Evelyn 'Granny' Brand (Part 2)

Evelyn's persistent spirit continued to thrive despite the challenges she faced, even when after the death of her husband Jesse Brand, she never relented.

Bible verse for today: Numbers 13:30 Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.” (NIV)

Yesterday we began a story on the life of Evelyn Brand who got the call from God at age 30 to go preach in India.

Evelyn's persistent spirit continued to thrive despite the challenges she faced, even when after the death of her husband Jesse Brand, she never relented.

Her fire for God was unquenchable and she served God, preaching the gospel until the day she died.

The Word for Today devotional by United Christian Broadcasters (UCB) says:

Here’s the rest of Evelyn Brand’s story. At age seventy she received word from her home mission office that they weren’t going to give her another five-year term. But she had Caleb’s ‘we can certainly do it’ attitude. A party was held to celebrate her time in India, and everyone there cheered her on. ‘Have a good trip back home,’ they all said. ‘I’ll tell you a little secret,’ she announced, ‘I’m not going back home. I’m staying in India.’ Evelyn had a little shack built with some resources that she had smuggled in. Then she bought a pony to get around the mountains, and this septuagenarian would ride from village to village on horseback to tell people about Jesus.

She did that for five years on her own. One day, at seventy-five years old, she fell and broke her hip. Her son, Paul Brand, the eminent doctor, said to her, ‘Mum, you’ve had a great run. God’s used you. It’s time to give it up now. You can go back home.’ She replied, ‘I am not going back home.’ She spent another eighteen years travelling from one village to another on horseback. Falls, concussions, sicknesses, and ageing could not stop her. Finally, when she hit ninety-three years old, she could not ride a horse any more. So the men in these villages—because they loved Granny Brand so much—put her on a stretcher and carried her from one village to another. She lived two more years and gave those years as a gift, carried on a stretcher, to help the poorest of the poor. She died, but she never retired. She just graduated.