When my mother was a young girl she felt God was calling her to be a missionary—she thought in Japan, which would have been a challenging field during the runup to the war. After the war they needed nurses, and she decided she could do the most good as a nurse. She could have become a doctor, but I gather she felt that would limit her.
During nurse’s training she met a young man in seminary. After she graduated (nursing students weren’t allowed to marry), she married him. She kept working as a nurse and he as an accountant until they found themselves called to be missionaries together. The best match for their talents turned out to be on the other side of the world from her original goal—in Liberia, where the indigenous church asked for people to help them.
In Liberia they raised their three children. She served as the nurse at Ricks Institute, where she also taught. Their ministries changed over time, and eventually she taught writers, taught preachers, and mentored students in media. She produced indigenous movies (and she taught the local writers and actors) for the local TV station and she wrote a well-known anti-AIDS pamphlet. Coordinator of BaPSWA, etc
When the civil war in Liberia drove them out, they moved to the Ivory Coast where she worked with translation and training of writers. Liberia was always home for her, even after they retired to Louisville.
She had a puckish sense of humor, read extensively, and was endlessly creative. More important than these, she connected with people easily and was kind and encouraging. She was like a mother to many.
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