The Samsons: Missionaries to the Philippines

“From the time I was saved at the age of nine, God began a desire in me for missions and to experience what missionaries were talking about . . . like walking across a river holding their belongings above their head and the other stories they shared.”

Alicia (Ramshur) Samson was born and raised in Columbia, Mississippi, and was part of her church’s (Good Hope) GMA program. Girls Missionary Auxiliary is a discipleship program that she says helped her fall in love with missionaries and missions and where she heard their fascinating stories. She wondered what that life would be like . . . and how she would get there.

During high school, she went on two VSM mission trips that she says changed her life forever. After graduation God gave her the desire to go to nursing school and use that vocation on the mission field. In 2008, a year after graduating from nursing school, she began the process of getting to the mission field for full time ministry and was commissioned by the BMA in 2010. 

After serving briefly in Laos, she went to the Philippines in 2011 and began teaching classes at the BMA Bible College of the Philippines (BMABC) then Bro. Doyle Moore talked to her about running a medical clinic on campus using one of the original buildings from the 1970s. It became an outreach for students to participate in weekend medical missions work, and many came to know Lord. 

An Unexpected Road

In 2012 Alicia began to question where the ministry was headed. Patients at the clinic needed much more advanced care than she was trained for, and she was uncertain where to find the needed personnel. These questions led her to enrolling in medical school in the Philippines. 

Alicia says, “I knew the Lord wanted me to continue my education, but I questioned his plan because I had already gone to nursing school and worked in the U.S. to prepare for the mission field. So why did I need to go back to school at 28 in a foreign country? 

“I thought those days of being a student were far behind me, but ministry was suffering due my limitations as a nurse, so I cautiously applied to medical school and was accepted in June of 2013. Four years later, by the grace of God, I completed medical school.”

During those four years, God continued to reveal unexpected plans to Alicia. Many of her medical school peers shared her passion for improving community health and helping the helpless; however, their reasons for serving the marginalized was about good works, so it became an unexpected evangelism opportunity.

Another of those surprises involved a young church planter and BMABC graduate, Cris Samson.

A Help Meet

Alicia knew Cris from her time teaching at the Bible college, but after five years of ministry, she had accepted the fact that God wanted her to remain single in service to him, so she was not interested in dating and uncertain how two different callings could work. 

Part of Cris’s church planting ministry was working with families of sugarcane workers. He and Alicia, along with her medical school classmates, conducted service projects addressing both physical and spiritual community health. As they served together, the Lord showed her that church planting and medical missions could merge and complement each other in evangelizing the lost. 

Alicia says, “Although it was hard to open my heart to the possibility of marriage and serving together, God helped me realize that we had the same ministry vision and I’m so glad because Cris is the spiritual leader of our home and has helped me with the growth and maturity I needed.” 

They were married in the States in October of 2015 during an eight-day break from medical school then returned to the Philippines for Alicia to finish school and continue to serve there. In 2017 their first child, Benjamin, was born, then Asher joined the family in September 2019, and they have been in the States ever since.  

A Different Plan

With a target date of August 2020 to return to the Philippines, the pandemic and ever-changing travel restrictions have kept them stateside much longer than anticipated with no clear pathway home. Still, they have continued traveling to BMA churches, sharing their ministry vision, and building partnerships to become 100% fully funded.

Alicia spent much of their furlough studying for then taking the USMLE, the U.S. medical licensure exam for doctors. Although she didn’t pass it, Alicia says, “God is sovereign, and He has helped us understand His will and direction. I will continue to pursue my U.S. license even though it may take longer than we thought, but it won’t keep us from continuing ministry with the vision God has given. 

“After our return to the Philippines, we will continue church planting with a support ministry of medical missions under my nursing license just as we’ve been doing in the past. Our hearts long to serve God and it’s what we will do.”

Getting to the Philippines without any kind of family disruption is almost impossible with the current restrictions, but the Samsons are monitoring the ever-changing rules closely and are ready to return home. In the meantime, Cris is helping Alicia with her Illongo skills so she can have deeper communication with Filipinos. Also, they’re raising and teaching two boys, which has helped them learn more about evangelism. 

Their ministry vision is to minister to spiritual needs through addressing physical ones and to show compassion that leads to relationships and   opportunities to share the gospel. They will utilize other God-given resources like former Filipino classmates who are now doctors, and Alicia will continue studying for the USMLE. 

“When God called me to be a missionary,” Alicia said, “I had no idea where I would go or how I would serve, but I was willing to go, first through nursing. That ministry plan has adapted as the Lord has revealed His will, and I’m grateful for the journey. I have been challenged, broken, encouraged, discouraged, uplifted, and blessed, and have grown in more ways than I could have imagined. I look forward to the future as God molds me, His servant, into what I should be.”

From the beginning, ministry has led Alicia down a completely unexpected path. Plans failed, others succeeded and some were completely changed. But the Samsons are thankful that God’s plans are always perfect and right on time.

(Their prayer is to return to the Philippines at the beginning of 2021.)