Florence Gerdel

I mentioned a few days ago learning about Florence Gerdel (http://trekincartwrights.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-good-seed.html) and that I planned to attend her memorial service on campus on Thursday (today). What a blessing to learn more about this lady...

Florence was born just a few months after my Mom (who passed away in 2010).

Some of the greatest parts of her legacy - New Testaments in the languages of three peoples.

Things I learned about Florence from the memorial service,

From the Eulogy:

• "She joined Marianna Slocom in the Tzeltal work in Chiapas in 1949 as a temporary helper, but the partnership endured for 65 years." (Italics added by me!) They were 15 years working together, first with the Highland Tzeltal people, and then the Lowland Tzeltal people. 
• "Florence's nursing and teaching skills resulted in the multiplication of many village health promoters and literacy materials that encouraged healthy living. A two-story clinic was built in Corralito and staffed by trained Tzeltals to serve the extended community."
• "Wycliffe's founder, William Cameron Townsend, urged Florence and Marianna to continue Bible translations for yet another group. With incredible fortitude for middle-aged ladies, they moved to Colombia to begin all over again among the Paez Indians in 1964.... In addition to The Paez project, Florence served her colleagues as a phonology consultant..."
• "Florence returned to the United States in 1989"  and continued serving with SIL in the US.
• Florence spent the last years of her life at Grace Presbyterian Village (now Villages of Dallas), (which is also where my Mom spent the last years of her life).

From what I wrote down that others in attendance (all of whom are probably also current or retired Wycliffe missionaries) said when sharing their remembrances of Florence:

• One lady shared that the church that they attended was one that was a partner in supporting Florence and Marianna's work. She related that Florence put a note, like a postscript, on a Christmas card one year sent to their family which said, "Maybe one of your girls would like to go into Bible translation." She encouraged us to never underestimate the influence of just a postscript like that to encourage or be used by God to call one to His service.
• Another lady shared that Florence provided phonology consulting for her when she was working in Colombia. (From Wikipedia, "Phonology is a branch of linguistics concerned with the systematic organization of sounds in spoken languages"). Florence recommended to her that she notate the glottal stop in the language with an "h" rather than a ' (single quote) (the lady speaking was dramatically indicating the typing of a single quote with the pinky finger of her right hand while saying this), because, on the manual typewriters which they were using, her arm muscles would get quite tired with the typing of the single quote!
• In addition to the video that I saw ("The Good Seed"), there was an earlier movie done that greatly influenced many of the folks who were at the service, telling about Florence and Marianna's work with the Tzeltal people (I think it was called "Now God Speaks Tzeltal"). One lady related that it had still pictures of the Tzeltal people reading in their own language, and she was impressed with the thought that it was the first time that the people understood communication in their own language not "in the moment", but rather that their language was being used to communicate with them about God who had loved them from eternity past until today.
• Many shared how the examples set by Florence and Marianna had encouraged, challenged, pulled them along.
• It was also shared that Florence could have quite a wit - one example was when she had changed from nursing to the executive secretary to SIL's VP of Academic Affairs when she came to Dallas - Someone commented on the differences between nursing and what she was doing now, and she responded, "Every job has its bedpans!"

The message encouraged us to consider something that know our human natures pursue: Security, Satisfaction, and Significance. Florence found her security in God (Romans 8:37-38), her satisfaction in Him (John 6, Jesus is the bread of life, the one who believes will never be hungry, never be thirsty), and her significance in what God had called her to do.

As I said in my previous blog post, I am so thankful to have gotten to "know" Florence, at least a little bit... I hope you have enjoyed getting to "know" her a little too!