Eva Massey

Eva lives in Leek, 12 miles north of Stoke and is originally from Sweden, “I lived in India for 5 years. I’ve lived in Yemen for 5 years and now I’ve lived here 28 years.”

Eva felt God calling her to work in India, she worked as a nurse in a church hospital, “I’m a trained, operating theatre nurse and general nurse.” She left for India when she was 25. “People were asking me if I had a culture shock. I didn’t really because I expected India to be different and it was. But when I came back to Sweden I had a culture shock because I expected Sweden to be as it was, but it wasn’t.”.

Living in an Indian village in the early 70’s meant everything was valued, she explains, “My church magazines, anything like that, if it was a decent quality we made medicine bags. We folded the paper in a certain way so patients could take the medicine home with them in a bag.

I came back to Sweden and found that if there’s nothing wrong with the furniture (but it’s just a bit boring.) everything goes out and everything new is in. That was a culture shock you know, nothing was valuable. I came back in December ’74 and it was such a shock to the system.”

She met her husband before going to India when she was in England, “Hindi teachers in India don’t speak Swedish unfortunately so I had to learn more English to be able to learn Hindi.” So she went to England for half a year in the summer of 1969.

From London she went to Selly Oak where she met her husband at a gathering for different colleges “He says he saw me coming out on the stairs after morning assembly, and knew he was going to marry me. Fortunately he didn’t tell me that because I would have run a mile.” They bumped into each other a couple of times, eventually her husband asked her if she was interested in going to a missionary meeting, Eva agreed, “and the rest is history” she says.

Eva went to back Sweden for a few months whilst she waited for her visa to India. “When I went to India I landed in London for 24 hours, and when I left I had a shiny ring on my finger.” Although it was tough for Eva being apart from her fiancé in India she found it very rewarding.

She returned to England after their marriage in Sweden, in march 1975. That autumn they moved to Sweden so that her husband would learn Swedish and Swedish customs.

From 1978 to 1981 and again in 1988-1990, they went to Yemen to work at a training centre. Eva created and taught a course for women in hygiene, nutrition, mother and childcare.The course also taught women how to look after ill relatives and how to sew and knit for their families.

“Now it’s awful, awful, awful, but I loved it there. We really liked it. People were friendly, very nice. We went everywhere on foot usually, around and about Taiz where we worked.”

“I climbed a steep hill behind somebodies house to see what was further up and this lady looked down from a roof top and said ‘What are you doing?’ so I said ‘Just out walking’ and they’re thinking, ‘You’re not just walking. You’re either going somewhere, or doing something, you’re not just walking.” But she said ‘Come in for a cup of tea.’ so I thought alright then. I thought nobody knows where I’ve gone, nobody knows where I am but fortunately she was just a lovely lady. She got me sitting down on her nice roof and she came with a cup of tea, nice mint tea, with a very, very sweet cake it’s absolutely dripping of honey and syrup.”

Eva now helps out at Asha refugee service in Stoke where she voluntarily teaches English and sewing to asylum seekers and refugees.