these people groups. And as for Sister Irene McCormack, so many lives were impacted by her good works, to honour her the Irene McCormack Catholic College in Butler Western Australia was named after her when it was founded in 2000, and there are now attempts to have her recognised as a Saint within the Catholic Church.
Before Joshua and the people of God entered a foreign country, God said, “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:9 NIV). Maybe you need to hear this too – be strong and courageous, don’t be discouraged for God is with you. I thank God for missionaries who obey God and go. May they go in God’s strength.
Let’s pray.
Dear God. We thank you for life and faith of Sister Irene McCormick and for the many people she impacted. We pray for missionaries across the world that courageously serve You by helping others. Keep them safe and bless their work. O God, preserve us who travel; surround us with your loving care; protect us from every danger; and bring us in safety to our journey’s end; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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