Rebecca McConnell uncovers the remarkable story of Sadie Minnis, a Northern Irish missionary who spent 50 years serving God in Chile. Her story was rediscovered through an old suitcase – and includes the extraordinary discovery of a street named in her honour.
Fame was not the goal for Sadie Minnis. We don’t know much about her childhood growing up in Northern Ireland, but she would go on to spend 50 years of her life serving God as a missionary in Chile and leave an incredible legacy of faith.
What we do know is that Sadie attended the Bangor Worldwide Missionary Convention in her early years and was there inspired to follow God’s will for her life wherever that would take her. Her story is one of many told in the new book, When God Plants Acorns, that was launched last month to celebrate the Convention’s 90th anniversary.
The discovery of an old suitcase in a church storeroom in Bangor, County Down, became a great aid to the anniversary book project that I was commissioned to write. The book is not a historical record but a compilation of real-life stories of people who have been impacted in many ways by having some connection to the Convention.
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I found a few mentions of Sadie in the suitcase and decided to do some online research to see if I could find out more about her.
I found a few mentions of Sadie in the suitcase and decided to do some online research to see if I could find out more about her. My time was well rewarded. I was able to find her testimony, in which she cited Worldwide as a major influence in her taking the then-arduous journey to Chile to tell others about Jesus with Gospel Mission of South America.
Fittingly, she left Irish shores on St Patrick’s Day, 17 March 1948. This extract from her testimony describes her initial reactions to landing in the country she would spend half a century serving in: “I got my first glimpse of the people in the very early morning as our train stopped at stations on the way South, after crossing from the Argentine into Chile. The busy scene was like a bright, painted moving picture, strange and new, and I looked and looked, not wanting to miss one single detail of it. My heart went out to the people and I prayed that the Lord would love them through me, and bring many to Himself by His Holy Spirit. I was given a warm, loving welcome by all at Headquarters and it was a great joy to meet with those I had long prayed for and known only through the pictures in the newsletters.”
Then I came across a blog article with some amazing information – because of the impact of Sadie’s life and Christian witness in the area, the locals named a street after her! Diana Delacruz, writing in her blog, One Hundred Years of Service, talked about the international mission agency that she and her husband work with in Chile, which was also the Gospel Mission of South America. “Following WWII, Irish nurse Sadie Minnis and Canadian newlyweds, the Pooles, pioneered in the outer islands of the Chiloé Archipelago. Sadie was more of a grandmother than a coworker to my husband and me… A street in the island town of Achao is named after her!”
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When I contacted Diana to confirm this, she was able to tell me some more: “The street is actually called ‘Misionera Sara Minnis’ in Spanish. Sara is the name she went by in Chile. She was one of the most wonderful missionaries I have ever known. She was like a mother (almost grandmother!) to my husband, myself and our three daughters.”
How incredible that in the island town of Achao, which is over 7,500 miles away from Northern Ireland, Sadie’s name lives on!
How incredible that in the island town of Achao, which is over 7,500 miles away from Northern Ireland, Sadie’s name lives on! It is a case of where the internet does good, bringing nuggets of information that we couldn’t get anywhere else. Back to the suitcase – we know from the programmes that Sadie came back to be a speaker at Bangor Worldwide in 1986 as part of their Golden Jubilee Convention. It is one of many full-circle moments that the book covers – Sadie was inspired to go and tell others about Jesus far, far away and returned to, along with the Holy Spirit, inspire another generation with her story of sacrifice. Sadie retired from service in 1998 and moved back to Northern Ireland to live, and went to glory in 2008.
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There are around 40 different stories in the book, many of which are inspirational females. The Convention started in 1937 with three female members on the committee serving alongside seven men, all made up of an interdenominational mix. That is still the case today, with men and women from different church backgrounds working together to put on this annual conference, which raises money and awareness of God’s mission across the world, and continues to send people out and cover them in prayer.
Whilst some very famous names have spoken at the Convention – Helen Roseveare, Gladys Aylward and Elisabeth Elliot, to name a few – the book covers lesser-known names of women whom God has used mightily all over the world. When God Plants Acorns is an encouraging read – as I have been inspired by exploring Sadie’s story, I hope you will be too.
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