Anne Dryburgh, Ph.D., has had the pleasure of serving the Lord on the mission field since 1991 when she felt called by the Lord to work on the field in Belgium. She is an ACBC (Association of Certified Biblical Counselors) and IABC (International Association of Biblical Counselors) certified biblical counselor. In addition, Anne is a Commissions Addictions Biblical Counselor through Addiction Connection, an organization led by Mark Shaw that trains men and women to help people struggling with addictions from a biblical perspective. Along with her professional credentials, Anne has written several books for abuse and rape victims including Debilitated and Diminished: Help for Children Women in Emotionally Abusive Marriages and (Un)ashamed: Christ’s Transforming Hope for Rape Victims.
While working with a youth organization in Belgium, she began to see the great need for certified biblical counselors to minister to and train the local women. She also met many abused women in marriages where children were present and/or fellow victims, which led her to pursue work in the areas of substance addictions, abuse, and depression. Her heart for women who have been abused and raped has developed into a deep desire to see more women trained in biblical counseling in Belgium because she is currently the only certified biblical counselor in the country. Such a statistic reflects the reality that Belgium is only 0.2% evangelical Christian. And, since biblical Christians are scarce and biblical counseling even less known in Europe, Anne longs to see education in this field become more readily available for pastors and church leaders as well as all Christians.
While engaged in biblical counseling training and gaining of ministry experience, Anne met Wayne and Susie Vanderwier, founders of Overseas Instruction in Counseling (OIC), in 2006 at a conference where they were teaching about counseling in Europe. She remained in touch with Wayne and so when Wayne and Don Roy travelled to Amsterdam to conduct biblical counseling training for OIC, she began talking with Wayne about setting up a biblical counseling program in Belgium.
Many years later, a fruit of the initial contact and continued connections was Anne’s acceptance as a new Team Member with OIC in late 2019. Unfortunately, because of the shutdowns arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, she has not been able to be as involved with OIC ministry work as she hopes to be in the near future. Dryburgh’s heart longs to see OIC able to take the discussed steps to be involved with training trainers of biblical counseling trainers in an area of the world in deep need as soon as is possible. She has seen hundreds of lives changed by Jesus Christ and the impact of His Word but with very little ongoing discipleship happening. Therefore, as the need for proper biblical counseling and training for same in Belgium becomes ever more evident, Anne and OIC pray the Lord will continue to work in the hearts of people, preparing the field for truth to be implanted and true discipleship to grow through her and OIC’s ministry.
In the future, Dryburgh hopes her partnership with OIC will also allow her to see increasing opportunities for the teaching of biblical counseling to women in particular. There are several ways she could see this taking place but believes that initially hosting of biblical counseling conferences throughout Europe would plant seeds of the Bible’s sufficiency and relevance so people could see and experience how it is applicable in everyday life. This would provide opportunities for training events with more specific teaching as well as freedom to ask questions of experienced biblical counselors. Anne encourages OIC and its supporters to seek the Lord in prayer as well as to pursue practical steps to get biblical counseling training and resources to Europe where people are in desperate need of help. There are many sincere people who think they know the Bible but still seek worldly advice, so she yearns to see more European churches well equipped in biblical faith and practice.
As someone who has walked with people day by day in the nitty gritty of life, Anne encourages anyone looking to travel overseas to the ministry field to prepare to make getting involved in people’s lives a significant priority. Christian ministry, including biblical counseling, requires a deep desire to know and love people with the goal of God being glorified as people are changed by him and his Word. At the same time, as the Lord uses everyone wherever they are and whatever they are doing in their lives, she urges people to submit to the Lord right now in whatever situations he may bring so that their hearts’ attitudes and desires are transformed into what is good, pure, and lovely in his eyes.
Watching what the Lord has done through her counseling has allowed her own heart to be humbled, as Anne continually witnesses Christ’s sufficiency in all things. Knowing that the Lord is amply able to meet the needs of all people has greatly changed her heart and made her much more compassionate towards people. She has learned this through continual submission to the Scriptures, acknowledging its authority over her life. Therefore, Anne is ready, willing, and enthusiastically eager to be moving forward with being a trainer of trainers for the biblical counseling ministry OIC, sharing her great heart’s desire to bring the Lord and His Word to Belgium as well as all countries around the world. So, please keep Anne and her ministry in Belgium, including with OIC, in your prayers and also consider partnering in the work in this needy area of the world in other ways.
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