"The Good Seed"

A friend, Karen, who also works at the Welcome Desk here on campus, invited me to her home dinner with her husband and some other friends on Friday night. I was so glad to hear their stories. Karen's husband had worked with Wycliffe Bible Translators as a pilot. One of the other guests was the new Associate Center Director, Doug, along with his wife, Joy. He has recently retired from employment as an engineer and they are just now moving to the Dallas area for him to start his position here. Their son, Hasso, works on language development software on the center.

While visiting, I learned that Karen has had a ministry to single missionaries who have no family. She has most recently ministered to Marianna Slocum (who passed away in late 2017 at age 99) and Florence Gerdel who passed away the last week of June, and whose memorial service is to be this coming week. Both Doug and I had seen the announcement of her memorial service, and when Karen suggested that we might enjoy seeing the video about their ministry, we all heartily agreed.

What a blessing to see "The Good Seed" - the story of these two women who dedicated their lives to bringing the scripture to people groups in Mexico and Columbia. Marianna was engaged to be married to a young man and together they felt called to go as translators for the Tzeltal people. Then, suddenly, 6 days before their marriage, her fiance died. She still felt that she was called to go to the Tzeltal people, but the lowland people where they had planned to serve did not allow her to stay. So, she went to the highland Tzeltal people and Florence joined her a few years later as a nurse. Together, they ministered to the people, learning their language, even in the face of opposition for many years. Eventually, some people came to follow Jesus, the New Testament was completed for the highland people, and, a few years after that, for the lowland people as well. Many had become believers and many churches were during the time that Marianna and Florence were there. They could have felt that they had done enough...

But... they were called to go to Columbia to do a translation for the Páez people. The Tzeltal people, now gifted with God's Word in their language, participated in sending Marianna and Florence to Columbia, in gratitude for the great gift which they had received.

Karen told us that, while Marianna had grown up in a Christian home, Florence had not. Florence had become a Christian while in nursing school. Florence had spent the last several years of her life in a care facility in the Dallas area, and Karen was her faithful visitor three days a week. What a beautiful ministry that Karen has had here!

Karen encouraged us to go to any memorial service that we can while we are on the campus, and I am certainly planning to attend Florence's this Thursday!

Some other articles about Marianna and Florence.


https://www.wycliffe.org/blog/posts/threetime-pioneers

https://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1901-2000/marianna-slocums-last-days-with-her-fiance-11630771.html

https://www.missionfrontiers.org/issue/article/marianna-slocum-the-chol-the-tzeltal-and-the-bachajon-thank-you

https://www.amazon.com/Good-Seed-Marianna-Slocum/dp/0939497093