Miss Emily Astrid Adams, age 21 of Siloam Springs, Arkansas passed away Thursday October 4, 2018 in Siloam Springs from injuries sustained in an automobile accident.
A daughter of Todd and Deborah Adams, she was born February 16, 1997 in France having lived most of her life in Indonesia and the last two years in Arkansas. She was a student pursuing a nursing degree at the John Brown University in Siloam Springs. She was a member of the First Alliance Church of Toccoa.
Survivors include her parents, Todd and Deborah Adams of Indonesia; two brothers and sister-in-law, Sullivan and Natalie Adams and Beau Adams of Toccoa; one sister, Jordan Adams of Toccoa Falls; grandparents Virgil and Bonnie Adams and Jim and Ann Hemminger of Toccoa; a number of cousins.
Henry “Don” Anderson of Calgary, passed away on Monday, March 23, 2015 in his home surrounded by loved ones, after a brief battle with recurring lymphoma cancer at the age of 85 years.
Don was born in Brooks, AB on July 7, 1929 to parents Henry and Dorothy Anderson. He graduated from Crescent Heights High School and further received a degree in Theology from the Canadian Bible College in Regina. Don married Glenna Miller on September 20, 1952.
Don and Glenna pastored in Arcola, SK until God called them to missionary service in the Baliem Valley, in Irian Jaya. They spent 24 years ministering to and with the people in Irian, (known as West Papua). After some work in the new home construction field, Don was called to represent Trans World Radio in Western Canada, where he served until retirement.
Don is survived by his children, son Gerald (Michelle) Anderson, daughter Lenna (Kelly) Heffernan, daughter Priscilla (David) Unger, and five grandchildren Hunter, Walker, Canyon, Aniela and Hannah, sister Pat (Mervyn) Alfred, as well as numerous family and friends. Don was predeceased by his beloved wife of 62 years, Glenna Anderson, and in 1973 by his brother Gordon Anderson.
ANDERSON, Glenna Lavera (nee Miller) - beloved wife of Donavon Anderson of Calgary, Alberta passed away on April 27, 2014 at the age of 86 years. She will be lovingly remembered by her husband and children Gerald (Michelle) Anderson, Lenna (Kelly) Heffermann, Priscilla (David) Unger, and five grandchildren Hunter, Walker, Canyon, Ariela, and Hannah. Also sister June (Don) MacDonald, Isobel Brown, Margaret Proctor, Jim (Eileen) Miller, Sharon (Wayne) Harris all living in Ontario, plus many nieces and nephews. Predeceased by her parents Marion and Jim Miller, sister Buelah Steer, Geraldine McKillop, John Miller and Eleanor Lee. Glenna received her education at the one room Ottewell School, Wiarton High School, and after working a short time in Owen Sound went on to Regina Bible School where she met and married Don. In 1958 they went as one of the first white missionary husband and wife teams to the Baliem Valley in what was once Dutch New Guinea, but now known as West Irian, Indonesia. They spent 18 years there doing the Lord's work coming home on furlough's to Canada. Before coming home on one furlough they cared for a wee baby girl who's mother had died. Not wanting to leave her they had to return home and proceeded with the adoption of 2 children. They returned once again to the Valley taking their 2 children with them and in time they also adopted the wee girl they cared for. After finalizing their missionary work they returned to Canada with the 3 children and settled in Calgary, Alberta and raised their family. Since that time they have returned to the Valley numerous times as they have maintained fond connections with the people, and lifelong friendships with other missionaries who worked there. They made one last trip as recent as March 2014 arriving home on April 18, 2014. In Glenna's words, it was a trip of a lifetime. Her family in Ontario is so very happy for her that she got to go one last time.
Joan Von Renner Andres passed away on June 19, 2019, at her home in Fresno, California. She was 78.
Joan and her twin sister Julie were born on August 6, 1940. They were raised by their mother, Violet (Von Renner) Minter, her husband Jack Minter, and their maternal grandparents, Walter and Ida Von Renner, in Wyandotte, Michigan. Joan and Julie earned their R.N.s at Henry Ford Hospital School of Nursing in 1961. The day they graduated, they drove to Chicago, Illinois, and started their studies at Moody Bible Institute, where they graduated in 1964.
While at Moody, Joan met and fell in love with Jim Andres. They were married on March 2, 1965, in Sentani, Irian Jaya, where they were serving as missionaries with Mission Aviation Fellowship. While there, they had four children, Rick, Jeannie, Bonnie and Becky. They served for 10 years in Indonesia, until Joan contracted a serious illness from which it took her two years to recover.
After returning to the United States in 1975, Joan worked at Olive Street Bridge in mental health counseling and administration. While working full-time, she studied for and obtained her Ph.D. in Psychology in 1989. She finished her career serving in leadership and administrative roles in city and county mental health facilities.
She retired in 2006. After Jim died in 2012, Joan and Julie created a home together and cared for their mother, who died in 2016. Julie and Joan’s children cared for Joan during her brief illness and were with her when she passed away.
She is remembered by her sister, children and grandchildren for her laughter, sense of humor, love of music, uncanny ability to recite poetry and Scripture, deep compassion, and understanding and love of people.
Joan is survived by her sister, four children and eight grandchildren, Clover, Lizzie, Connor, Leela, Cole, Brian, Sage, and Marcus.
Don R. Beiter January 6, 1930 - April 19, 2020 of Ellensburg, WA, passed away Sunday April 19 after an eleven-year battle with Parkinson's Disease. He was born in Kansas. Later his family moved to Pasadena, California. Don often spoke of how much he enjoyed helping his father extract salt from the desert and truck it to farms in southern California to be used for animal feed. Don also achieved the Eagle Scout rank in the Boy Scouts. For 3 years Don played the French horn in the Pasadena City College band, marching in the Rose parade, and performing in the Rose Bowl half time show. Don and several friends sailed to Okinawa, caring for a flock of goats being sent to Japan as humanitarian aid after World War II. During his college years he joined a group that rebuilt an orphanage in Germany. At age 23 Don was called home from college to run the salt mine business for one year after his father died. Then he was drafted to the army peace keeping forces. He served as a clerk typist in Germany for two years. Since the age of 21 Don felt called to missions and he pursued a mission aviation degree from Moody Bible Institute. By age 31 Don was a missionary bush pilot stationed in Dutch New Guinea (Papua, Indonesia) with Mission Aviation Fellowship. There he became reacquainted with Phyllis Griffith, a Bible translator stationed on the south coast of New Guinea with TEAM. Don and Phyllis were married in Dutch New Guinea in 1962. Together they had 4 children and served God in Jungles of Indonesia, high desert of Central Asia, and on the home staff of MAF in California, until retirement in 1996. Even in retirement Don stayed busy working with his hands, building, creating, or repairing equipment. He loved to fly and use his technical skills. In 2002 Don and Phyllis came out of retirement briefly to survey airstrips in Central Asia for re-opening after 9/11. While there, at the age of 73, Don hiked and rode horseback over 14,000-foot mountain passes to reach the remote airstrips being surveyed. Don is remembered by his family as humble, loving and devoted. He always took his family into consideration when making decisions. He loved God deeply and loved learning about God and His creation. Don was purposeful about passing on what he believed with gentleness and respect, never compromising God's standards, standing firm with humility. Don faced adversity with courage and boldness he found in God. Don was an avid reader, loved maps and traveling, and making friends in new places. He left a legacy of faith, devotion to God, love of family, and concern for people around the globe. He was quick to laugh or tell a joke, a patient teacher/mentor. The love of Don's life was Phyllis. He believed she was a God given gift who was his true partner for life and service. He never spoke badly of her and treasured their relationship. Together they spent their retirement traveling to see their children and grandchildren, represented MAF at air shows and in churches, and promoted missions wherever they went. Don is survived by his wife of 57 years, Phyllis Beiter; children, Carol Hennings (Jim); Paul Beiter (Cindy); Jean Lawson (Irwin); and John Beiter (Amy), 10 grandchildren and 2 great grandchildren.
Marjorie E. (Holmes) Bock, 78, of West Newfield, died May 11 at the Maine Medical Center in Portland. She was born in Dover, N.H. on Feb. 9, 1929, a daughter of the Rev. Lester C. and Susan (Maling) Holmes. She attended schools in Worcester, Mass., and Cambridge, Mass., and graduated from Waterboro High School in 1946. She was a 1950 graduate of Gordon College in Boston, Mass. On June 10, 1950, she was married to Henry Bock Jr. in a double ceremony with her sister Elizabeth and her husband P. Bishop Covell at the Alfred Parish Church. The Bocks served as missionaries in Dutch New Guinea (now Papua, Indonesia) from 1954 to 1969. She engaged in pioneer work, Bible translation, literacy and some medical work. Upon their return to New England, Marjorie served several Baptist congregations as the pastor's wife. The Bocks served churches in Somersworth, N.H., West Buxton and Kittery Point. Upon retirement, they served 11 other congregations as interim pastor and wife in the coastal York County area. She was loved and respected throughout the areas in which she lived and worked with her husband. She was predeceased by her parents; stepmother Grace (Milliken) Holmes; brothers Philip A. Holmes, the Rev. Chandler M. Holmes, and Ralph Holmes; and sister Shirley Clarke. Survivors include her husband of 57 years, Henry Bock Jr. of West Newfield; three sisters, Phyllis Mugridge of York, Elizabeth Covell of Eastham, Mass., and Ruth Hammond and her husband Rodney of Lyman; and several nieces and nephews.
Mary Frances "Pinky" (Burtner) Boggs, 90, of Cabot passed away Saturday and is now at home with her Lord and Savior who she faithfully served with gladness. She was born on March 9, 1923, in Jefferson Township, to the late Forest H. Burtner and Mary Lena (Giles) Burtner. Mrs. Boggs was an alumni of Butler High School. She was a member of the Calvary Church of Santa Ana, Calif., and attended the Crosswinds Alliance Church of Butler. Fran, with her husband, George, was a missionary with the Mission Aviation Fellowship and served in Papua (Dutch New Guinea), Laos, Philippines, Kalimantan (Borneo) and Redlands, Calif. She retired on April 4, 1990. Frances Boggs is survived by her husband, George E. Boggs, who she married on May 20, 1946; her son, Barton A. Boggs and his wife, Mary Helen, of Papillion, Neb.; her three daughters, Beverly J. Sasse of Butler, Brenda L. Hall and her husband, Wesley, of Irvington, Va., and Beth Ann Jones and her husband, Rob, of Hooper, Colo.; her nine grandchildren; and her 19 great-grandchildren. Her four brothers, Roger, Vernon, Wendell and Harry Burtner; her two sisters, Joyce Trumbauer and Marilyn Glasgow; and numerous nieces and nephews also survive.
George E. Boggs, 92, of Cabot met his Savior with a smile on his face on Friday at the Good Samaritan Hospice at Concordia. He was born April 3, 1923, in Pittsburgh to the late William B. Boggs and Catherine G. (Ward) Boggs. Mr. Boggs attended Taylor University and the Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics. He was a Naval Aviation cadet and served as a captain in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II and the Korean War. God used his training as a fighter pilot, landing and taking off aircraft carriers to prepare him for his missionary ministry for landing on short rugged jungle airstrips. George, with his wife Fran, was a missionary pilot with Mission Aviation Fellowship and served in Dutch New Guinea (Irian Jaya), Laos, Philippines, Kalimantan (Borneo) and Redlands, Calif. He retired on April 4, 1990. Mr. Boggs was a member of the Calvary Church of Santa Ana, Calif., and attended the CMA Church on Freeport Road. George is survived by one son, Barton A. Boggs and his wife, Mary Helen, of Papillion, Neb.; three daughters, Beverly J. Sasse of Butler, Brenda L. Hall and her husband, Wesley, of Irvington, Va., and Beth Ann Jones and her husband, Rob, of Hooper, Colo.; nine grandchildren; 22 great-grandchildren; and a number of nieces and nephews. In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by his wife, Mary Frances "Pinky" (Burtner) Boggs, whom he married May 20, 1946; one son, Bryan; one granddaughter; one great-granddaughter; two brothers; and one sister.
Russell Bond and Lillian Bryan, a nurse (both from New Zealand) arrived at Sentani in Sept 1951 to serve with UFM. Russell went to Sengge to assist in opening up the work there. A year later they married. In late January 1955 Russell (together with Hans Veldhuis Fred Dawson and 16 Sengge carriers) flew to Hetigima, then trekked for 25 days to reach Lake Archbold. Lillian later joined Russell at Lake Archbold. In July 1956 they moved to Bokondini, then in 1958 went to Wolo. In 1962 due to fighting at Wolo they returned to Bokondini with some of the Wolo believers and Russell had the privilege of baptizing two of the first believers. Russell & Lillian concluded service in DNG in 1963. Russell & Lillian were among the pioneers in the early days in DNG.
Mary Frances Bozeman, 82, resident of DeLand, was ushered into heaven to see her Saviors face on Tuesday, January 14th, 2014. She was born to James and Mary Lord on April 27th, 1931 in Pensacola, Florida. She attended Toccoa Falls Bible College where she met her husband Thomas C Bozeman. They were married in 1952 and began pastoring the Alliance Church in Delray Beach. In 1955 they became missionaries with the Christian and Missionary Alliance, and they served and lived among the Dani tribe in the Baliem Valley for over 35 years. After her husband's death in 1986, she continued ministering with the Christian and Missionary Alliance at Dalat School in Penang, Malaysia. In 1991 she became the Director of Women's Ministries at Deltona Alliance Church in Deltona, Florida for 12 years. During that time she served two terms as Alliance Women's District President. After a life of dedicated service, she retired from full time ministry in 2003. Her passion for studying the Word of God, and caring and praying for others, will be greatly missed. Fran is survived by her five children; Rosalind Hutchinson of Cumming, Georgia, Thomas Bozeman of Memphis, Tennessee, Esther Frazier of Port Orange, Florida, Linda Isais of Volusia Country, Florida, and Ryan Bozeman of Sanford, Florida. She is also survived by her 11 grandchildren and 13 great grandchildren.
Patricia Joy Breuker, age 57, of Grandville, went to be with her Lord and Savior on November 22. Her mother Lorraine Mohr preceded her in death. Surviving are her husband of 36 years Robert; daughter Sheryl Kevin Hoek; grandchildren, Crystal and Ryan; her father Earl Mohr of Jenison; brother Mark Rachael of Texas; sisters, Judy David Smelser of Jenison, Janene Jerry Kinniburgh of Montana, Barb Scott Welton of Rockford; and nieces and nephews, aunts and uncles. Pat and Bob recently celebrated 35 years of service with Mission Aviation Fellowship, having served in Indonesia from 1968 until 2001 when they returned to the USA as a result of Pat having been diagnosed with cancer.
Robert "Bob" Jay Breuker, age 77, of Indianapolis, Indiana passed away on Thursday December 19, 2019. He was born December 10, 1942 in Holland, Michigan to the late Donald Breuker and Lorraine (Sybesma) Breuker. He is also preceded in passing by his first wife Pat (Mohr) Breuker. He was a member of Crosspoint Baptist Church. He worked 37 years as a missionary pilot with Mission Aviation Fellowship in Papua, Indonesia and loved flying, especially the float plane. Bob most valued his faith and family. He was an unselfish man who genuinely loved helping others.
Bob is survived by; wife Pat (Moore) Breuker; daughter Sheri Hoek (Kevin); brother Ronald Breuker (Pat) and sister Mary Breuker; granddaughter Crystal Paccione and grandson Ryan Hoek; and great grandson Zaidan Paccione.
Marjorie Jean Bromley, age 87, a retired missionary with the Christian & Missionary Alliance, died Wednesday October 8th following a stroke in Charlotte, NC.
She was born in Maffra, Victoria, Australia, June 19, 1927, daughter of Reginald Joseph and Alice May Teague. She married H. Myron Bromley on February 8, 1958.
Marj was a graduate of MacRobertson Girls High School of Melbourne, Australia, and received her Medical Degree from the University of Melbourne in 1951. She was a member of the Australian Medical Association. She went into general practice for three years and then obtained a diploma from Melbourne Bible Institute. She attended the Summer Institute of Linguistics in Australia, where she met missionary Myron Bromley. They were married in Australia, and served as missionaries together in the Baliem Valley of what was then Dutch New Guinea and is now the province of Papua, Indonesia. For 35 years she served as a missionary doctor, wife, and mother with a heart’s desire to help people physically and to lead them into a deepening relationship with Jesus Christ.
Marj gave wholeheartedly of herself to the lives of the Papuan people, treating their diseases, training them in basic nutrition and mother & child healthcare, and training local healthcare providers to serve in village clinics. She headed up the medical program of the Christian & Missionary Alliance, worked together with other medical ministries throughout the province, and also gave richly and lovingly to the lives of her fellow-missionaries. She supported her husband in his Bible translation ministry; and raised and loved her three children deeply. Marj and Myron retired to the USA in 1993. After moving to the Union County area, she continued to serve in the local church, to keep informed of local and world events, writing letters to the editor in regard to issues of concern to her, while still enjoying the daily crossword puzzles. All the while she continued to care for the lives and hearts of those around her. Marj has been a beautiful doorway through which our deeply-caring, advocating, passionate, life-giving God has been expressed.
Marj is survived by her husband H. Myron Bromley, her son Mark Bromley, her daughters Elisabeth and Lois Bromley, and her granddaughters Rahme and Maia von Erkel-Bromley, now residing with their mother Elisabeth in Australia. Marj was the youngest of her own family and was preceded in death by three brothers, John, Leonard and Harold Teague, and her sister Florence May Oldmeadow.
Dr. H. Myron Bromley, son of Harry M. Bromley and Ethel May (nee Horth) Bromley, was born in Meadville, Pennsylvania on March 23, 1925, and died on July 26, 2016. Myron graduated from Meadville High School in 1942 and served with the U.S. Army at the end of World War II. He attended Allegheny College and graduated from Houghton College, NY in 1948. Then, while attending Asbury Seminary in Kentucky, he heard God’s call to missionary service. In 1951 he received his Bachelor of Divinity from Asbury, and went on to study and teach at St. Paul Bible Institute (now Crown College), MN. He received his M.A. from the University of Minnesota in 1958, an honorary Litt. D from Houghton College in 1969 and a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Yale University in 1971. In 1954, Myron followed God’s call and went overseas, joining other pioneer missionaries entering the remote mountainous region of then Dutch New Guinea, now the province Papua, Indonesia. On February 8, 1958, he married Marjorie Jean, an Australian Medical Doctor. Together they served in Papua for almost 40 years, many of those years in the mountain mission station, Tangma. Myron’s passion was for language analysis and translation in the service of God’s word, and it was to this cause that he devoted his many gifts. He was instrumental, not only in learning, analyzing and creating a writing system for the language of Tangma, but in assisting other missionaries to learn local languages and translation skills, as well as training indigenous translators to carry on the work. He supported his wife Marj in her medical work, attended to the many needs of a remote mission station, and preached the good news of Jesus Christ. He loved his three children deeply, as well as his many “spiritual children.” He is remembered by many as a humble kind man and a brilliant linguist. In Papua he is revered and loved by thousands whose lives were changed. In 1993 Myron and Marj returned to the USA to retire. After moving to North Carolina, he became active not only in the local church, but also in the lives of his neighbors, often going to visit and pray with them. In 2014, the Lord took Marj home to be with Him. Alone, Myron moved in 2015 to DeLand, Florida, where he entered the Alliance Community for Retirement Living and much appreciated the friendliness of his fellow residents. Myron Bromley was a fortunate man, blessed by the God he served. He lived his life’s dream, he loved his work, he created an enduring legacy, he married the woman he loved, he maintained his intelligence and independence throughout his 91 years, and had the beautiful caring support of his youngest daughter, Lois. On July 26, following a heart attack at Central Regional Florida Hospital in Sanford, FL, Myron suddenly went home to be with his Lord. He has shed his burdens now, and can simply be loved. Myron is survived by his son Mark Bromley, his daughters Elisabeth and Lois Bromley, and his beloved granddaughters Rahme and Maia von Erkel-Bromley, who reside with their mother Elisabeth in Australia. Myron was the youngest of his own family and was preceded in death by his brother, Raymond Bromley, and his sister, Florence Bromley.
Judy Ann Carne went home to be with her Lord on Sunday, April 14, 2019, following a massive stroke. She was born in Niagara Falls, NY on August 7, 1938. She grew up in Charleston, WV and moved to California in 1956 where she met her future husband Bill. They were married June 11, 1961. Following her schooling at Biola University and Bill's at Moody Bible Institute, they were appointed as missionaries in 1961 by Crossworld mission to Dutch New Guinea (Papua, Indonesia) to work with tribal people in the Central Highlands. In 1975 she was diagnosed with cancer and they along with their two children, Rachel and Jonathan, returned to the states. Following her surgery, she returned to school and became a Registered Nurse with a specialty in labor and delivery. Bill returned to school and after graduating from seminary, served as Pastor at two churches in California for 26 years. They moved to Leland, NC in 2006 and are active at First Baptist Church of Leland teaching Sunday School classes and supervising the Food Bank Ministry. She has taught children for over 50 years. She is survived by her husband of 58 years; a daughter Rachel of Elmwood, NE with her husband Jeff and their three children Ian, Rose and Colton, and a great grandson Tyger; son Jonathan of Wilmington with wife Michelle and their three children, Jacob, Ethan, and Christian; a brother Dr. John Emery of California and many nieces and nephews, as well as countless friends. Her love for Jesus and others was her calling card.
Rev. Harold W. Catto, 84, of Bradenton, formerly of Canada died April 30, 2012. Survivors include his sons, Robert of Geneva, Fla., and Bill of Cape Coral; sister Mary Lou Cook of Canada; and six grandchildren.
COLE, David - At his residence on Monday January 19, 2015. David Melvin Cole of Woodingford Lodge, Woodstock in his 90th year. Beloved husband of the late Dina (nee Reemeyer) Cole (2013). Loved father of Larry Cole and his wife Erica and Bruce Cole and his wife Vicki. Dear grandfather of Jeremy (Anna) Cole, Laura (Abe) Wolfgang, Kevin Cole, Matthew Cole, Michael Cole, Tyler Cole, Trevor Cole and great grandfather to Nathaniel, Evan, Lillian and Andy. David was a veteran of WWII serving with the Algonquin Regiment. After the war, David and his wife Dina and their family served as missionaries in Indonesia for over 36 years.
COLE, Dina - At Sakura House, Woodstock on Sunday April 21, 2013. Dina D. (Reemeyer) Cole of RR# 3, Woodstock in her 90th year. Beloved wife of David M. Cole for over 56 years. Dear mother of Larry Cole and his wife Erica of Pueblo, Colorado and Bruce Cole and his wife Vicki of Richardson, Texas. Loved grandmother of Jeremy (Anna) Cole, Laura (Abe) Wolfgang, Kevin Cole, Matthew Cole, Michael Cole, Tyler Cole. Trevor Cole and great grandmother to Nathaniel and Evan. Predeceased by her brothers Burt and Dick. Dina served during WW II with the Dutch Military in Indonesia. After the war, Dina and her husband returned to Indonesia as missionaries and stayed for over 35 years. Dina was a member of South Zorra Baptist Church.
Joyce Carol Rowe Cutting, 82 years young, crossed over from death into eternal life on October 28, 2021 after suffering for 2 months with Pancreatic Cancer. She was tenderly cared for in her last weeks by the amazing staff at Hospice and Community Care in Mt Joy, PA. Prior to her admission there she received excellent care by the outpatient Hospice team.
Joyce was a very beloved mother, wife, and friend. Her life was devoted to serving God, her family, and in ministry to others. Joyce was born May 3, 1939 to Carlton and Madeline Rowe and was the middle of 5 children in Nineveh NY. Her surviving siblings are Roger (Donna) Rowe, Betty (Joe) Benfatta, Jack (Barb) Rowe, and Michael (Dawn) Rowe.
She accepted Christ as her Lord and Savior at age 12 and received a call to missions while a young teen.
For 64 years she was the loving wife of the Rev. Robert M. Cutting who preceded her to heaven’s glories in December of 2020.
She and Bob, served the Lord as life long missionaries. After graduating from Elohim Bible Institute in New York, they first served Him among a primitive cannibal tribe in what is now Papua, Indonesia. This area had only had recent contact with the outside world. They were sent out by Unevangelized Fields Missions, now called, Crossworld. In 1967. A thriving church is now flourishing in that area. They then served as church planters for 3 years in New Mexico and for 8 years in South Africa. Finally, before retirement, they served as AWANA missionaries for 14 years in South Central PA. Joyce and Bob were members of Grace Baptist Church in Lancaster, PA where they were active in children’s ministries and the teaching of God’s word. She was a gifted teacher and speaker in Women’s Ministries. Joyce is survived by 5 children: Robin, wife of Rickey Batz SR of Lancaster PA, Bob Cutting JR of Grapevine, Texas, Joye Tarampi of Pasadena, CA, wife of the late Gunther Tarampi who preceded her into heaven in 2019, Chipper, husband of Karen Cutting of Leola PA, and Andrew husband of Sarah Cutting of Blandon, PA. She leaves behind 4 deeply loved grandchildren: Kevin and Casey Cutting, Sophia and Sawyer Tarampi, and step grandsons Brandon and Rickey JR Batz. She will be deeply missed also by great granddaughter Rylie Batz.
Joyce was known for her warm, hospitable nature, great meals, gracious manner, wisdom, and kindness. She always pointed everyone to Jesus and her life was the epitome of the Proverbs 31 woman. She was a cherished friend to so many and will be greatly missed.
Rev. Robert Milo Cutting SR stepped into the arms of the Savior he so faithfully loved and served on the morning of December 17, 2020 after a short illness with Covid 19. He was born April 25, 1935 in Afton, New York. He accepted Christ as his Savior in Afton Baptist Church as a teenager. Bob was a life long career missionary along with his cherished wife, Joyce, with whom he shared 64 years of happy marriage. He and Joyce graduated from Elohim Bible Institute in NY. They served the Lord among stone aged cannibals in what is now Papua, Indonesia where a thriving church continues to flourish. They also served as church planters in New Mexico for 3 years, then for 8 years in South Africa. Before retirement they served as AWANA missionaries in South Central PA for 14 years. He is survived by his wife Joyce Rowe Cutting and 5 children: Robin wife of Rickey Batz SR of Lancaster, Bob Cutting JR of Grapevine Texas, Joye, widow of Gunther Tarampi of Pasadena CA, Chipper husband of Karen Cutting of Lancaster, and Andrew husband of Sarah Cutting of Blandon, PA. He also leaves behind 6 grandchildren: Kevin and Casey Cutting, Sophia and Sawyer Tarampi, as well as Brandon and Rickey JR Batz. He also will be missed by great granddaughter Rylie Batz. Bob is also survived by 7 siblings: Bertha, Phyliss, Rose, Richard, Glen, Florence, and Elizabeth. He was predeceased by siblings: Clifford JR, Loren, Shirley, John, and Jo.
Bob was a devoted servant of God with a passion to see others come to know Jesus personally. He was deeply loved by many and will be greatly missed.
Grace B. Cutts, known to the Alliance family as Gracie, went to be with the Lord today, January 21, 2005, in Toccoa, Georgia, at the age of 80. Gracie and her husband, Bill (who died in 1997), served as C&MA missionaries to Indonesia for 38 years.
Bill and Gracie went to Irian Jaya in 1948 and were involved in pioneer literacy work, Bible translation, Bible school teaching, and church planting, specifically among the Moni people. They fostered the translation and publication of the Moni Bible from beginning to end. Gracie touched the lives of many people all over the world with her fiery spunk, her heart for the hurting and unreached, and her passionate love for her Lord.
Gracie is survived by her four children: John Cutts, Amy Meredith, Faith Ritchey, and Bill Cutts, Jr.
Fred Dawson from West Australia was the first UFM missionary to enter Dutch New Guinea (DNG) in October 1950. He was joined by his wife Margaret two months later (Fred & Margaret had earlier served in Papua New Guinea). Fred was the UFM team leader and did 2 survey flights in an Auster in 1951. As at that time they were not able to enter the interior, Fred & Margaret surveyed the Guai district, and later walked to the Keroom area and commenced an airstrip at Sengge. In 1952 Fred found a concrete slab at Pos 7 (which later became the UFM house). In late January 1955 Fred (together with Hans Veldhuis & Russell Bond and 16 Sengge carriers) flew to Hetigima, then trekked for 25 days to reach Lake Archbold. Margaret later joined him at Lake Archbold. In 1956 they moved to Bokondini where they were based until 1959, when they left DNG to serve with UFM in Australia. Fred & Margaret were among the pioneers in the early days in DNG.
Greatly loved, and missed by all who knew him, Bruno de Leeuw passed peacefully into the presence of his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ at 3 p.m. Friday, Jan. 23, 2015, at his home. Many friends and family had come to hold his hand, pray with him and say goodbye. And though Bruno could no longer respond, we know he heard each one. After four years of one medical emergency after another and being debilitated by Parkinson's disease and cancer, he was more than ready to go. Born Nov. 20, 1925, in Scheveningen (Port of the Hague), Netherlands, to a Dutch father and a lovely German mother, Bruno was the second of three children, an older sister and younger brother. In their youth they had great escapades among the herring casks along the harbor and the dunes of the North Sea, or played soccer or rolled hoops on the cobblestones. Bruno and his brother loved steam trains and spent hours watching them in the Hague Station. He was so shy that when he first went to school, his sister's help was essential. The two of them also went by train to visit family in Hamburg, Germany. At the beginning of World War II, he was taken out of high school and put into a Dutch workforce. In less than a year, the Germans took him captive and he became slave labor, working mostly in the submarine yards in Hamburg. At the end of the war, he found their home in Holland bombed and had to search for his family. After two years as a sergeant major in charge of troop supplies in the Dutch East Indies, he decided to emigrate to Canada. He did two years apprenticeship on dairy farms in South Holland in order to prepare for this. In 1951, he arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia. For his religion, he told them, "European heathen." Over the next two years, he traveled westward to Vancouver, British Columbia, working an amusing variety of jobs as he went. Returning to Calgary, he obtained work in the Revelstoke Lumberyard in Innisfail, Alberta, where he rented a room from a Baptist minister and his wife. Every Sunday he walked or read, ignoring the invitation to attend church. However, as he watched the life of his landlord, he saw something there he had never seen before. Finally, his curiosity got the best of him and he went to church. When he got inside, he was surprised to find friendly people rousing, singing and good plain preaching - something he'd never seen in Holland. During the drive to an "open house" at a Bible school in Calgary, his friend asked him if he'd ever considered asking Jesus into his heart. "Maybe someday," was his reply. That night, the student he roomed with asked him the same question and Bruno knew that God was speaking to him. He dropped to his knees, confessed his sins and asked Jesus to come into his heart and be his Savior and Lord. He went to bed, had a good night's sleep and woke up with the assurance that his life was changed forever. He returned to Innisfail, resigned his position, and began attending three years of Berean Bible College. Bruno felt called to missions in Dutch New Guinea (West Papua). He pastored two years at Innisfail after Bible college, waiting to be accepted for Dutch New Guinea. In November 1960, he left for 24 years of service in Dutch New Guinea. He married Marlys during his first furlough in October 1964. He had to leave her behind in March 1965 to finish her nurse's training and prepare for joining him in New Guinea. At that time in West New Guinea, there were 250 tribes with separate unwritten languages; many of these tribes were cannibals. Two years of linguistic training in North Dakota had prepared him for the formidable task of creating written languages for these people in the Eastern Highlands. He preached, taught, translated scripture, evangelized and encouraged the people to write worship songs while he trekked thousands of miles in some of the most unforgiving terrain in the world. In his third term, a Bible school was established with national teachers, which had been his biggest desire. The family returned to Canada in 1981. It is not so much the myriad amazing deeds that composed his earthly life as it is who he was. With his compassionate heart reaching out to all around him, his beautiful voice lifted in praise to his God, his kind and gentle ways with every living creature, his heart-warming smile and the twinkle in his lovely blue eyes - this is the Bruno de Leeuw we all know and love. In 2011, Bruno returned to West Papua to celebrate with the people he served for the 50th anniversary of the coming of the Gospel to the Eastern Highlands. It was his last big trip before heaven.
Gaylord Martin DuPont of Spokane, Washington, died peacefully at home at the age of 82 after a 2 1/2 year extended illness. Gaylord was born and raised in Cochranton, Pennsylvania and lived there until 1970. He was one of five children born to the late Preston and Erma DuPont and was the beloved husband of Beverly (Linton) DuPont for 64 years. Gaylord will forever be remembered by his brother, Jim DuPont and sister, Janet Tinkler (husband, Danny); children Kathy (DuPont) Belch (husband Jon) and Chuck DuPont (wife Jody); beloved grandchildren, Stephanie Stone, Dallas Belch, Brynn DuPont, Rachael Belch and Sara Fossum; treasured great-grandchildren, Nikki Stone, Carter, Corbin and Chase Belch and Riley Baum. He is preceded in death by his parents, Preston and Erma DuPont, brothers, Dale and Larry DuPont and precious granddaughter, Michelle Joy Belch. Gaylord was a skilled mechanical draftsman and carpenter. Gaylord and Beverly moved to Three Hills, Alberta, Canada to attend Prairie Bible College for Bible training in 1970. They spent 10 years in Papua, Indonesia as house parents to missionary children then moved to Spokane in 1984. While living in Spokane, he worked at Gus Johnson Ford, BMC West in the door shop and then retired from driving school bus for children with disabilities for District 81 at the age of 78. He loved hunting, fishing and golfing, but his greatest love and joy were his family. Gaylord touched the lives of many people in his quiet way with his generosity, willingness to help others at a moment's notice and faithfulness to his Lord and to his family. He was a true example of the hands and feet of Christ's love in his daily interaction with those he met.
My my dad went out called by Christ to reach others for Christ. He worked at Testega for over 30 years before the Lord called him home November 25 1997. He was all set to go back to the field with mom but God wanted him home. He was happy where God had him wanted the natives to understand that it was God who was doing the work not him. Which shows where his heart was. He is missed by many.
It amazes me as to how much work it took to open a station. He had to learn a language which was not known on paper so had to write word by word.then he had to teach the people how to read the letters of the alphabet and also pick men out to help him. Then he had to get the men to help him translate words of the Bible into the Meyeh language which was confusing because their are things they have no words for.
Missionaries do a lot of hard work but God is working thru these men and women. Praise the Lord for their willingness and hard work.
Robbi Lynn Hazlett Fanberg was born on February 12th, 1955 to John and Mary Hazlett. She passed into the presence of our Lord on July 11th, 2017 after a hard-fought battle with cancer.
Robbi was raised on the mission field of Irian Jaya, Indonesia and attended high school at Dalat School in Panang, Malasia. She studied at Saint Paul Bible College (Crown College) where she met her husband Chuck. She studied Nursing at Ramsey Community College and worked as a Registered Nurse for 10 years at St. Joseph’s hospital in St. Paul. She later completed her Bachelor’s degree at Crown College, and a Master’s degree in Pastoral Care at Bethel Seminary.
In 1988, along with her husband Chuck and two sons, Ryan and Drew, the Fanberg family began missionary service with the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Venezuela. While serving in Venezuela, Robbi gave birth to her daughter, Melanie. Together they served for four years church planting in Venezuela followed by ministry in Trujillo, Peru where they served 10 years. In Trujillo, she served in church planting doing ministries of music, youth ministry, and as a seminary professor. In 2001 she was an integral team member in the plant of the America Sur Alliance Church, serving as the wife of the lead pastor in ministries of music, counselling, and discipleship. Robbi was one of the last Spanish ministry missionaries to serve with The Alliance in Peru prior to the mission completing its work in that country.
In 2006, along with her husband Chuck, she transferred to the country of Costa Rica to work in Church Development in Central America. Robbi’s heart was dedicated to seeing churches planted in places where the message of Jesus was most needed. This passion brought Chuck and Robbi to the city of Escazu, a suburb of San Jose, which was the home of the most affluent but unchurched people of the country. To build personal relationships in this difficult area, Robbi followed God’s leading to open a coffee shop as a point of contact with the community. Robbi named the coffee shop Dulce Refugio, which means “The Sweet Refuge.” The ambiance of Dulce Refugio reflected the elegance and warmth of Robbi’s character. It was a place where people saw Robbi’s love for Jesus and for them.
Robbi’s battle with cancer began early in 2014 when she was diagnosed with Stage IV Lung cancer. This was a shocking diagnosis for one who had never smoked. Robbi battled valiantly because she loved life, loved her family, and loved the Lord. Her desire was to return to ministry in Costa Rica. As a cancer patient, her life was a testimony of faith in God and love for others. She recognized that the number of her days was in God’s hands, and she lived daily with the confidence that she someday be in God’s presence.
Her greatest joys were spending time with her 3 children and their spouses, and her 4 grandchildren. She is survived by Chuck, her loving husband of 40 years; her son Ryan and wife Nikki with their children, Jordan and Addison; her son Drew and his wife Alissa with their children Kya and Devin; and her daughter Melanie Schultz with her husband Joel. She took great joy in seeing her children grow up to be successful and God loving, and marry spouses of the same character. She is also survived by her parents, John and Mary Hazlett and her brother Brad with his wife, Joyce; along with many aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews.
As a way to praise God for each breath of life, during her last year she played the flute on the worship team at the River of Life Church, where she was a long-time member. Robbi lived a life that reflected God’s love to all that she met. She touched the lives of thousands around the world as a friend, servant, and mentor. She leaves behind a legacy of faithfulness to God and now rejoices in the presence of her Heavenly Father. Robbi is greatly missed by those she leaves behind.
"Eternal Life" is the name on my Names of God calendar for April 17th -- a good reminder and comfort to me as my sister, Chris, went home to be with Jesus on Friday.
For her, eternal life began when she was a little girl and asked Jesus into her heart on Easter Sunday. Now she has entered into that Life more fully.
As we grieve and remember her caring and joyful life invested in others and in the Kingdom of God in so many countless ways, we are also so thankful for the hope and confidence we have that she is in heaven with the Lord Jesus she loved and thankful for what Jesus did on the cross to make heaven possible for us. We are grateful for God's faithfulness and kindness expressed in so many ways.
I know I don’t have to convince any of you that Chris was a gem of a person. I had the joy of knowing her for 43 years, 36 of those years in marriage. You hear the phrase, “a match made in heaven”. I definitely believe God brought us together. How else do you explain a boy from rural western New York meeting a girl who spent 15 of her first 18 years of life on the other side of the world? Chris was the daughter of missionaries and somehow found her way to Roberts Wesleyan College in suburban Rochester, NY where we met.
Chris was a nursing major and while excelling in all her science classes, she was also very creative and took as many art classes as her schedule could bear. Along with a compassion to help those who were ill, she also loved nature and easily saw the beauty in God’s creation. Chris was also a loving, supportive and loyal wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend. She always put others before herself.
While we didn’t specifically talk about this in the last few months of her life, I have been thinking about what Chris would like to say to us all as she reflected over her 61 years of life on this earth. She saw the importance of family and friend relationships. She saw the importance of a forgiving spirit. Chris knew life was too short to hold grudges.
Near the end of her life, after struggling for years with the question of why does God allow bad things to happen to good people, Chris came to the conclusion, in her own words, “God does not owe me anything.” He doesn’t promise good health, long life, wealth or perpetual comfort and ease. Instead He promises Himself and that He will be with us all our days in this life and the next. Even though Chris knew that her salvation from sin’s consequences was also something God didn’t owe her, she rejoiced in it and said that was enough.
When my father passed away ten years ago, I shared at his funeral something I feel is appropriate for Chris. The apostle Paul in his first letter to the Corinthian church said, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.” I know Chris would like us to imitate her where she imitated Jesus Christ. What a great way to honor someone you love and respect!
Patricia Anne Fillmore, 85, formerly of Mt. Clemens, Michigan, and Bradenton, Florida, went to be with her Lord and Savior on August 3, 2017. Pat was a nurse and dedicated her life to serving Jesus Christ. She attended Moody Bible Institute, and was a missionary in Irian Jaya for over forty years, bringing both worldly and spiritual health to a primitive Papuan tribe. Pat was preceded in death by siblings Margaret Brand, Donald Fillmore, Barbara Jones, and Joyce Brunelle. She is survived by siblings Alice Hibbs, Corydon, IN, and James (Bud) Fillmore, Paradise, CA, and many nieces and nephews.
Born in Wilmerding, Pennsylvania, USA on 10 Sep 1930 to Harry Francis Davenport and Christina Mary Duguid.Doris Mae Davenport had 5children.She passed away on 11 Aug 1997 in Melbourne, Florida, USA.
Robert Rhodes Frazier passed away on Sunday, November 9, 2008, in Palm Bay, FL. Robert was preceded in death by his first wife of 46 years, Doris Davenport of Turtle Creek, PA and a son, Robert Rhodes Frazier, Jr. He is survived by his wife, Helen Frazier; his three sons, John (Esther) Frazier of Port Orange, FL, Steve (Lisa) Frazier of Columbia, MO, and Tim (Pam) Frazier of Harrisville, NY; one daughter, Mary Kathryn Loraus of Daytona Beach, FL; two brothers, Richard (Dorothy) Frazier of Efland, NC, and Raymond (Cathy) Frazier of Burlington, NC; one sister, Sara Phelps of Valrico, FL; three brothers-in-law, David (Belle) Davenport, of Minnesota, Harry (Edwina) Davenport of Winter Garden, FL and Tom Edds of Palm Bay, FL; ten grandchildren several nieces and nephews.
Born in Manokwari, Netherlands New, Guinea on 12 Jun 1958 to Doris Mae Davenport.Robert Rhodes Frazier passed away on 26 May 1988 in Daytona Beach, Florida, USA.
“Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his faithful servants.” Psalms 116:15. At 5:00am, January 12th, 2020, Holly joined her Savior in heaven and heard the words “Well done, good and faithful servant” Holly was surrounded by her husband, children, and family in her final moment. Thank you for your love, prayers, and support during this journey.
Alice Verdelle Gibbons, daughter of Robert P. Rhoads and Gladys Alice (nee Berndt) Rhoads, was born in Glendale, California on October 29, 1930 and died on July 26, 2017 in Ripon, California. Alice graduated from Burbank High School in 1948. She attended the Alliance church in Glendale, CA and heard God’s call to missionary service. In 1951 she graduated from Simpson Bible Institute (Simpson University) then located in Seattle. Alice met Don Gibbons during a summer ministry time on Whidbey Island. Don and Alice were married on June 30, 1951 then served in Paulina, Oregon with Village Missions for two years. They were sent out as missionaries by the Christian and Missionary Alliance, setting out on an ocean freighter to Papua, Indonesia (then known as Netherlands New Guinea). They were among the first outsiders to contact stone age tribes in the Ilaga and Beoga valleys. In their 42 years of service they saw the good news of Jesus Christ transform the lives of these tribal people. The darkness of fear, spirit worship and constant warfare was transformed into peace and forgiveness from God. Alice worked as a full partner in this ministry spearheading literacy programs, writing Sunday School curriculum and seminar presentations and personally teaching future church leaders about the Bible.
Alice wrote two books that chronicle their lives and ministry in Papua. “The People Time Forgot” and “Where the Earth Ends.” After returning to the USA, Alice was active in their churches and community in Paradise, and Ripon, California. Alice and Don celebrated 66 years of marriage in June. Alice is survived by her husband, Don (Donald), their daughters Kathleen Brooks (Tim), Joyce Parker, Lori Clark (Dave), Helen White (Doug), Darlene LeTexier (John); and 13 grandchilden: Christy, Matthew, Eric, Dane, Joshua, Kevin, Jesse, Aaron, Caleb, Rachel, Daniel, Jack, and Karis; and 15 great-grandchildren; and her siblings, Robert Rhoads, Ralph Rhoads and Miriam Johnston as well as nieces and nephews.
Donald Clyde Gibbons, son of Clyde John Gibbons and Florence Eunice (Meyers)Gibbons, was born in Lavoye, Wyoming (now a ghost town) on October 29, 1926 and died on January 14, 2018 in Modesto, California. In 1949 Don met his sweetheart, Alice (Rhoads) Gibbons on Whidbey Island, WA where both were engaged in summer ministry. Don, who was pursuing training for overseas missions, followed Alice to Seattle’s Simpson Bible Institute (Simpson University) graduating in 1951. Don and Alice married on June 30, 1951. They moved to remote Paulina, Oregon for 2 years to plant a Village Missions church.
In 1953 The Christian and Missionary Alliance sent Don and Alice on an ocean freighter to the tribal people of what was then known as Netherlands New Guinea, now the province of Papua, Indonesia. Don and fellow missionary, Gordon Larson, hiked for days under dangerous conditions to reach the Ilaga valley, becoming the first outsiders to live among the stone-aged nationals residing there. For the next 42 years Don and Alice were at the center of an amazing movement among these people as hundreds came to know Jesus and God’s Good News spread from tribe to tribe. This incredible story of hope and joy is told in Alice’s book, The People Time Forgot. If you would like to read it for yourself, call or text Joyce at 209-499-4121 to make arrangements.
God had equipped Don to serve as a missionary in this setting. Don’s gifts included hiking long distances quickly, connecting with people of different cultures, quickly picking up a new language and communicating the gospel in innovative and culturally appropriate ways. Over the years, he explored remote places, gladly took on danger and hardship, and creatively repaired and built things using the few materials at hand. He also supervised the building of airstrips that allowed for the first planes to land in the interior of Papua. Together with Alice, he ran medical clinics, taught Bible School, created curriculum for those students, and was a pastor to many. Don’s love for people helped him make friends around the world and inspired many to support international missions.
After returning to the USA to retire Don was active in churches in Paradise, CA and Ripon, CA. His garden in Ripon made the Manteca Bulletin in 2009, and he loved trading produce at the Senior Center. Don and Alice celebrated 66 years of marriage in June of 2017. He was devoted to caring for Alice and trying to out-live her, which was her strong desire. When she passed away in July of 2017, he stopped pushing himself and let others take care of him. Don loved Alice. He loved everyone else. Most of all, he loved God.
Don is survived by his five daughters, Kathy Brooks (Tim), Joyce Parker, Lori Clark (Dave), Helen White (Doug), and Darlene LeTexier(John); by 13 grandchildren, Christy Matthew, Eric, Dane, Aaron, Caleb, Rachel, Joshua, Kevin, Jesse, Daniel, Jack and Karis; and 15 great-grandchildren.
Betty Greene: missionary aviatrix. Although the label is like the breathless title of a '50s comic book, it's a pretty fair summary of the true-life adventures of Elizabeth Everts "Betty" Greene.
Born in Seattle in 1920, Ms. Greene took a shine to flying after older brother Joe took it up.
When World War II began, although women were restricted from flying combat missions, Ms. Greene did the next best thing: She finished her degree in sociology at the University of Washington early so she could join the Women's Airforce Service Pilots.
She flew several kinds of military planes during the war and did experimental work on high-altitude flights. Ms. Greene even flew a plane towing a target, while her twin brother, Bill, fired artillery at it from the ground.
After the war, Ms. Greene, a devout Presbyterian, helped found the Missionary Aviation Fellowship.
"She was interested in missionary aviation and the notion that airplanes could help in the remote portions of the world," said her brother Al Greene.
From the late 1940s until the 1960s, Ms. Greene ferried missionaries to some of Mexico's and South America's most out-of-the-way settlements. She also likely was the first woman to fly over the rugged Andes. Ms. Greene also flew throughout New Guinea and Africa, where the Sudanese Parliament had to proclaim a dispensation before the woman could fly her Cessna 180 in the country. "They called her `The Golden Voice of the Sudan' because she was a woman, and of course there weren't any women on the radio waves" between the airplane and the ground, Al Greene said.
Ms. Greene, who had Alzheimer's disease, died Thursday (April 10). She was 76.
"Betty was a lady" in the highest sense of the word, said her longtime friend Eleanor Vandevert. "She wasn't out to make herself stand out as anyone in particular, but after you left the room, you knew that she was."
She is survived by her brothers Al and Bill of Portland, and several nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews. Her brother Joe died in 1991.
Donald Louis Gregory, has been called by his Saviour to his eternal home.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,” Peter 1:3-4.
Born in Peoria, Illinois to Harold Louis and Jewel Johnson Gregory.
Survived by devoted helpmate and lover of 61 years, his wife Joan Henderson Gregory, daughter, Sharon (Clay), son Stephen (Patti), daughter, Susan (Brian), sister, Patricia, brother, Richard (Audrey);
Grandchildren, Sara (Todd), Beth (Brian), Amanda, Jamie, Anna, Janelle (J.T.), Luke, Nate, Abigail, Tyler, Allie, Thomas, and great-grandchildren, Will, Olivia, Samantha, Eden, Max, and Emma.
RACINE – Richard "Dick" James Griffiths, age 92, went home to be with his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ from Ascension All Saints Hospital on May 5, 2021.
Dick was born in Philadelphia, PA to Thomas and Edith (nee Young) Griffiths on November 12, 1928. He graduated from Columbia Bible College in 1952, and on January 23, 1954 was united in marriage to Charlotte Ann Hartt.
As a missionary with The Evangelical Alliance Mission, he was commissioned by Calvary Memorial Church in 1956 to be a linguist and church planter. Dick and his wife made a home in the jungle of Papua, Indonesia and worked there for 42 years translating the entire Bible into the previously unwritten Hatam language to spread the good news of Jesus Christ. He retired on December 22, 1999. Dick was gifted with a creative and naturally mechanical mind and was a quiet man with dry wit.
Dick will be lovingly remembered by his wife, Charlotte; children: Rebecca (Wesley) Gardner of Racine, Alan Griffiths of Racine, and Jenine (Stephen) Lilly of Katy, TX; son-in-law, Torrey Friberg of Pueblo, CO; 15 grandchildren; 20 great-grandchildren; brothers: Robert and John Griffiths; sister, Marilyn Griffiths; and nieces, nephews, other relatives, and friends. The entire Hatam people group of Papua, Indonesia will also remember and honor "Haren Nicig" as the man who brought them the light of the Gospel of Jesus.
He was predeceased by his parents: Thomas and Edith Griffiths; daughter, Holly Friberg; grandson, Dustin Gardner; and sister, Virginia Luck.
Miss Anna Armia Heikkinen, retired missionary to French Indochina (Vietnam) and West Irian (Indonesia), went to be with the Lord on August 3, 2006, in St. Paul, Minnesota. She would have been 106 on September 9. Armia served as a missionary with The Christian and Missionary Alliance from 1928 to 1968. In the fall of 1925 she entered St. Paul Bible College (Crown College) for two years and then transferred to Nyack Missionary College for one year. After graduation she went to French Indo-China (Vietnam) to start a school for missionary children. Dalat School opened in 1928 with three pupils; later a high school was added. After 28 years at Dalat School, the Lord impressed upon Armia that her work there was finished. In 1958, she redeployed to West Irian to help open a missionary children’s school in Sentani called Sentani International School (now Hillcrest International School). She served there until her retirement in 1968. Though currently run by independent, inter-mission school boards, Dalat International School (now located in Penang, Malaysia) and Hillcrest International School both educate and give spiritual formation to a combined number of approximately 470 students every year. The legacy that was born from Miss Heikkinen’s faithful ministry and love for missionary children continues to this day.
After a short illness and with two days until their fifty-eighth wedding anniversary, our Dad left our Mums side, earlier this morning to join the choirs of heaven, closing the last door behind him of his earthly journey.
His primary focus throughout his life was to be where he is now and along the way invite others to join him. As a six-year-old, he was catapulted out of his childhood as the German army marched on The Netherlands. One suspects the events in his early years bore scars that he carried throughout his life, the true impact of which will never be known.
Our father was stoic until the end.
But the one word that could be said to best describe him, was that he was Loyal. He lived a life of loyalty. Loyalty to God, loyalty to our mother, loyalty to his family, loyalty to his place of work, loyalty to his friends.
Faithfully served her Lord and Master, among the Ngalum people of the Star Mountain region of Dutch Niew Guniea (later called Irian Barat and Irian Jaya). She and her family, arrived at Kiwirok, June 1, 1862, shortly after the airstrip was completed. She worked to learn the Ngalum language, prepare primers, and develop and teach the literacy program, as well as develop a large garden (with lots of flowers), and provide for the needs of her family.
Previously, her husband, Ray, and family had been with SIM in N.Nigeria for two terms.In DNG and Irian they served
under UFM International. In May 1966, when the family returned to Canada she helped with the deputation ministries and became a paster's wife.
She loved her her time in DNG/Irian, and was a continual prayer warrior for the needs there.
Otis Harold Hussey passed away in Eagle Point, Ore., on February 20, 2012. He was born December 21, 1927, in Grants Pass, Ore., to Elwood and Amy Henry Hussey, of Cave City (now Cave Junction), Ore. He attended school in Kerby, Ore., graduating in 1946, from Kerby Union High School (now Illinois Valley High School in Cave Junction). He married Carmelita Krauss, of Selma in 1946. He worked for Rough and Ready Lumber Co. from 1946 until 1957. He belonged to the 186th Infantry unit of the Oregon National Guard from 1947 to 1957, attaining the rank of Second lieutenant. Otis received Jesus Christ as his personal Savior and has been a member of the Alliance Bible Chapel in Ashland, Ore., since 1957.
In 1957, he moved his family to Ashland, Ore., to attend Southern Oregon College (now SOU), graduating in 1960, with a bachelor of science degree in education. He taught at Ashland Junior High School (now Ashland Middle School) from 1960 to 1974, during which time he earned a masters of science degree in social studies. In 1974, Otis and his wife accepted teaching positions at Sentani International School in Irian Jaya (now Papua), Indonesia, where they taught school, retiring in 1989. They had a daughter, Kathryn Elaine, and sons, Michael Otis, and Steven Elwood.
Otis was predeceased by his parents, Elwood and Amy Hussey; brother, Elwood Hussey; and son, Michael Hussey. Otis is survived by daughter, Kathryn, of Virginia; son, Steven, of Medford; six grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren. He enjoyed being with family, friends, reading his Bible, keeping up with current events, telling stories, hunting, and horseback riding.
James L. (Jim) Hyatt, pastor and missionary to Indonesia, was welcomed into the presence of his Master in heaven at 8:50 p.m. on Wednesday, December 6th. He leaves behind his beloved wife of 64 years, Margaret L. Hyatt, his sons, John, Joel, and Daniel, seven grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. Jim gave his life to Jesus Christ at the age of 13 at Shady Grove Baptist Church. He joined the Army Air Corps in 1947, and was stationed in Alaska with the 10th Air Sea Rescue Squadron. He graduated from Tennessee Temple College in 1957 as the Salutatorian of his class. Jim and his family served the Lord in Indonesia for nine years among the Papuan people, after his return to the U.S. he founded Centerville Baptist Church and served the Indonesian community in Atlanta. Jim and Margaret were faithful members of Maranatha Baptist Church, Five Forks Trickum Road, Lilburn.
Mrs. Ruth S. Karcesky, retired missionary to Indonesia (Irian Jaya), went to be with the Lord April 12, 2006, in Waxhaw, North Carolina. She was 78 years old. Mrs. Karcesky, along with her husband Raymond (Ben), served as missionaries with The Christian and Missionary Alliance from 1956 to 1995. Ben and Ruth met at Missionary Training Institute in Nyack, New York, and were married soon after graduating. After finishing their home service in Oklahoma and attending language study, they sailed for Irian Jaya in the fall of 1956. They began their missionary career in a village called Seinma, which required the crossing of a rickety swinging bridge to get there. Later they helped carve out a small airstrip on a ledge above the Baliem River. There they learned the Dani language and made close friends with the village chief and people. Ben and Ruth also served as house parents at the MK school at Sentani, translated Scripture, mimeographed volumes of translated material, and served as field bookkeeper on several occasions. Ruth, a registered nurse, found that her medical experience served their ministry well wherever they lived. Many years were spent at Hetigima, the first mission station built in the Baliem Valley. There they opened a Bible school, carefully prepared materials, and taught and discipled Dani men and women who later went to far away villages to preach the gospel. Ruth had a particular passion for the women and taught them literacy and the Bible. The Karceskys played an integral part in bringing a people from darkness into the light of the gospel and in training men and women to carry on the ministry in Irian Jaya. The funeral service was held Friday, April 14, 2006, at Gospel Way Church in Waxhaw, North Carolina. Rev. Michael Keener officiated, and Rev. H. Myron Bromley, retired missionary to Indonesia, represent International Ministries at the service. Surviving are her husband, Ben; daughters Lydia Paquette and Naomi Leenhouts; sons Benjamin Karcesky and Nathan Karcesky; grand children and great-grand children.
Then came our search. July 17th PK-MPK was missing. A Nipsan man came with the story that a plane had crashed one day’s walk up valley. The helicopter in the area flew us to a high ridge onto which we could alight from the chopper and walk to the site of the accident. Our pilot Martin Kehle was dead — killed on impact. We buried him at the site anxious to leave the area. Arrows had been fired at us during the helicopter ride from Nipsan to the ridge.
Hi...
I met Martin in Chicago...about the time i spent a summer in Quito at HCJB...I wrote to him in West Irian....and was devastated when I learned he'd died...I'm re reading the article in MISSION AVIATION 1971..... I considered him to be my secret boyfriend at that time....now I look forward to seeing him in heaven.
Gloria Kaupang
Kathryn R. Kline, 81, of Trough Creek Valley Pike, Mapleton, PA, died at 3:48 PM, Friday, January 31, 2020 at Geisinger Holy Spirit Hospital, Camp Hill, PA.
Born February 6, 1938 at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, MD, she was a daughter of the late Cecil and Ellen (Bower) Baer. She was united in marriage to Paul R. Kline on September 30, 1967. Mr. Kline survives at their home.
She is also survived by two daughters, Heather J. Book and her husband Anthony and Cheryl J. Kline, all of Chiang Mai, Thailand, three grandchildren, David Book, Robert Book and Timothy Book and three siblings, James Baer and Hazel Baer, both of Shippensburg, PA and William Baer of Colorado.
She was a member of Valley View Evangelical Church, RD, Mapleton, PA.
During her life she served, along with her husband, as a missionary under Regions Beyond Missionary Union, now World Team, in New Guinea, now West Papua, New Guinea and for the last 20 years of their service in Greece under Hellenic Ministries.
Married to Otto. Worked among the central Auyu for 14 years, 1962-1976. Otto and Carol have four children, Otto (Jr), Jessie, Debbie and Charles. They have four grand children and two great grand children.
Hi Lake went home to be with Jesus on July 6, 2016, after a nine year struggle with Alzheimer’s.
Born in Binghamton, NY in 1925, Hi was drafted into the U.S.Navy out of his junior year in high school, and served as radio man to a Marine unit for service in the Pacific.
In 1946 he married Mary Armstrong, the daughter of a Christian and Missionary Alliance minister in Johnson City, NY, and they soon went to college at Nyack, NY, and then to Wheaton College, Illinois, where he earned a degree in anthropology. While he worked as an electronics buyer for IBM and later for General Electric, they made plans for missionary service in New Guinea, and in 1957 sailed to Netherlands New Guinea with their first two children.
In New Guinea, Hi and Mary served as missionaries in the Baliem Valley with the Christian and Missionary Alliance for eight years, among the recently reached Dani culture. First assigned to Tulem with Ed and Shirley Maxey, they later established the Pugima station.
Upon returning to the US in 1965, Hi had a series of jobs in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Later he was hired by the Mayo Clinic of Rochester, Minnesota, where he was director of materials management for 17 years. (In October 2017, Hi was posthumously given an award by the Bellwether League for his pioneering leadership in the field of healthcare supply chain management.)
He was active in their church, Autumn Ridge Church, providing leadership as an elder, singing in the choir and as a soloist, and reading the Bible in his rich bass voice. His hobbies included woodworking and playing the French horn.
Hi is survived by his wife Mary Lake, four children (Larry, a retired Messiah College professor; Karen, retired from the pastoral staff at Autumn Ridge Church, David, a medical imaging researcher at the Mayo Clinic, and Kevin, a history teacher at a local middle school), eight grandchildren, and five great grandchildren.
Mary A. Lake passed away on March 23,2023, at the age of 96 at Arbor Terrace in Rochester Minnesota. Mary Armstrong Lake was born December 4, 1926 in Utica NY to the Rev B.F. Armstrong and Margaret Denison Armstrong. During her father's pastorate, the family lived in several towns in upstate New York, including Elmira, Corning, and Johnson City. She attended high school at Houghton Academy, Houghton NY.
She was married in 1946 to Hiram “Hi” Lake of Binghamton NY; they spent two years at Nyack Missionary College, then Wheaton College in Illinois while Hi completed his anthropology degree. The family lived in Johnson City, NY until Feb 1957 when they sailed to New Guinea via Holland, Dakar, Singapore and Labuan with their two older children Larry and Karen.
Mary and Hi ministered to the Dani people of the Baliem Valley from 1957 to 1965, first at Tulem and then at Pugima. Mary was active in language learning, Bible translation and informal ministry to village women, as well as the constant labor to maintain a home in primitive conditions with unreliable supplies, no electricity, no running water, almost no contact with other missionaries, and the frequent absence of her first two children who were at the mission’s boarding school, and home only twice a year. Letters and packages from family members in the United States sometimes took up to 6 months to arrive.
The years in the Baliem at their station Pugima were dangerous and fraught with disease and daunting challenges: once Hi and Mary were poisoned by followers of a hostile shaman and attacked at night by a group of his warriors who threatened to burn down the grass house they were living in at the time. Mary was ill for a time with undiagnosed cerebral meningitis: lab results arrived from Holland a year after she had miraculously recovered. Over the years, Mary had survived at least eight major diseases, including polio, dysentery, malaria, and breast cancer, and attributed her recoveries to the grace of the God she served.
Son David, was born in New Guinea and a year later the family returned to the US, largely doubting that they had done much good on the mission field. The Lakes settled in New Jersey where Hi worked for RCA Laboratories and later employers, and Kevin was born there. In 1975 they moved to Rochester, Minnesota where Hi became Director of Materials Management at St. Mary’s Hospital affiliated with the Mayo Clinic. In subsequent years they learned of great spiritual growth among the Dani of the Pugima area: baptized believers in at least six village churches, all stemming from their faithful ministry to only one Dani believer in the early days who subsequently influenced his clan, and from the subsequent work of other missionaries.
Mary was a member of the Autumn Ridge Church for 47 years and led women’s Bible studies for Bible Study Fellowship for 18 years. She loved her family and enjoyed being with them.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Hi, of almost 70 years who died in 2016 and by her siblings Ben Armstrong and Ruthie Megill. She is survived by four children Larry (MaryBeth) Lake, Karen (Rick) Foster, David (LeAnn) Lake, and Kevin (Debi) Lake, eight grandchildren, and seven great grandchildren.
When Jerry Rose became the first missionary to trek into Baliem Valley in 1951 in what was then Netherlands New Guinea, the difficult expedition took him a month each way. Many people lived in the valley, however, and they had never heard the Gospel. Some means must be found to establish a permanent settlement to reach them with the good news of Christ. The obvious solution was to overcome the rugged terrain with a flying boat that could land nearby on a lake or river.
That is when Albert Lewis, a Canadian contractor stepped forward. An air force instructor during World War II, he volunteered to give up his business and fly missionaries across the tortured ridges of New Guinea. "It is going to cost, I know; but I am willing to pay the price," he said. It cost him his very life and much more quickly than he might have anticipated.
Contributors raised money for a two-engine amphibious plane because the Dutch had forbidden single-engine aircraft. After careful study, Al chose a Sealand, an Irish-built airplane. On April 20, 1954, he made his first flight into the Baliem Valley. "Hallelujah!" he shouted over the radio as he landed. When he flew out, he left behind a small party of mission workers with supplies.
For the next year, he ferried missionaries and supplies in and out. Curiously, it turned out that a local chief was eager to receive the missionaries. Seeing planes fly over during the war and after, he had sacrificed pigs to the sky. He attributed his successful conquest of neighboring enemies to this. He had been shouting at the planes to come down to him.
A year after the first landing, mission work had advanced in the Baliem Valley. Language work was progressing, too. Al made many flights in and out. On this day, April 28, 1955, a fellow missionary from the base at Sentani came home to find the hanger empty.
Al had taken off on a solo flight to the valley. His last report said that he was flying at 9,000 feet in light rain. Nothing had been heard from him since then. His anxious wife, Mary, and other missionaries monitored the radio, hoping for a call. The Dutch navy commenced a search and flew over the area for several days. Then the Missionary Aviation Fellowship took over. A month later, the wreckage of the Sealand was finally sighted by Ken Troutman, director of the search, who had chartered a plane to have a look.
Al had crashed 300 feet from the top of a ridge near the Baliem Valley. Because natives in that area were hostile, the Dutch declined to send in an expedition to bring out his body: they believed they would have to send in a large force, armed to the teeth. It would be four more years before the remains of Al Lewis were finally recovered. However, the work he helped build endured, and today there are thousands of Christians in the Baliem Valley.
Bromley, Myron. "Al Lewis's Last Flight." Alliance Life. (November 7, 1990).
Joyce Lin, a pilot with Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF), died on May 12, while transporting school supplies and COVID-19 rapid test kits to a remote village in Indonesia. Lin was 40 years old and was following her dream and God’s calling by using her skills to bring people the hope of the gospel.
“We feel a great sense of loss but a great sense of comfort as well,” MAF president David Holsten told Christianity Today, “because Joyce was doing what she loved to do and she was faithful to the calling that God had placed on her life. She gave her life serving the Lord in a way that was impacting others".
Lin left the town of Sentani in a Kodiak airplane at 6:27 a.m. Tuesday, heading for a remote village called Mamit in the province of Papua. She sent out a distress call only two minutes after takeoff, after which her aircraft crashed into Lake Sentani. A search-and-rescue team found Lin’s airplane in the lake and also recovered her body, which was submerged 40 feet underwater. She was the only person on the aircraft. Lin is survived by her parents and two sisters.
Joyce Lin’s interest in mission aviation was sparked in 2010 during a summer internship in Papua, Indonesia, while she was enrolled at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Prior to going to seminary, Lin had earned two degrees in engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), been an officer in the U.S. Air Force, and worked in cybersecurity in the private sector. Even though she believed God was calling her to mission aviation, Lin still had many hurdles to overcome in order to be a trained and licensed pilot with MAF. She also had some health challenges that made her ability to work in Indonesia doubtful. However, Lin overcame these difficulties and in 2019 made it to Sentani, where she served as a pilot and IT specialist.
“I am most grateful to personally know God,” said Lin, “who has never forsaken me in my lowest times (as there have been many) and has repeatedly turned ‘mourning into dancing’ (Ps. 30:11) in ways I could not have brought about on my own. While I will always be excited to fly planes and work on computers, I am most excited to share the love of Jesus Christ by helping to transform other people’s deep discouragement and mourning into dancing and joy.”
Mary Kathryn (Frazier) Loraus, 53, stepped gently from this life into the presence of Jesus on Friday, April 16, 2010, at home after a lengthy illness. She was born August 12, 1956 in Manokwari, West New Guinea to Robert and Doris Frazier. She grew up in New Guinea, as the daughter of missionaries, graduating from Ukarumpa High School in 1974. She received an Associate Degree in Business in 1976 from Bob Jones University. She moved to Minnesota in 1978, and married Robert Loraus on September 29, 1981. Two sons were born to them, Stephen and Jeffrey. They later divorced. On July 13, 1995, she married Jeffrey Kinzer, and they moved to Daytona Beach, FL in 2001. They divorced in 2007, but remained close friends. She will be sadly missed by her sons, Stephen (Kara) Loraus and Jeffrey Loraus; brothers, John (Esther) Frazier, Timothy Frazier and H, Stephen (Lisa) Frazier; as well as uncles, aunts, nieces and nephews. Kathy was greeted at her eternal home by her parents; and brother, Robert Frazier Jr., among others.
Shirley Shippee Maxey, 81, died in La Porte, on Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2010, after recently moving back home from Waynesville, N.C.
Shirley was born to Bert Shippee and Helen Tappan Shippee on Nov. 10, 1929, in La Porte County.
She graduated in 1948 from Springfield High School and pursued training for missionary work that took place at Bob Jones University in South Carolina and Nyack College in New York.
On Jan. 27, 1951, Shirley married Edward J. Maxey from Ashville, N.C. Together they built and founded the Bible Baptist Church in New Buffalo, Mich. They also served at Southwest Alliance Church in Chicago before leaving for overseas missionary work. From 1956 until 1994, Shirley and her husband served with The Christian and Missionary Alliance, working among the stone-age Dani and Ngalik tribes of New Guinea, now known as Papua, Indonesia.
A gifted linguist and translator, Shirley, along with native language informants, translated the New Testament into two different tribal languages. At the time of her death she was doing what she could to complete the Old Testament into those languages as well. This unfinished project will be continued by her husband and children.
Shirley was loved and respected not only by her family and friends, but by the tribal people of Papua. She was a kind, hospitable, loving person, who lived her life to the glory of God and was a godly example to all who knew her. In her last days, she often said, “I’ve always tried to show people how to live for Christ, now I want to show them how to die for Christ.”
Shirley was preceded in death by her parents, Bert and Helen.
She is survived by Edward, her husband of 60 years; her children, Joy (Bill) Hudson of Oak Park, Ill., Michael “Buzz” (Myrna) Maxey of Papua, Indonesia, Anne (Tom) Koch of Tallahassee, Fla., Eric (Krisy) Maxey of Bandung, Indonesia; 11 grandchildren and one great-grandson. She is also survived by her sisters, Fran Bolles and Jane Wickstrom, both of La Porte, and cousins in La Porte and Minnesota.
MAYNARD,RALPH E.,loving husband of Melba Maynard; father of Tim, Grady and Dwight; grandfather of six grandchildren and faithful servant of Jesus Christ passed peacefully into the arms of his Lord on Tuesday, July 5, 2011. He served as a pioneer missionary in Dutch New Guinea, was a college professor and a pastor to many for 21 years in the Central Florida area. Ralph proudly served his country in the First Cavalry during World War II. His lively sense of humor, avid study of Scripture and devotion to his family were clearly evident to everyone who knew him.
Noel(Melzer), Uncle Noël, Meta ( to his beloved Danis ) went peacefully into the arms of Jesus as Cindy was reading from his favourite Psalm the following " The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;surely I have a delightful inheritance."
When Einer Helmin Mickelson, known to many as Mr. Mike, veteran of three mission fields, intrepid explorer and leading authority on Indonesian tribes, died peacefully the morning of December 2, 1969 at General Santos City. Philippines, the Christian and Missionary Alliance lost one of its most illustrious living missionaries.
Death was attributed to respiratory difficulty. Mr. Mickelson had not been in robust health since his return to the Philippines in August, 1969. After losing twenty pounds of weight in the space of three months, he was admitted to the hospital. It was there that he died.
Mr. Mickelson is survived by his wife Alice and four children: Robert, of Taft, California, and Rollen, of Hayward. California: Jacqueline (Mrs. John Mathews), of Minneapolis: and Cynthia (Mrs. George Harvey), of Rock Springs, Wyoming.
Born February 25, 1909, in Shelby. Michigan, of Norwegian parents, he attended public schools in Muskegon. At sixteen, while walking down a street in Chicago he "was attracted to a group of people singing gospel songs on a street corner." The Lord brought conviction to his heart through their testimonies. Following them to a nearby church, young Einar Mickelson "sobbed (his) way to Christ."
A year later on Thanksgiving Day evening he attended an Alliance church for the first time. There he heard the message of sanctification and dedicated his life to the Lord.
Following high school Mr. Mickelson attended and graduated from Beulah Beach (Ohio) Bible Institute. In 1931 he graduated from Nyack Missionary College and took a year of further study in New York City. On furloughs Mr. Mickelson studied at the Baptist Theological Seminary in Los Angeles, receiving the B.D. (1945) and the Th.M. degrees ('46). He also took graduate work in anthropology at the University of Leiden, The Netherlands.
In 1932 he married Seattle-born Alice Florence Patterson, a classmate at Beulah Beach and Nyack. Prior to their missionary appointment, Mr. and Mrs. Mickelson ministered at North Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, and what is now the Farmington church in suburban Detroit.
Appointed to Indonesia (then Netherlands East Indies), Mr. and Mrs. Mickelson reached the field in early 1935, and were assigned to Kalimantan (then Borneo) to work among the Dyaks of that large island.
By the end of their term in 1940, the war clouds that had enveloped Europe were threatening the Orient. With the selfless dedication to work that characterized so much of Mr. and Mrs. Mickelson's lives, they agreed that following furlough he should proceed alone to Indonesia, since dependents were not being permitted to travel in the Orient.
As he boarded the M. S. Klipfontein in October, 1941, Mr. Mickelson pressed a piece of crumpled paper into his wife's hand. On it were words destined to bring comfort to both of them in the dark years just ahead: "He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him" (Psalm 126:6).
Aboard the same ship was a young missionary aviator, Fred Jackson, who had said farewell to his bride in order to fly missionaries into the interior of Kalimantan. As the two men talked on the long trip across the Pacific, Fred shared with Mr. Mickelson a copy of National Geographic Magazine which told of the Baliem Valley of New Guinea discovered by Richard Archbold in 1938. He confided his secret ambition to transfer to New Guinea as soon as the regular missionary pilot could return to Kalimantan from furlough.
That prospect, forever denied to Fred Jackson by his martyrdom in interior Kalimantan at the hands of the Japanese, was to be realized by Mr. Mickelson.
Upon his arrival in the East Indies again, Mr. Mickelson told the field committee of his concern for the people of New Guinea, a concern born out of that ocean voyage with Fred Jackson. And the committee concurred, assigning him at once to reinforce the Wissel Lakes beachhead established by the Russell Dieblers and the Walter Posts.
So it was that in December, 1941, just as World War I1 erupted in the Pacific, Mr. Mickelson reached the Wissel Lakes. Three months later he set out for the Kemandora Valley three days to the east to evangelize the Moni tribe who lived there. Just as some of the people seemed near to the Kingdom, he was ordered (mid-January, 1943) to leave the valley. and in May, on the very day that the Japanese troops arrived at the Wissel Lakes, he was evacuated by plane to Australia. For eighteen months he had been totally cut off from mail from his family.
The war over, he and other missionaries desiring to return to the Orient again had to go out without their wives and families. Mr. Mickelson returned to the Wissel Lakes on October 30, 1946, by Catalina flying boat.
Eight years later, on April 20, 1954, he was the first missionary to land in the Baliem Valley, with Lloyd Van Stone, possibly the most dramatic moment in all the years of Alliance missionary history. Today there are thousands of converts both in the Wissel Lakes area and in the Baliem and surrounding valleys, the result of the efforts of this pioneer missionary and those who blazed the trails with him.
In 1963, after one term in Indonesia and four in West Irian, Mr. and Mrs. Mickelson were asked to transfer to the Philippines. Greatly interested in the many tribes in interior Mindanao, Mr. Mickelson traveled widely through the region. He was instrumental in starting the Tribal Bible School [now called the Mickelson Bible School] at Malagupos, Davao, for the training of pastors for tribal churches. And fittingly it was in Malagupos that Einar H. Mickelson was buried, near the school which he helped to found, surrounded by the kind of people he gave his whole life to reach with the gospel.
From his grave on the southern tip of Mindanao one can look out over the blue waters of the Celebes Sea, past Sarangani and the Baht Islands with their many Indonesian churches, to a horizon which hides Sulawesi and West Irian and Kalimantan, the scenes of Mr. Mickelson's former labors. There on that quiet promontory, overlooking those islands, surrounded by those people, he awaits the resurrection. Those islands were his parish. The tribes of those islands were his first love. He died as he would have wanted to-among them. And as a result of his selfless ministry, many from those 11 nations and kindreds and peoples and tongues will someday join him before the Throne in the song of praise to God and the Lamb.
[From Alliance Witness January 21, 1970]
Mickelson’s book God Can was published in 1966.
Delores (Dolly) Eileen Mungillo, nee Cowan, 81, entered Heaven to be forever with God the Father and Jesus the Son, her Savior, on Thursday, December 5th 2019 after a brief illness in Bradenton, FL where she lived. She is survived by her husband of 59 years, Vincent Mungillo; three children, Randy (Wendy) Mungillo, Theresa (Steve) Manchester, and Mark (Carrie) Mungillo; seven grandsons, Zane Mungillo, Micah Mungillo, Logan Mungillo, Nick Manchester, Peter Manchester, Jack Mungillo, Wil Manchester, Michael Mungillo; and finally a granddaughter, Morgan Mungillo; great-grandchildren, Weston and Alexis Mungillo; brother-in-law, James Swanson; sister-in-law Connie (Paul) Kidder; four nieces and nephews; and many dear friends. She was preceded in death by her parents; her brother, Jim Cowan; and an infant daughter.
Dolly was born on May 4th, 1938 in Moline, Illinois to Ethel and Jesse Cowan. At age 15, she asked the Lord Jesus to come into her heart and trusted Him to be her Savior, which she considered to be the most important day of her life! Dolly graduated from Asbury College in 1960, and shortly thereafter was married. For twenty years, Dolly and Vince were missionaries in Papua, Indonesia where she was a beloved second- and fourth-grade teacher. In 1989 they moved back to Kentucky to care for their aging parents while Dolly ministered to college students at Asbury as a Dean of Women and of Residence Life. She and Vince attended First Alliance Church in Lexington and made many dear friends. Dolly took up quilting as a hobby and her loved ones cherish those masterpieces. And this is when she became an avid UK basketball fan! In 2010, an opportunity arose for Dolly and Vince to live in Kenya, East Africa as hosts to visiting physicians at Tenwek Hospital. She viewed this time as a bonus blessing from God, allowing her to feel valued in her twilight years. For the last seven years, Dolly has enjoyed sitting on her lanai watching the birds, listening to the Gaithers and drinking coffee.
Dolly was loved by people all over the world for her gentle spirit, hospitality, genuine interest, encouragement, and faithful prayer. Those who prayed with her know that she frequently ended with Psalm 19:14 and this has become her legacy. “May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord my Rock and my Redeemer.”
The crash of a Missionary Aviation Fellowship plane n New Guinea on Dec. 31 claimed the lives of the pilot, Menno Voth of Vanderhoof, B. C., and Mr. and Mrs. Gene Newman of Amity, Ore. and three of their four children, according to an Evangelical Press release from Fullerton, Calif.
Mrs. Newman was the former Lois Dirks, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Norman Dirks of Oakland, Calif. and granddaughter of Rev. and Mrs. A. J. Dirks of Moundridge, Kan. Mr. Newman had served as field accountant for the MAF in West Irian.
The Cessna 185 plane crashed into a mountain at high altitude while flying through a precipitous gorge. The location was in the vicinity of a New Guinea village where two missionaries were ambushed and killed on Sept. 25, 1968. The Newmans’ 10-year-old son Paul was thrown clear of the wreckage and escaped serious injury. It is reported that the same tribesmen who had taken part in the ambush cared for the lad while he awaited rescue. When rescuers arrived, villagers were said to exclaim, “We beg you for your friendship.”
The crash of a Missionary Aviation Fellowship plane n New Guinea on Dec. 31 claimed the lives of the pilot, Menno Voth of Vanderhoof, B. C., and Mr. and Mrs. Gene Newman of Amity, Ore. and three of their four children, according to an Evangelical Press release from Fullerton, Calif.
Mrs. Newman was the former Lois Dirks, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Norman Dirks of Oakland, Calif. and granddaughter of Rev. and Mrs. A. J. Dirks of Moundridge, Kan. Mr. Newman had served as field accountant for the MAF in West Irian.
The Cessna 185 plane crashed into a mountain at high altitude while flying through a precipitous gorge. The location was in the vicinity of a New Guinea village where two missionaries were ambushed and killed on Sept. 25, 1968. The Newmans’ 10-year-old son Paul was thrown clear of the wreckage and escaped serious injury. It is reported that the same tribesmen who had taken part in the ambush cared for the lad while he awaited rescue. When rescuers arrived, villagers were said to exclaim, “We beg you for your friendship.”
The crash of a Missionary Aviation Fellowship plane n New Guinea on Dec. 31 claimed the lives of the pilot, Menno Voth of Vanderhoof, B. C., and Mr. and Mrs. Gene Newman of Amity, Ore. and three of their four children, according to an Evangelical Press release from Fullerton, Calif.
Mrs. Newman was the former Lois Dirks, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Norman Dirks of Oakland, Calif. and granddaughter of Rev. and Mrs. A. J. Dirks of Moundridge, Kan. Mr. Newman had served as field accountant for the MAF in West Irian.
The Cessna 185 plane crashed into a mountain at high altitude while flying through a precipitous gorge. The location was in the vicinity of a New Guinea village where two missionaries were ambushed and killed on Sept. 25, 1968. The Newmans’ 10-year-old son Paul was thrown clear of the wreckage and escaped serious injury. It is reported that the same tribesmen who had taken part in the ambush cared for the lad while he awaited rescue. When rescuers arrived, villagers were said to exclaim, “We beg you for your friendship.”
Larry & I remember, with extreme gratitude to God, the servant hearts of Paul & Ruth Pontier. They were so instrumental in helping to developing the S.I.L. translation center at Danau Bira (Lake Holmes). Countless flights bringing people and supplies, open door at Sentani with refreshments and encouragement.
Bert Power, from West Australia, arrived in Sentani DNG in February 1963. He then went to Sengge to assist in the work there, later that year he returned to Sentani to assist in the construction of the UFM house at Pos 7, after which he returned to Sengge. Bert joined the UFM team at Lake Archblod in 1955, and then led the team (incl. 2 RBMU & 2 Baptist and 7 Sengge men) from Lake Archbold to Bokondini in April 1956, arriving on 1st May. In 1957 Bert, together with Garnet Ericson & Wal Turner and 4 Sengge men opened up the Wolo area. In 1958 Bert, together with Leon Dillinger, Ralph Maynard & Dave Cole opened up the Mulia area. Gwenda Patterson (also from West Australia) arrived in Sentani in 1959, and they were married at Bokondini. Later that year Bert and Leon Dillinger opened the Kelila airstrip and the Powers moved to Kelila. Bert conducted the 1st baptisms in GIDI at Kelila on 29th July 1962 – 7 men and 1 woman. Bert & Gwenda later moved to Bokondini and later went to Sentani to make preparation for WIBVI (Stakin), leaving Irian Jaya in 1972. Bert was held in honour by the Danis in the Bokondini / Kelila area as he was the one they saw as bringing the Gospel to them.
Born in 1936 in Fort Dodge, Iowa. Daughter of Earl and Pauline Soderstrom. A registered nurse, Carol and her husband, Don, raised four children while serving as missionaries among stone-age headhunters in West Papua, Indonesia, from 1962 to 1977. The story of their 15 ye ar adventure is told in her husband's first book, Child (Regal Books, 1974). Carol also taught Bible and literacy to tribal women. She treated as many as 2600 patients per month from her jungle clinic. Since 1977, the Richardsons have been ambassadors-at-large for World Team, the mission under which they served in West Papua. Carol is survived by her husband, Don; four children, Stephen, Shannon, Paul and Valerie; twelve grandchildren.
Author, speaker and mission statesman Don Richardson has ended his battle with brain cancer at the age of 83. His life was marked by undaunted faith and dedication to sharing and advancing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He leaves a legacy rich in the fruit of his prayerful perseverance.
Don is survived by his wife of 13 years, Carol Joyce; his sons Steve, Shannon and Paul; and daughter Valerie Powers; brothers Doug and David; 12 grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren.
Born in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada, Don attended a one-room schoolhouse in “Anne of Green Gables” country before moving to Victoria, British Columbia. The oldest of four boys, Don was 11 when his father died. He gave his life to Christ at a Youth for Christ rally in 1952 and pursued training for ministry at Prairie Bible Institute in Alberta. He was lovingly married to Carol Joy Soderstrom until her death 43 years later in 2004.
In 1962, under sponsorship of the former Regions Beyond Missionary Union (now World Team), Don and Carol embarked on a missionary career in Netherlands New Guinea (now Papua, Indonesia). They served for 15 years among the Sawi, a Stone-Age tribe of cannibal-headhunters who idealized treachery. Don and Carol designed an alphabet suited to their language, taught the tribesmen to read, and translated the New Testament into their native tongue. As a registered nurse, Carol was known as “the woman who makes everyone well.” In time, and with the involvement of several missionary co-workers (including John and Esther Mills, Jim and Joan Yost and others) many of the Sawi came to Christ, engendering a major cultural shift as the Gospel replaced warring and headhunting with peace and good will.
From 1977 until his illness surfaced in March 2018, Don served as World Team’s minister-at-large. In this role he spoke at dozens of churches, conferences and other venues each year, in North America and worldwide. Don was a frequent instructor in the “Perspectives on the World Christian Movement” course and on various college and seminary campuses. He was an ordained pastor and held an honorary doctorate of literature from Biola University. Seventeen months after Carol Joy’s death in 2004, Don was remarried to Carol Joyce, with whom he enjoyed ongoing fruitful ministry.
Perhaps best known for the concept of “redemptive analogies,” Don’s books and teachings have helped shape missions discourse and inspire two generations toward more thoughtful engagement in the Great Commission. His best-selling first book, Peace Child, tells the dramatic story of how the Gospel broke through among the Sawi people. His second book, Lords of the Earth, documents the work and martyrdom of two colleagues among the Yali, a Papuan mountain tribe. Eternity in Their Hearts, Don’s third book, presents compelling case histories of how God has prepared cultures around the world for the arrival of the Gospel. Subsequent titles, including Secrets of the Koran, Heaven Wins, and A Man from Another World, have also received wide readership. A short film called “Never the Same” portrays the ongoing impact of the Gospel 50 years after Don and his family entered the Sawi domain.
In addition to his biblical and missiological teaching, Richardson enjoyed a variety of other interests including painting scenes of tribal life in New Guinea (See www.peacechildlegacy.com), tournament chess, running, and summiting 33 “fourteeners” (peaks rising above 14,000 feet) in the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada.
Carol Stream, Illinois-International Headquarters of The Evangelical Alliance Mission (TEAM)
With deep sorrow TEAM informs you that Neil Roesler (30) went to be with His Lord Monday, September 20, 2004. Neil and Sandy were appointed as missionaries to TEAM in July, 2000, seconded to Helimission in Papua (Irian Jaya), Indonesia. Together with their two children Kaila (2) and Micah (8 mos.), Neil and Sandy had recently completed six months of language study in Bandung, Indonesia and began ministry on-site in Wamena in May of this year. Please uphold the family in your prayers.
Dr. Charles A. Davis, Executive Director
Our most recent information tells us that Neil communicated with the base in Wamena on Monday afternoon, expecting to be home within an hour. When Neil had not returned by Monday evening his wife, Sandy wrote a letter requesting prayer for his safe return.
At dawn on Tuesday morning (September 21) the search and rescue operation for Neil began, as Simon Tanner, Director of Helimission explained details of Neil’s flight that day: 16:00 local time: Neil took off alone from the village of Obukain heading towards the home base, Wamena. Around 16:15 he gave his position and ETA (estimated time of arrival) 16:30 to the base, via HF radio. This was the last contact with him. He still had fuel on board for more than 30 minutes.
Search and rescue (SAR) operation was immediately organized. Because it was already too late in the day, the SAR operation could start not earlier than Tuesday morning. Airplanes picked up the ELT signal. Later a helicopter from a mining company rescued Neil’s body.
No other details of the circumstances surrounding the crash are yet known. Rick Willms, MAF pilot, flew Walter Kennedy, TEAM ministry area leader, in to Wamena from Sentani (Jayapura). Along with many other friends, colleagues and co-workers, they are standing alongside Sandy and the children.
Neil’s mother, Ruth retired from TEAM in 1988 and presently resides in Bradenton Missionary Village in Florida. Neil’s father, Cal, went to be with the Lord on November 17, 1998, three weeks before Neil and Sandy were married, after being diagnosed with acute leukemia. Neil’s sisters, Donna and Beth, reside in Virginia and Colorado, respectively. John and Jean Whittemore, Sandy’s parents, also serve in Asia and were traveling in the Philippines at the time of Neil’s death. Sandy’s brothers, Christopher and Stephen, reside in Arizona.
Both Neil and Sandy attended high school together at Faith Academy in Manila, Philippines in the late 1980’s. Neil went on to receive a BS in Aviation Technology at LeTourneau University in Texas while Sandy received her BS in Human Resources Management at Messiah College in Pennsylvania. Neil and Sandy’s sending church is the West Shore Evangelical Free Church in Mechanicsburg, PA.
Together this extended family grieves the loss of Neil with great sorrow. Many missionaries, fellow MK’s, supporters, and friends are responding to the news of Neil’s home-going with love and concern. Lester Hirst, Regional Director for Asia-Pacific has received many of these calls and has encouraged each one to continue to trust in God and His goodness. Together we are placing this precious family in God’s hands, knowing that He will sustain them in this heartrending loss.
Darlene Mae McIntosh Rose died Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2004.
She was born on May 10, 1917, and grew up with an ailing father and hardworking mother. At the age of nine, she put her trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and was saved. At 13 during a Dr. R.R. Brown revival meeting, she felt the hand of God urging her to go forward and give her life to missions for Christ. She joined the Christian and Missionary Alliance for training. While taking the training she married a pioneer missionary to Dutch Indonesia, Russell Deibler. With Walter and Viola Post, they helped open the C&MA work in the Wissell Lakes.
In 1942 Darlene and Russ were captured by the Japanese during World War II and interned in different prison camps. Her husband died in 1944, but she lived and was liberated in the fall of 1945. She returned to her family who lived in Los Angeles, and she recuperated there.
Sensing again God’s call to return, she made preparations to do so. Then God completed her preparations by sending her a new pioneer missionary husband, Jerry Rose, who had a heart for the stone age tribes of Netherlands New Guinea. They later lived and worked in Papua New Guinea and then Australia.
By 1993 their health had gone down so much that they had to go into semi-retirement in Creighton, Neb. In 2001 Jerry and Darlene moved to Chattanooga. Two churches (Faith Bible Church and Woodland Park Baptist Church) combined their efforts to care for these two dear warriors of the faith.
Darlene is perhaps best known for her book of experiences during World War II titled Evidence Not Seen. She traveled extensively throughout the English-speaking world sharing the love and the power of Jesus Christ from her World War II experiences.
She was preceded in death by sister, Helen Anderson.
Gerald "Jerry" Wayne Rose died on Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2004, in a Chattanooga nursing home.
He was born on July 5, 1923, in Gainesville, FL. From an early age, he was fascinated with flying and spent much of his younger years around the pioneer pilots of the new aviation age.
Sensing the call to missions in the service of his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, he entered Bob Jones University in the early 1940s. Upon graduation, he became affiliated with the dedicated missionaries of the Christian and Missionary Alliance.
From there God directed him to New Guinea for his ministry, giving him the love of his life, Darlene Deibler Rose, to co-labor with him in a pioneering work in the central Baliem Valley of New Guinea. In 1951 Jerry and Frans Titahelu trekked from the Wissel Lakes to the rim of the Baliem Valley as part of a 1951 survey prior to the opening of that area to the Gospel and other missionaries.
Jerry and his beloved Darlene ministered there, raising two sons, and then in Papua, New Guinea, until 1978. Because of the political climate after PNG became independent, they moved to Australia and continued their mission work.
By 1993, their health necessitated semi-retirement in Creighton, NE. In 2001, Jerry and Darlene moved to Chattanooga, where two churches (Faith Bible Church and Woodland Park Baptist Church) combined their efforts to care for these two dear warriors of the faith.
Together, Jerry and Darlene were used of God to bring hundreds to the Lord and then discipling them to Christ. Further, they were instrumental in beginning several indigenous churches that are now pastored by natives.
Jerry was best known for his amazing feats with construction and building airstrips. He once disassembled a John Deere bulldozer, had it flown it into a small airstrip at Tulem piece by piece and reassembled it so that the strip could be greatly improved. Later it was used in roadbuilding in the Wamena area.
He was preceded in death by his wife, Darlene.
He is survived by his two sons, Brian Rose and wife, Gayle, of Australia, and Bruce Rose and wife, Gabriele, of Austria, and six grandchildren, Sarah, David, Rebekah, Katja, Michael and Lauren.
From Edward Ulrich Out There Beyond Beyond Moody Press 2000:
One of our neighbors [on Mission Hill, Sentani] was Jerry Rose. Jerry was what one might call a “professional scrounger.” He had the knack of being able to secure items of all kinds for himself and the mission, all of which greatly improved life whether in “civilization” on the coast or in the interior.
If a generator was needed, Jerry either had one or knew where to get one. He also brought a refrigerated van trailer to Sentani for communal use. Such resourcefulness, of course, attracted the admiration of some and the criticism of others.
However one viewed him, all agreed that Jerry did things in a big way. He was far ahead of his fellow missionaries in developing local resources, starting agricultural projects, planning major station development, buying vehicles and communications equipment and funding their maintenance. Even in the earliest days in the Baliem, Jerry was already thinking ahead to schools and roads and telephone service before others had thought much beyond setting foot in the interior and learning a language.
On any mission field a tension exists between the proponents of a spartan simplicity and the proponents of a substantial infrastructure. Jerry leaned toward the latter. As one surveys the history of the development of Irian Jaya at the turn of the millennium, it is fair to say that many of the ideas Jerry was trying to carry out in the early ‘50s are now being adopted.
Esther L. Scovill of Blythewood, SC, passed away peacefully in her home on Wednesday morning, April 22, 2020 at the age of 83.
Born on October 5, 1936 in Alberta, Canada, she was the third child of George and May McKerihan. Esther was married to Dave Scovill, her husband of almost 61 years. Most of those years were spent serving together among the Dani tribal people of Papua, Indonesia under the mission umbrella of UFM (now Crossworld). They served as linguists, Bible translators, literacy teachers, and medical care providers as they shared the Gospel message. As the church grew, they completed the translation of the Bible into the Dani language and assisted in the training of hundreds who are today responsibly pastoring their churches. She is loved by the Dani as well as other Indonesian people whom she served with Dave... a true helpmeet!
Following their years in Indonesia, they retired to Blythewood, South Carolina. Esther was known to be a gentle woman with a quick smile, a tenacious faith and committed to prayer. She was an encouragement and blessing to all who had the opportunity to know and be loved by her!
She is survived by her husband, her daughter, Dawn Fain (John) of Blythewood; four grandchildren; six great grandchildren with two on the way; and four siblings, Pat, James, Linda, and Marilyn. She was predeceased by a son, David Brian Scovill.
Dr. Sytze ('Doc') Smit and Mrs. Johanna Smit, serving in the Baliem Valley from 1956-1963.
The names of the missionary families on the Facebook group I may follow were household names in my childhood, long after we had left the Baliem Valley in the early sixties. That relatively short span of time, from 1956 to 1963, has been a defining period in my parents’ lives.
More even than the war. Those were for both my parents formative years, in which they both learnt to put their trust in God in the midst of adversity. The stories of the Baliem time were more optimistic. It sounded like they had a lot of fun with their new evangelical friends from the States, Canada and Australia. My mother was brought up in the Calvinist tradition. My father had a more liberal background (Dutch mennonites) but gladly joined the Dutch Reformed Church, his new found home in the devastated world that five years of war had left behind.
After the war my father went to study medicine in Leiden, where it so happened that he had an aunt living there. She might know a place for him to stay (He had spent the first three months sleeping on straw). When he rang the doorbell my mother, then fourteen, opened the door. It was love at first sight for my father. In due time the feelings became mutual :).
My grandmother (a niece of my fathers mother) said he could stay with her neighbour, a certain Mieke Allaart. She was the one who brought my parents in touch with the CAMA. (She was teaching one of their missionaries the Dutch language, Einar Mickelson when he studied anthropology at Leiden in 1952)
My father had given his life to the Lord during the war years. As a young man of 17, he had been forced to join the labour force which the German army needed, to dig trenches in battle zones. Before marching off with the others, his mother came to him with some food in a bag. Also in the bag was a Bible.
He miraculously managed to escape, together with a friend. From then on, his life had a purpose. His father was a doctor, as were many more in the family, serving in the Dutch army in Indonesia when my father was born on February 17th 1927. His childhood years were spent in the tropics. He recollected observing as a boy an Indonesian man scraping a wound on his leg with the jagged lid of a can. That's when he also wanted to become a doctor. My mother was a nurse, and dreamed of working in a children’s house in Surinam, then still a Dutch colony.
The CAMA gave them the opportunity to start a new life together as a missionary couple in the Baliem Valley. As this part of what is now Indonesia then still was under Dutch rule, my father’s work in the interior was subsidized by the government. All the obstacles for going to the mission field had been taken (my parents had no local church supporting them, as this was not the practice in the Dutch Reformed Church). On December 1st 1956 they boarded a freight ship with passenger accomodations. On board were also Don and Glenna Anderson, who made for good company.
Once in the valley my father was going on patrols and building two hospitals besides being the 'G.P.' in the missionary family. My younger brother Ype and I were not the only children of missionaries born in the valley. My father also delivered the child of a Dani chieftain under difficult circumstances, which created a whole new relationship with this important person, and even more so with the mother.
My father was stationed in several places, starting in Tulem, and then in Hetigima, Pyramid and finally Wamena. By then the new political situation was making itself felt, with the Indonesian government taking over control. After their first furlough in 1963 my father was forced to hand over the hospital where he was working to the new authorities.
My parents maintained friendships with several missionary families, like the Andersons and also Myron and Marj Bromley. They also kept up a correspondence, slightly sporadic, with Dani friends, mainly the chieftains wife and her daughter. They also supported the CAMA in the Netherlands. It is indeed thanks to the Dutch branch that I could obtain my parents prayer letters as a source for this obituary.
After leaving 'Dutch New Guinea' my father worked as a radiologist in Papua New Guinea. After working in a hospital in Newcastle in Australia for two years we arrived back in Holland as a family in 1970, where he worked as a General Practitioner in Leiden. During their active lives and after retirement my father and mother both were active in promoting and supporting missionary work in their local Dutch Reformed Churches. The loss of my mother on June 30th 2001, due to illness, left my father a widower for many years. He himself passed away in Delft, where we are living, on May 27th 2015.
Part of his legacy is a recording he made in the last years on framboesia,(yaws), a disease which he treated in the villages he entered on his patrols. The recordings never got further than this entry; maybe it was sufficient for him.
James Sunda, born in Lillian, Alabama. Alumnus of Foley High School and Toccoa Falls College. A missionary with the Christian & Missionary Alliance (C&MA). He married Deloris Reynolds in 1955 and started the C&MA church in Marietta GA. They left in 1957 for Dutch New Guinea (now Papua Indonesia) to serve as missionaries there. They served the Dani people in the Baliem Valley for the next 39 years. This country boy from Alabama influenced 10's of 1000's of lives, bringing not only God's word to the natives of Papua but hope for a healthier life through education, medicine and agriculture. After retirement from the mission field he worked with the Lilburn Alliance Church in Lilburn, Georgia for another 20 years ministering in deliverance, counseling, seniors ministry, visitation, teaching and training. In a less formal capacity he was a mentor to many men. Deloris passed away in August of 2015. Jim is survived by his children: Margie Ulsh (Tom), Joy Riconda (Louis), Doug Sunda, Susan Payton (Doug); and 7 grandchildren: Jennifer, Heather, Rachel, Erik, Jonathan, Adam and Joseph.
Edward W. Ulrich, 81, of 145 Buhl Blvd., Sharon, Pa., died at 6:45 p.m. July 15,2003, at his home after an extended illness. He was born June 6,1922, in Turtle Creek, Pa., the son of the late Gustav Ulrich and the late Anna (Ungerman) Ulrich.
He graduated from Sharon High School in 1942. In the same year, enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps and served as an instructor pilot during World War II.
Following his attendance at St.Paul (Minn.) Bible College, he was commissioned by the Christian and Missionary Alliance as a missionary pilot in Netherlands New Guinea (now Papua, Indonesia). He flew numerous missions in New Guinea, transporting personnel and supplies into the interior regions where westerners had never before been seen.
He also flew for Kroonduif, KLM's New Guinea airline. He found great satisfaction in helping to open the interior to the Christian gospel. His experiences are recounted in his book Out There Beyond Beyond, published in 2000, part of the "Jaffray Series of Missionary Portraits" of Christian Publications and republished by Moody Publishers. This book detailed his experiences as a C&MA missionary pilot in what was then known as Dutch New Guinea. Ed was known for his compassion, generosity, courage and professionalism. These characteristics were apparent also in his subsequent service with Air America in Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. He served as deputy base manager in Bangkok and chief pilot in Laos. During the years with Air America®, he continued his interest in the Missionary work for the Alliance and in serving in international evangelical churches in Thailand, Laos and Vietnam.
Following his return to the U.S. in 1974, he was employed by the former McLean Trucking Co., retiring in 1986. Ed was chaplain of the American Legion's China Post 1 and was a member of the Air America Association, and the Thailand, Laos and Cambodia Brotherhood. Ed was a member of the North-Mar Christian and Missionary Alliance Church in Warren, Ohio, and had served as chairman of the board of elders.
He leaves his wife, Elaine (Sutton) Ulrich, whom he married on Aug. 6, 1949, three daughters, Lynne Evans and her husband, John, of Gahanna, Ohio, Laurie Ulrich of Falls Church, Va., and Leslie McBane and her husband, Patrick,of Youngstown, Ohio; a son, Ted Ulrich and his wife, Judy, of Suffolk, Va.; a sister, Lois Roth and her husband, Benjamin, of Conneautville, Pa.; two brothers, Robert Ulrich and his wife, Carolyn, of Muncie, Ind., and William Ulrich and his wife, Betty, of Kingston, TN. ; six grandchildren and five great grandchildren. His parents and his first wife, Alberta (Hunter) Ulrich, who died in 1948, preceded him in death. Funeral services were held July 18, 2003, at the North-Mar C.M.A. Church, Warren, Ohio.
Dorie was preceded in death by her husband of 36 years, Lloyd Van Stone. She is survived by two children, Darlene Wood of Cherry Valley, AR and Burney Van Stone of Topeka, KS along with grandchildren, and great grandchildren.
Dorie was the daughter of Louis Augustus and Laura (Ferreira) Duckworth and placed in an orphanage at age six. She left the orphanage at age 13 and lived in four different foster homes. In 1946 she attended St. Paul Bible Institute where she met the love of her life, Lloyd Van Stone. The Van Stones were some of the first Christian and Missionary Alliance missionaries to the Dani tribe of New Guinea. They returned to the US after seven years where Lloyd pastored churches in Texas, Kansas, Minnesota, and Colorado.
After Lloyd’s death Dorie was on staff with Precept Ministries International. Dorie loved and was active with Open Hearts Ministry for many years alongside her friend Sandy Burdick. She also became a founding board member of All God’s Children International in 1991 and served in that capacity for many years. She served on the board of Forever Changed International in Guatemala City, Guatemala, where their orphanage was named Dorie’s Promise in her honor. Dorie was known as God’s Orphan Ambassador around the world. Later Dorie was part of Just For Women Ministries in Darlington, SC.
Dorie co-authored two books, Dorie, the Girl Nobody Loved, and No Place to Cry, with Erwin Lutzer. She also authored Secrets of the Heart. She traveled around the world at least 13 times, sharing her story with thousands upon thousands of people.
Rev. Lloyd Van Stone died July 2, 1985 in Topeka, Kansas. After his marriage to Dorie Duckworth in 1948, Mr. Van Stone completed studies in missions and linguistics at St. Paul Bible College. The Van Stones served several C&MA pastorates until they left as missionaries to Irian Jaya, Indonesia, in 1952, where they served until 1959. Lloyd was on board the first Sealand flight to the Baliem Valley, on April 20, 1954, and assisted in founding several mission stations including Hepuba, Hetigima, and Pyramid. After they returned to the US for family medical reasons, the Van Stones served churches in Texas, Kansas, Minnesota, and Colorado.
Johannes "Hans" Marinus Veldhuis, Sorrento, Florida, entered into the glorious presence of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on May 27, 2014. He was 92, a man of rare faith, trusting absolutely in the finished work of Jesus Christ for all sin, for all time.
Born December 10, 1921 in Almelo, the Netherlands, to Jan and Marie Veldhuis, he was the youngest of four siblings. He served in the Dutch military in World War II both in the Dutch Army and Navy on the Pacific front where he experienced God's calling to missions work.
He was a missionary in Dutch New Guinea and served as the area's first field director for the Unevangelized Fields Mission. He was one of a team including Fred Dawson, Russell Bond and seven young men from Senggi who were flown by Sealand amphibian to the Baliem River and then trekked to Lake Archbold in February 1955. Served there by the MAF Piper Pacer on floats, they developed plans to trek west and later founded mission stations and airstrips including Bokondini and Karubaga. Veldhuis wrote Into the Wilds of Dutch New Guinea as a record of that trek and early missions activities.
He immigrated to the United States with his wife Eleanor and his 10 children in 1964 where he built Florida Cactus Inc. in Apopka Florida before his retirement in 1977.
He is survived by nine children: Dr. Suzanna L. Veldhuis (Kuipers) of Rochester, Minnesota; Dr. Johannes D Veldhuis of Rochester, Minnesota; Judith V Lovestrand of Apopka, Florida; Michael J Veldhuis of Yuma, Arizona; J Stephen Veldhuis of Tullahoma, Tennessee; E Ruth Wilson of Douglasville, Georgia; Rebekah E Grimwood of Mountain Home, Arkansas; Paula P Veldhuis of Sorrento, Florida; and Stephanie Novakovic of Sorrento, Florida and one sister, Martha Veldhuis of Hamilton, Ontario and 36 grandchildren and also 34 great grandchildren. He is preceded in death by his wife Eleanor formerly of Ontario Canada, the mother of his 10 children, and his daughter Joanna Marie Karpiak of Miami, Florida, two brothers and his second wife, Lucille, of Zellwood, Florida.
Tribute to Hans Veldhuis, by his daughter Suzanna Veldhuis-Kuipers
Written especially for you, Jonathan, Benjamin, Joseph, Hannah, Lucas and Caroline, Rachel and Jonathan and little Jack, that you may know and be encouraged. Modified slightly after Dad’s funeral, June the 5th, 2014. These are but glimpses into the long and unusual life of an uncommon man who served an unfailing God. “Great is Thy Faithfulness, Oh God, my Father.”
In 2014, May the 27th, Johannes Marinus Veldhuis, ‘Hans,’ father, grandfather, great grandfather, sailor, soldier, soul winner, missionary, laborer, businessman, minister, mentor, and friend, was called to his final, his eternal, home. He was 92 years of age, faithful until his death to the Lord Jesus Christ Whom he trusted unwaveringly and into Whose presence his soul was taken safely, in an instant, across an unknown space by unseen angels. Without doubt, he has seen the throne of God and has been blinded by the glory flowing from that throne. I can see him on his knees before the Lamb of God seated there. For all eternity, he is inside the city foursquare that he mapped out in miles from one end of the United States to the other with charts and computations. His eyes have seen the foundations of the wall of that city garnished with all manner of precious stones, the color of each, he could describe so well. He has entered through one of the twelve gates, a gate of pearl, and he stands among the great cloud of witnesses described in Hebrews 12. That which he believed unfalteringly has become perfect for him. “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing.”
Printed for many years on Hans’ checks were the beautiful words from John 11:25 & 26. “And Jesus said unto her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life, he that believeth in me though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me, shall never die. Believest thou this?’” These words, this question, had been the focus of his life, since he found the Lord and was found of Him at age nineteen.
It was one evening during WWII, in the barracks of the Dutch Forces in Stratford, Ontario, that two Dutch Canadian soldiers invited Hans to a gospel meeting. Hans had been watching them carefully for they lived such different lives than he had been accustomed to seeing from those who professed Christianity. He knew they possessed something that he didn’t and as he wrote years later, “accepted their invitation solely because of the way they lived their daily lives, they were not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” It was at that meeting that he recognized his need for a Savior. John 3:16 became very real to him and that night his soul passed from death unto life and he began to thirst for the things of the Lord. He studied Scripture, memorized it, and shared it. He turned from dead works—not necessarily bad works, just dead works—to serve the Living God.
Shortly after the war, he returned to his parents’ home on Homewood Avenue in Hamilton, Ontario, and met Eleanor Braithwaite Harding at Charleton Avenue Baptist Church. The two would walk together as long as the Lord gave Eleanor life. They married on September 10, 1946, which was Eleanor’s 20th birthday, in the parlor of Auntie Alice’s English home and left on their wedding night by train, then by ship, from Montreal to Liverpool, and on by plane to Rotterdam, ultimately sailing separately and miraculously, many months apart, for Dutch New Guinea. They would be missionaries to a people who all their lives had walked in darkness, in bondage to pagan spirits and fears and sacrifices, as Dad’s own words described in 1949.
I grew up in that home in Dutch New Guinea and owe everything of value that I have known to my parents, the Lord Jesus Christ and the truth of Scripture. My siblings will likely attest to the same. Hans spoke fluent Dutch from childhood and spoke Malay from his WWII years on the Pacific front. Eleanor learned both quickly. They gathered children for flannel graph Bible stories and object lessons, Scripture memorization contests, and singing, with Mother at the little pump organ. Both parents loved music. Mother was classically trained on the piano and sang with a lovely alto voice. Dad never lost his beautiful baritone voice, singing earnestly and engagedly until shortly before his death, “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.” Old hymns—the second and third verses too. He gathered men for Bible studies and trekked to their villages. He preached from memory, never with notes, his sermons being Scripture passages and verses he had memorized and prepared. He connected them with a few human thoughts and often preached from the Old Testament. His mind perceived the essence of a matter. I will never forget his sermon of rebuke and anguish: “Absalom, Absalom, my son, would that I had died for thee,” as we sat on damp logs in a damp clearing in a jungle, one Sunday morning, just our family and native Papuans. “Batu karung yung tagu, enkau perling dungan koo” “Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee,” the hymnal in Malay in our hands.
Dad engaged the native people honestly; he never isolated himself from them. He hauled their watermelons to the lake, played soccer with the men, visited in their homes, bought their eggs, ate their meat—though he could see their hands and bodies, which they never washed, and their hair infested with lice, which they ate. He could adapt, innovate, and sense danger but not live in fear of it. Once he described to me a dwelling on “Signal Hill” near Hollandia. He had built it after the war for Eleanor when she arrived from Holland using scrap metal discarded by the Dutch military “It was just a shack, Suzie, just a shack.” And I, I remember the narrow path behind that shack and its plunging descent. I was being carried on the shoulders of a young missionary, Walter Erikson, who would be brutally slain by his native carriers and buried on a beach in Manokwari just months later. Mother would remember well that death when she said goodbye to her husband as he left to lead an expedition into the wilds of Dutch New Guinea, the remote and perilous region of the highlands and the Baliem Valley.
Sixty-five years later, Dad, just months prior to his own death, would speak one morning of a ‘vision,’ a most unusual thing for him. He had been shown mansions in the night during his sleep, “beautiful mansions, nothing like this home here, Stephanie,” (who herself lives in a lovely home) “nothing like this home!” It was but a glimpse of what eye hath not seen nor ear heard, and God gave it to Dad at the end of his life as a special mercy.
During times of difficulty or danger, Hans and Eleanor claimed the promise of Matthew 18:19 that, “if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.” Never did the Lord fail them. And never did Hans or Eleanor complain, though diseases abounded such as huge tropical ulcers, yaws, tuberculosis, malaria and amoebic dysentery. And dangers, such as scorpions, centipedes, and snakes, including a death adder coiled up by Douglas’ neck when he was yet a baby in his bed. Evil too was palpable at times in that pagan, animistic place. Yet, the Lord stood with us, and the angels of the Lord encamped round about us with the same faithfulness that is available to us today. Treks into the interior to Sengge; drops by airplane unto the mighty Baliem River into the presence of hostile, warring, cannibalistic tribes; sudden appearances of Satanic ritual chambers in tall, reeded, razor sharp grasses, through which my father’s expedition would pass; regardless of what befell my father or our family, the Lord spared us, gave wisdom, and prospered the work of my parents’ hands. Children were born; Eleanor, who was an only child, born prematurely, and orphaned in her early teens, was to deliver ten children whose father Johannes Marinus Veldhuis would live for 92 years! Seven of those children would be born in New Guinea with limited medical care and no anesthesia. Eleanor would precede him in death by nearly fifty years, January the 19th, 1968.
He spent those years as a tale that is told. With Strength! A good nature! Adaptability! Saving the life of one of his own children whose umbilical cord fastening had come loose, the cord retracting and hemorrhaging in the middle of the night with no doctor nearby. Courage! Crossing the mighty serpentine Baliem River in a rubber dinge, crossing the Hablifoeri River Gorge on an aged vine and sapling bridge, 200 feet above a thundering river, navigating the inky blackness of dense jungles, descending perilous shale mountain slopes, engaging with care warring tribes ahead and behind as he paused in ‘no man’s’ land. Emigrating from Canada to the United States with ten children and five suitcases to rescue and rebuild a failing business! Trusting the Lord when Eleanor, alone with seven young children, traveled six weeks on the SS Oronsay from Sydney to Vancouver across the Pacific Ocean while he flew ahead to arrange housing! Creativity! With massive tulip gardens, cactus clocks that rivaled the floral clocks on Princess Street in Edinburgh, cactus maps of the entire United States, with each state in a different species. He once cut dozens of coconut palm branches for Easter and placed them throughout the interior of our corrugated metal home in Sentani. Technical expertise in constructing homes without any architectural plans, making even his own concrete bricks; hauling a full-sized Quonset from General McArthur’s headquarters near Hollandia, down the mountain from Ifar and over a narrow bridge to provide housing for his family! Faithfulness! To God and family and to any task that lay before him, regardless of difficulty or unpleasantness! He would speak of “opportunities and responsibilities.” Generosity! Of great magnanimity to us and to others! A tract with a generous tip! Integrity! Perseverance! He once trekked alone from an inland mission station, 65 miles to the coast in two left boots because he had worn out the rights on the way in! Constitutional strength which we all know so well! An indomitable will! And considerable humor, too. His practical jokes were so common that when Rebeccah was born on an April the 1st, we searched the house for hours for our mother, convinced her absence was one of Dad’s practical jokes!
He read voraciously, political books, the Bible, encyclopedias—rarely material in which there was little value. I remember well him reading The Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, one chapter a night, when I was eight years old. Sydney Carton giving his life for Charles Darnay; Sydney Carton going to a far, far better place, and as he did so, quoting John 11:25, “I am the resurrection and the life.” The impact of that tale on me was profound. The concept of sacrifice is profound. It is what Christ Himself did for us. “Greater love hath no man than this, than that a man lay down his life for a friend.” Dad’s heart and mind were not satisfied with emptiness; neither were ours. He had tasted of the water of life, its depths, and he drank from it freely, sometimes alone.
After he retired in 1977 from Florida Cactus, Hans began memorizing Scripture in earnest, whole books of the Bible, starting with Hebrews, which he could quote in one hour; then Revelation, Romans, John, Acts, Mark, huge passages of Isaiah, and numerous Psalms, with Psalm 90, 91, 103, being among his favorites. He once recited Psalm 119 to me, (176 verses in octets with each of the 22 octets beginning with one of the twenty two letters of the Hebrew alphabet.) “You wouldn’t mind, Suzie, would you? It’ll only take me fifteen minutes.” “Wouldn’t mind? Of course not, Dad.” And I noticed that if he hesitated with a word or phrase, he understood so well the intent of the passage, that he simply created different wording while retaining the same thought. This he did while living in Mountain Home. Always before leaving a hospital room or a home, he would recite a suitable Psalm, and always he would end a sermon with a Scriptural benediction, such as the last two verses of Jude, which were read at his graveside service in Mountain Home, “Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.”
His Bibles are red with ink and worn from reading, but some verses just now, I can hear, “Call unto me, and I will answer thee and shew thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not.” Jeremiah 33:3. “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh, is there anything too hard for me?” Jeremiah 32:27b. When in his late 80’s he nearly lost his vision, he came trustingly to the Mayo Clinic for one, and then a second corneal transplant, and within three months after that, he had reread the entire Bible. He chose the Bible as his first major reading project after surgery. I asked him how he did it. “I just read two to three hours a day, Suzie.” In his later years, Dad was often heard, alone at night in his recliner, praying aloud, interceding with Scripture for his children, their families, each of you grandchildren by name, countless others, governments, and missionaries, particularly those in Muslim nations.
“And ye shall seek me and find me when ye shall search for me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:13
“He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good, and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with Thy God.” Micah 6:8
I close with Psalm 84. Dad quoted it often after supper, at our table.
“How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! 2 My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God. 3 Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King, and my God. 4 Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee. Selah. 5 Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are the ways of them. 6 Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools. 7 They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God. 8 O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer: give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah. 9 Behold, O God our shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed. 10 For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. 11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. 12 O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.”
"The joy of the Lord is my strength.” Gail Susan Vinje, age 65, of Beloit went to live with her Lord on Saturday, July 20, 2013, at her home in Beloit after a three year battle with pancreatic cancer.
She was born on Aug. 30, 1947, in Monroe, to her parents, Obert Theodore and Mavis S. (Nybroten) Vinje.
The crash of a Missionary Aviation Fellowship plane n New Guinea on Dec. 31 claimed the lives of the pilot, Menno Voth of Vanderhoof, B. C., and Mr. and Mrs. Gene Newman of Amity, Ore. and three of their four children, according to an Evangelical Press release from Fullerton, Calif.
The Cessna 185 plane crashed into a mountain at high altitude while flying through a precipitous gorge. The location was in the vicinity of a New Guinea village where two missionaries were ambushed and killed on Sept. 25, 1968. The Newmans’ 10-year-old son Paul was thrown clear of the wreckage and escaped serious injury. It is reported that the same tribesmen who had taken part in the ambush cared for the lad while he awaited rescue. When rescuers arrived, villagers were said to exclaim, “We beg you for your friendship.”
Voth, the pilot, leaves his wife Priscilla and one child.
Peter N. Westrum, 77, of Fishers, passed away on Wednesday, January 15, 2020 at Hamilton Trace of Fishers. He was born on October 23, 1942 to Lloyd and Gladys (Eastland) Westrum in Clearbrook, Minnesota.
Peter was a man of faith who loved the Lord. He served with the Peace Corp in the Phillipines and then enjoyed teaching English in Malaysia, where he and Sue got married. Together, they joined Wycliffe Bible Translators, pioneering work in Indonesia as linguists and translators. They retired after serving with Wycliffe for over 45 years. Peter enjoyed socializing and playing games, like croquet and interactive word games, and could often be found encouraging others.
He is survived by his sons, David (Tanya) Westrum, Scott (Chris) Westrum, Yaufun (Sharon) Leong, and George (Doris) Sunarjo; grandchildren, Stephan, Nadia, Carlie, Josh, Nate, Nathan (Betsy), David (Nicole), Benji, Jonathan (Kathy), Rebecca, and Lucas; great-grandchildren, Aaron, Wesley, and Henry; siblings, Rod (Char) Westrum, Gloria (Ken) Link, Don (Diane) Westrum, and Sally (Bill) Adams.
In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by his wife of 50 years, Susan (Palmer) Westrum.
Remembering with gratitude to God how patient Jesse was as I squeezed her hand with every post natal suture Doctor Wally put in me. Baby Faye is now a beautiful woman of God. Thank you, Jessie.
WINCH Max Loving husband of Beverley, loving father to David, Kaylyn and Paul, and loving "Grandie" to his eight grandchildren. Formerly of Albury, lately of Windsor, NSW. "Absent from the body, but present with the Lord forever. "2 Cor 5:8."
Bernice Vernona Young (nee Bruneski), passed peacefully into the presence of her Lord and Saviour on December 31, 2017 at the age of 90 years.
Bernice is survived by her husband Henry; three children, Wm. Paul (Kim) Young of Portland,Oregon, Debbie (Tony) Sparrow and Tim (Barb)Young of Vernon, B.C.; eight grandchildren; seventeen great-grandchildren; one sister, Ruby Steele of Victoria, B.C.; one brother, Vern Bruneski of Kelowna, B.C.; nieces, nephews and extended family members. She was preceded in death by one son, Stephen Young; one granddaughter, Jennifer Sparrow; and two brothers, Robert and Lloyd Bruneski.
Bernice was born on June 7, 1927 in Medicine Hat, Alberta. She graduated from the Victoria Jubilee Hospital with a RN degree and met Henry Young at Canadian Bible College in Regina, Saskatchewan. They were married at Grace Baptist Church in Kelowna, B.C. on August 7th, 1954. After their first child, Paul, was born in Grande Prairie, Alberta, they moved to Netherlands New Guinea (West Papua), as Protestant pioneer missionaries to the Dani tribe and it was here that their three other children were born and where she considered her medical work some of the most rewarding of her life.
Upon returning to Canada, Bernice held various positions in medicine including Director of Admitting for 22 years at the Vernon Jubilee Hospital, where she oversaw the transition of the facility into the computer age. She has always been regarded for her intelligence, kindness and ability to encourage those around her. She had a heart of sacrifice and compassion and her life touched many. Deeply devout and a woman of prayer, her relationship with Jesus has been the cornerstone of her life.
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