Across Illinois | “If I reach down to my thigh, I feel what feels like a bullet wound,” veteran missionary Tina Boesch told the more than 700 women gathered at multiple sites across Illinois attending Priority 2026. “And that would be a great story, wouldn’t it, if I actually had a bullet wound? I don’t.”
The injury, caused by a metal radiator pipe that punctured her leg as she rushed for a bus, resulted in weeks of daily medical visits in a post-Soviet hospital system that lacked pain medication. Yet Boesch said the experience became a formative moment in her understanding of ministry.
Boesch, who served 19 years with the International Mission Board in Central Asia, recounted the experience from her first solo stay overseas at age 19. The serious leg injury in Bratislava, Slovakia, left her alone and dependent on strangers for help.
“That wound ended up being an open door for ministry,” she said. “It wasn’t ministry that I could have orchestrated. It was only something that the Lord could do in his own time and his own way.”
Now the manager of the Bible Study Team at Lifeway, where she has worked for six years, Boesch used her personal story as a lens for understanding the Apostle Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, the focus of the conference theme, “Beautiful Scars: From Pain to Purpose.”
“This is the most vulnerable of all Paul’s letters,” she said, describing a relationship she called “strained” between Paul and the Corinthian church he founded. According to Boesch, Paul faced criticism, slander, and misunderstanding from the very believers he loved.
“They’re saying things like, ‘His letters are weighty and powerful, but his physical presence is weak and his public speaking amounts to nothing,’” she said. “We’re talking about the Apostle Paul, and this is a church he planted.”
Despite personal suffering—including what Paul refers to as his “thorn in the flesh”—Boesch said Paul chose to respond with love rather than withdrawal or defensiveness.
“He leans into vulnerability and love,” she said. “Pain never disqualifies you from ministry.”
Turning hurts to helps
“I think it is impossible to grow through life without acquiring scars—physical and emotional, and sometimes spiritual as well,” Boesch told the Illinois Baptist in an interview before the April 24-25 conference. Yet she was careful to note that scars represent something profoundly different from wounds.
“A wound isn’t healed yet, but a scar is actually a sign of healing. It is a witness to a moment when you were wounded, but it is no longer painful in the same way,” she said. That distinction shaped the heart of her message.
Boesch believes ministry flows most faithfully from places where God has already brought healing. “It can be really dangerous to reach out to people to comfort them while we ourselves are still not healed,” she explained. “But when God does accomplish something in our lives through pain and suffering, it can be a powerful opportunity.”
Once healing has taken place, scars become a testimony of God’s faithfulness and a bridge to serve others.
Boesch emphasized that meaningful ministry does not always mean having the perfect words. Sometimes, simply showing up can be enough. “The ministry of presence is very, very real for people who are hurting,” she said. That presence—quiet, faithful, and compassionate—often speaks louder than advice or solutions.
At the Priority Conference, Boesch helped women see how God moves them from pain to purpose. “Every one of us will experience painful things,” she said, “but the Lord will work them for our good—and also for the good of others.” She pointed to the biblical call to comfort others as we ourselves have been comforted, reminding women their stories matter and can be used for God’s glory.
“So often women assume they do not have much to offer in the kingdom because they think, ‘I’m not enough,’” she shared. “I’m not strong enough. I’m not well-spoken enough. I don’t have enough time… whatever it is.” Rather, she said women need to see “it isn’t about their own strengths and giftedness. It’s about the Spirit’s work in them through Jesus Christ.”
Her deepest hope for the women who attended Priority was simple yet profound: “That our life has purpose.” Women are not only blessed by God, Boesch said, but called to be a blessing. “When God saves us, blesses us, calls us… We have this incredible purpose to be a blessing to others.”
In addition to her work at Lifeway, Boesch has a new book coming out next year, The Language of Blessing: Discovering and Sharing the Gift of Life in God’s Presence. Her first book was Given: The Forgotten Meaning and Practice of Blessing.
Host churches for the three Priority Conference sites were Tabernacle Baptist Church in Decatur (Central Illinois), the main conference site, Grace Missionary Baptist Church in Markham (Chicago area), and Bethel Baptist Church in Troy (Metro East). The conference was also simulcasted to 13 local churches.
Priority 2027 is scheduled to be held April 23-24.