Endurance is a great teacher

COFFEE WITH WARREN, with Warren Harbeck
Cochrane Eagle, January 25, 2024

Last week’s column on endurance sure resulted in some inspiring responses. One, in particular, really got me thinking. Our longtime coffee companion Annette Stanwick has lived a life characterized by endurance. She is sharing some of her experiences with us this week.

Annette begins her account with reference to her and her husband’s stay in Ethiopia in the late 1970’s. She served as a missionary healthcare provider. “I was delivering babies in mud huts, and holding family-planning and immunization clinics sponsored by the World Health Organization.”

But those were difficult years in that country. With reference to the Ethiopian Revolution of a few years earlier, she notes: “We had no idea of the terrible stuff and the genocide that was going on until after we arrived. The world at large wasn’t aware of what was going on because the military government kept a very tight rein on information leaving the country through letters, phone calls, etc. We were actually threatened that, if we shared information, there would be consequences. Not every day was terrible, but over the three years we were there, the stuff we witnessed, experienced and heard about was phenomenal.”

In her response, Annette refers not only to her times of adversity and endurance there, but back here in Canada, as well. Annette wrote:

WHEN I PONDER the concept of endurance in your recent column, Warren, I define endurance as the stamina and fortitude to carry on in the face of adversity; the strength and staying power enabling one to survive in extreme circumstances.

I’ve endured many extreme circumstances in my lifetime. For example, while living in Ethiopia, I survived a violent attempted abduction, by mustering the strength to literally beat my assailant with a bag of four individually wrapped rolls of toilet paper! Surely, the angels made those paper rolls into bricks!

I survived being shot at; overcame a deadly strain of meningitis; sat before a firing squad; and lay flat on the floor in the centre of a home while we listened to screams and gun fire as 34 people were being murdered next door.

Back in Canada, I survived a catastrophic head-on collision where I experienced 13 broken bones, massive internal injuries, eight surgeries and four-and-a-half months in hospital where I worked hard to learn to talk and walk again.

Then 10 years later, my brother Soren was tragically murdered in the US. I never dreamed I would feel led by God to publicly forgive his killers in the courtroom (your Dec. 22, 2022 column). That experience absolutely transformed my heart, life and future.

Each experience I went through was extremely tough and, at times, terrifying. I can truthfully say, I have learned the most about myself, about others and about God through my times of adversity and endurance.

I love this quote at the conclusion of the poster you shared: “When trouble comes, endurance gives us the strength to stay the course.”

Never once did I give up in anger, fear, despair, or depression but kept going, fighting, working hard, and believing in my God who sustained and strengthened me throughout each of those unforgettable experiences.

Annette Stanwick, BScN
Speaker, Author & Coach

THANK YOU, ANNETTE. We, too, have much to learn through adversity and endurance. Your words are worthy wisdom for our own journeys.

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