On Sept. 12, 2025, the evening of the TWU Alumni Awards, a sense of quiet anticipation filled the room. When Mary Wakutz (’14, BSN, ’21, MSN) was called to the stage, the applause was long and warm, honouring a nurse whose faith has taken her from late-night deliveries in Canadian hospitals to makeshift field clinics overseas.
“I’m not someone who is always super eloquent or great with words,” she said as she accepted the Live Faithfully Alumni Award. “Being able to show people my faith through my actions really resonated with me.”
Her story is less about the spotlight and more about the quiet places: the bedside at 3 a.m., the clinic tent, the hallway where fear hangs heavy, or the backyard where she now watches her son chase ants. It is a story of faith lived steadily, one patient, one prayer, and one act of care at a time.
A Calling That Took Root at TWU
Mary did not arrive at University with a master plan. She came with openness and a willingness to serve.
“On a bit of a whim, I applied into the Nursing program in my first year and got in, and everything sort of fell into place after that,” she said. The fit was immediate.
“Nursing at TWU shaped me in a lot of ways for how I practice today,” she reflected. “Learning from professors who shared the same faith as me and weaving that faith into research papers and projects was powerful. We had travel studies, clinicals, religious studies, art—it all worked together. You’re learning in class, then you’re out in clinicals bringing it back and reflecting. You’re always finding the balance of what you’re learning and applying it.”
Those years taught her not just how to practice nursing, but how to pray while she worked, how to be present in rooms where fear and pain were thick, and how to see Christ in the faces of those she cared for.
Strong Medicine, Tender Balance
Mary has practiced in pediatrics, surgical care, and labour and delivery. She finds the work fulfilling and purposeful.
“There’s a lot about nursing that keeps me there and keeps drawing me back because it is quite academic and intense, but it’s also very tender and very slow,” she said. “In any given day, you get both parts of that, sometimes in the same moment. An emergency is happening, and you still need to have that tender balance.”
For Mary, that balance is not just a professional skill. It is faith in action.
“That is a really special place that we get to share God’s love and be faithful in that way and care for his people,” she said. “That’s something I always wanted in my life.”
Saying Yes to Need, Near & Far
Since graduating from Trinity Western University in 2014, Mary has served in multiple medical ministries.
In April–May 2019, Mary and her husband Matt led a team of nurses to Kibaale, Uganda, where they worked alongside clinic staff, joined home visits, ran an outreach medical clinic for a nearby rural community, and provided health education to students at the Kuwasha School. They returned in October 2019 to continue supporting the local nurses, assist with more home visits, and contribute to early planning for the expansion of the rural clinic into a maternity hospital.
Throughout 2019, Mary also volunteered weekly through Village Church, which partners with Surrey Urban Mission to provide medical care to unhoused neighbours in Canada.
In November 2019, Mary and her husband officially joined the Samaritan’s Purse Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART). Their first deployment was to Cremona, Italy, in April–May 2020, during the earliest months of the COVID-19 emergency, when the city was one of the hardest-hit areas in the world. There, they worked twelve-hour shifts in a field hospital, head to toe in protective equipment, caring for COVID-positive patients.
From September to November 2020, Mary and Matt served for three months in South Sudan with Samaritan’s Purse DART, focusing on infection control initiatives in local communities and healthcare centres. During this time, Mary also completed her graduate project with TWU, developing an education toolkit for nurses in Canada to use when caring for structurally vulnerable women using substances during pregnancy.
In May 2022, Mary and Matt returned to Kibaale for a third time, leading another team of nurses to partner with the newly expanded maternity department, provide antenatal care in local communities, conduct more home visits, and run an eyeglass clinic through “Vision 20/20” for the Kibaale community.
“Mary has always had the heart and compassion to work alongside structurally vulnerable populations when providing nursing care,” said Dr. Barbara Astle, who supervised Mary’s project and has mentored her through both degrees.
Faithfulness in the Ordinary
Mary hopes her story inspires others to see faithfulness not as a single grand act but as a rhythm of saying yes to God every day.
“My biggest hope is that people are just inspired to live faithfully in a normal day,” she said. “It doesn’t always look big and bold and exciting. For a while it was very exciting days overseas. Now it’s quiet days at home, and I hope in the future, we’ll have exciting days overseas again as a family, serving together. But there is something beautiful about living your faith in a normal day. Those days, put together one by one, lead up to a beautiful life lived faithfully.”
A Call to Live Faithfully
Mary Wakutz’s story is not about applause, it is about invitation. Faithfulness is not measured by distance travelled or headlines made but by steady obedience and presence.
“Nursing is my jam,” she said. “This is who I am, this is what I want to do. And it just felt like a very practical way I could live out my faith on the day-to-day.”
Her life reminds us that the kingdom of God is built one faithful moment at a time: in midnight prayers, in whispered encouragements, in showing up when it matters most. Her story does not end with applause on a stage but continues in each new opportunity to serve, whether in a clinic, a church, or a kitchen at home.
