A lifetime of being faithful to follow the heart of her heavenly Father has included nearly 30 years of involvement with TWR and taken Pam and her husband, Steve, to Asia after they “retired.” There Pam puts God’s compassion into action and serves the suffering women of Asia through her work with Project Hannah and more. Links to Pam's Nepal Travel Journal entries are below the Q&A.

1. How did you learn about Project Hannah?

Our Pastor, Dr. Carl Seyffert, left our church to become the Director of TWR Canada in 1982. He invited us to join in the work as lay-representatives for Southwest Ontario and we were repeatedly challenged ourselves as we spoke in churches about the impact TWR was having as they broadcast the gospel around the world. We made many personal friends. Even after we stepped out of that role to pursue a short-term ministry in Bangladesh in 1987, we continued to support TWR through prayer as well as financially. And, we watched with interest as new programs developed. In our home church, our friendships with Gerald and Gloria Hayes and Colleen Shoemaker kept us up-to-date on TWR activities. And it is through them that I first learned about Project Hannah (Gerald Hayes recently retired from leading TWR Canada and Colleen serves as Project Hannah Coordinator for TWR Canada).

2. What took you to Asia?

Having spent a year at a jungle hospital station in Bangladesh, our prayer as a couple was that God would allow us to spend our retirement years serving once again in Asia. In April 2007, with our three children through post secondary education and all of them having left Ontario, it was clear that we could now embark on that dream. My husband, Steve, accepted a teaching position in Kuala Lumpur in a secular pre-university preparatory program for students wishing to attend university in the west. This position has allowed him wonderful opportunities to speak into the lives of many of the brightest young minds of this country, most of whom have had no previous exposure to a worldview other than that of the predominant belief system.

     Needless to say, teaching not only provides for our living expenses but also provides me with the funds to do my ministry. Given our long-time interest in the work of TWR, it was very exciting to see God open up an opportunity for me to become involved with Project Hannah in Southeast Asia.

3. Tell us a little about your background

I grew up in a Christian home and accepted the Lord as my personal Savior at the age of eight. I am a Registered Nurse who spent my entire career working in the mental health system in Ontario. Prior to leaving work to spend the precious early years with our three children, I worked as a frontline nurse in Psychiatry. On my return, however, my career took a different direction as I took on roles in Administration, first in frontline management and in later years more extensively in program planning and evaluation, quality assurance and human resource management.

4. Why were you interested in working with Project Hannah in Asia?

My heart has repeatedly been challenged as I have developed friendships with the Project Hannah teams in Southeast Asia. This is an amazing group of women with a passion to impact the women of their own nations and bring them the message of hope. Project Hannah provides them with the means and the tools to effectively reach women who are isolated and searching.

     I have also had the privilege of visiting Project Hannah listeners in a number of countries and hearing firsthand how the lives of women, children and families have been touched through the broadcasts, prayer calendar and personal visits. Prayer is the key to reaching into the hearts of these women and their cultures. And practical spiritual and life lessons [in the Women of Hope programs] are otherwise unavailable or inaccessible in many areas. Radio can reach into remote villages, prisons, brothels and even into the privacy of wealthy homes where women are isolated by cultural norms, fears and violence.

5. What can you tell us about women in Asia and how God is using Project Hannah among them?

The women in Asia are no different from women anywhere else in the world. They desire to love and be loved, live lives with dignity, equality and meaning, be the best wife and mom they can be and raise their families in a safe and healthy environment. They long to see their children succeed and take their rightful place in an adult world.

     The difference for many of the women in Asia is that they struggle to do this in often unthinkable conditions. Some face poverty and want so severe that they have no access to safe water, basic nutrition, healthcare or education. Many spend as much as twelve hours a day in hard physical labor just to grow some rice or earn a few cents to feed their family. At times, women are forced into risky and demeaning sexual activity just to meet the most basic needs of their family.

     Gender inequity in many countries leaves women disproportionately vulnerable to malnutrition, ill health and the need to carry the burden of care for the family and the ill in the community. Young girls are less likely to attend school and more likely to be withdrawn early, limiting their access to education. There are often heavy consequences for women who attempt to move beyond the constraints of their cultures and often they are punished by rape or are driven to end their life by suicide in order to escape societal shame. Under such circumstances, it is difficult for disempowered women to negotiate for rights and safety, so marital rape and violence in these situations is high.

6. What does the Project Hannah ministry mean to you personally?

I feel compassion deeply for people and came here to put that into action in some small way. Many times my compassion for the women can feel overwhelming and emotionally draining, especially when the needs I see are so basic and so desperate. I know that I need to find a balance because I can’t help everyone; in fact there is little I can do even for the immediate needs of food and shelter for most of the people I meet.

     When I look past the poverty and dirt and hunger, I see in the faces of the women their beauty and dignity and their hopes for their lives. I realize that except for the place they were born and the circumstances of their lives, they could have all the opportunities that I have.

     I don’t want to meet their physical needs only, as important as they are. I want to meet the needs of their heart; I want for them to know that they have great value and are loved and are entitled to be treated with respect and dignity. I know that for most of these women, their physical needs will never be met fully, but I also know that in Christ all of their spiritual needs can be met and they too can know the peace and joy and hope that only He can give. Through Project Hannah, women are coming to Christ. Not only are their own needs met, but they have the privilege of praying for other women around the world who face the same challenges as they do.

Day 1 Pam Wise Nepal Travel Journal (Traveling the Mountain Roads)

Day 2 Pam Wise Nepal Travel Journal (Evidence of Joy and Peace)

Day 3 Pam Wise Nepal Travel Journal (Radio: the Perfect Medium for Oral Communicators)

Day 4 Pam Wise Nepal Travel Journal (The Happiest Mama)

Day 5 Pam Wise Nepal Travel Journal (For Girls and Mothers: An Education for Life)

Day 6 Pam Wise Nepal Travel Journal (Attitude of Gratitude)

Day 7 Pam Wise Nepal Travel Journal (Living Water: Nepali Prison Ministry)