When you’ve served for more than 26,000 years, you deserve to celebrate.
Retiring missionaries Joe and Norma Powell (left) are recognized for 30 years of service in Venezuela by International Mission Board president Jerry Rankin and his wife Bobbye. The Powells and 58 other new retirees joined nearly 1,000 emeritus missionaries who gathered at LifeWay Ridgecrest Conference Center Sept. 10-13.As part of the International Mission Board’s “Year of Emeriti” observance, nearly 1,000 retired missionaries united for the first time at LifeWay Ridgecrest Conference Center in North Carolina, the very location where many of them first heard God’s call to missions.
The retirees who attended comprise two-thirds of the approximately 1,400 living emeritus Southern Baptist missionaries and served a cumulative total of more than 26,000 years on mission fields around the world, according to IMB estimates.
“You may feel that old, but you really aren’t,” IMB president Jerry Rankin joked as he paid tribute to the retirees at the Sept. 10-13 event. “As I look at you and realize what has gone before, how grateful we are that it didn’t start with us youngsters. You represent a biblical model of following God as Abraham did. You represent a passion to worship God as Isaiah did, to say to him, ‘Here am I, Lord, send me.’ You had the vision of Paul, who was called to regions beyond and to do whatever it takes to get the gospel to the ends of the earth.
“And long before we formulated a mission vision that we would lead all Southern Baptists to be on mission with God, you were fulfilling that vision.”
Some of the retirees are moving slower these days. Some use canes, walkers or hearing aids. But their passion for missions burns as bright as ever.
Jim Lochridge, 84, was the first to arrive for an evening celebration service at Ridgecrest’s Spilman Auditorium. He sat middle center, sporting a royal blue island shirt and expectantly tapping a shiny bamboo cane.
Beginning in 1958, the Lochridges worked for 27 years in the Philippines, where he was president of the Southern Baptist College in M’lang. It wasn’t his first time in the region, however. He saw action as a U.S. Marine in some of the bloodiest fighting in the Pacific during World War II. Like many members of the great postwar generation of missionaries, he returned to Asia bearing not a gun but the Good News of Christ.
“I saw the spiritual poverty in the eyes of those people, and I had to go back,” he recounted.
The Lochridges still lead Bible camps for boys and girls in their native North Carolina and other states, and some of their young campers have become missionaries. They also still tell people about Jesus. “I evangelize anytime,” he said.
‘Flunked retirement’
The Lochridges’ ongoing commitment to missions is shared by many of the retirees who gathered at Ridgecrest. Mission statesman Winston Crawley, 87, first came to Ridgecrest at age 7 with his preacher father. He went to China as a missionary in 1947 and later oversaw the Foreign (now International) Mission Board’s overseas operations during decades of expansion to new fields worldwide. He retired in 1987, but continues to teach missions both in the United States and abroad.
“I flunked retirement,” Crawley quipped. “I became a wandering seminary teacher.” Next year he plans to teach in Taiwan, he said, “Lord willing.”
The emeritus missionaries, combined with the current IMB mission force of 5,234, account for more than a third of all the missionaries who have served abroad during the board’s 162-year history, according to Rankin. Five served 45 years on their mission fields. Thirty-eight served 40 or more years.
The retirees welcomed 60 newly retired missionaries into their fraternity. At a special service Sept. 11 honoring the new emeritus group, IMB president Rankin said their ministry will continue. For missionaries, the word “retirement” is really a misnomer, Rankin said.