When God Opens an Impossible Door

In the early 1990s, I was invited to teach an “Approaches to Reaching Muslims” seminar in Abu Dhabi. During one of the breaks, someone introduced me to an elderly Canadian nurse with an intriguing description: “She knows everything about Abu Dhabi.”

As I listened to her story, I soon discovered why. What she shared with me remains one of the most inspiring missionary stories I have ever heard.

Her journey began when she was only 16 years old. She told the elders of her church that she believed God was calling her to the Arab world, particularly to minister among Muslims. Their response was immediate and discouraging.

“Forget about going to the Arab world as a single young woman. It’s simply impossible.”

She was disappointed, but not defeated. She believed the Lord had instructed her to prepare herself as a nurse and midwife and had given her two promises: He would open a door for her to serve in an Arab country, and He would give her fruit for her labor.

So she prepared.

For years, she studied and trained until she became a skilled nurse and midwife. Eventually, she applied to a faith mission and was accepted to serve at a hospital in Abu Dhabi.

This was before the discovery of oil had transformed Abu Dhabi. Instead of the gleaming skyscrapers, luxury hotels, and extraordinary wealth we associate with the region today, she arrived in a poor country with limited resources and inadequate medical care.

The hospital where she served was modest, and its medical services were limited. But in the midst of those limitations, the young Canadian nurse distinguished herself—particularly through her skill in delivering babies and handling difficult births.

Word began to spread.

Women sought her out when they faced complicated deliveries, and eventually her reputation reached the palace. After a particularly difficult experience surrounding the birth of one of his children, the Emir decided that something needed to change.

Then one day, the Canadian nurse received an unexpected summons.

She was to come to the palace.

The Emir told her that he had heard about her remarkable abilities in delivering babies. Then he gave her an extraordinary assignment:

“From now on, I want you to deliver all of my children.”

And she did.

When I met her, she told me that over the years she had delivered approximately 50 of the Emir’s children by four of his wives. Each of those children was a prince or princess.

But delivering those children was only the beginning.

She told me that she had given each of them a Bible. As the children grew, she developed personal friendships with many of them and found opportunities to share the story of Christ. Some would even seek her out when they needed someone they trusted to talk with about the struggles and questions of life.

Then she shared something even more remarkable: some, she said, had accepted Christ and become part of a small underground fellowship of believers.

The teenage girl who had once been told that reaching the Arab world was “impossible” had been given access to places she could never have opened for herself.

Meanwhile, Abu Dhabi was changing dramatically.

Oil was discovered, enormous wealth flowed into the country, and the Emir suddenly possessed the resources to build modern hospitals and bring in highly trained physicians, nurses, and medical technology.

Yet the Canadian nurse’s decades of faithful service had earned her something money could not buy: trust.

She told me that for many years she had been able to go directly to the Emir’s palace when the hospital had a particular need and ask for his assistance.

As she reflected on her remarkable journey, she returned to the promise she believed God had given her when she was still a teenager.

“He promised me two things,” she said. “He promised to open a door for me, and He promised to give me fruit for my labor.”

Then she smiled.

“Both of those promises have been gloriously fulfilled.”

Her story has stayed with me through the years because it reminds us that what appears impossible from a human perspective may simply be a door that God has not opened yet.

A 16-year-old Canadian girl could never have devised a strategy that would give her decades of personal access to one of the most influential royal families in the Arab world. She could not have planned it, negotiated it, or forced it to happen.

She could only prepare, obey, serve faithfully, and trust God with the results.

And sometimes that is precisely how God opens the most unlikely doors.