Unsung Missionaries

You're welcome. We are most blessed when we can bless others! :wavey:

 

I'm going to add one last unsung missionary, though of course anyone else is welcome to post. I thought I had posted about Dr. and Mrs. Charles Hurlburt on my "Unsung Soul Winners" thread last June, but I can't find them there. At any rate, I had forgotten they were missionaries for a few years, so here they are.

One Step Away From Heaven​

Dr. and Mrs. Charles Hurlburt were cousins of my mother, and thus members of the extended Rice Clan, which included the three Rice evangelists (Joe, John and Bill) and their families. I remember a visit from the Hurlburts to our home in Wisconsin when I was a teen-ager. They were sweet and good Christians.

On our furlough in 1993, we got a lovely Christmas card from the Hurlburts which said, "Dear John and Patty, We have enjoyed getting your prayer letters through the years. We know you are excited to be back in the States this Christmas. We hope this will be a wonderful time for you all. Please write and let us know how your support is coming along. We are interested. Your cousins in Oklahoma, Charles and Jean Hurlburt."

They included a picture from their recent Holy Land trip. On the back they had written, "Dear John and Patty, The highlight of this year was our trip to Israel in May with a group from our church. Here we are standing just outside the Garden of Gethsemane, just a short distance from the Eastern Wall of Jerusalem. About seven of the old olive trees, twisted with age, have survived through hundreds of years. Merry Christmas! Charles and Jean Hurlburt."

In January of 1995 we received a letter dated January 1 from the mission board from the Hurlburts from their home in Oklahoma City. They wrote, "Dear Sirs, We would like to take $25.00 a month support for John and Patty Himes working under your mission in Japan. Will you please let them know about this added support and also send us any information that we should have from your mission. Thank you. Sincerely, Jean Hurlburt."

On April 19 of that year, Dr. and Mrs. Hurlburt went down to the Social Security office at the downtown government building to check on possible benefits. They were in the building when the truck bomb exploded outside. Dr. and Mrs. Hurlburt went straight to Heaven! Their bodies were among the last found, I believe.

Here is some of the testimony given at the trial of Timothy McVeigh by their daughter Cheryl Elliot. Concerning her father, she wrote, “He was born in New York, and my -- his parents were just back on a short furlough. His parents were missionaries, as were his grandparents; and so they went back to the mission field in Africa; and he was raised in Africa till he was 26 and was schooled out there on the mission compound and was really anxious to have some formal training so he could help the Africans. And so he worked his way over to the United States on a freighter and went to Wheaton College; and the only reason they let him into Wheaton was just on probation. He graduated -- he had never had any formal education, but he graduated in three years and went on to dentistry and got his dental degree.”

Cheryl went on to tell about their missionary service after they were married in 1950: “They got married, and then my mother finished her nurse's training. And they lived up in Illinois; and my two older sisters were born, Betty and Dawn, and then they felt the Lord leading them, my mother as well, to go out to the mission field. So they went to Belgium to get one year of training. My mother and my dad spoke several languages fluently, but my mother needed training in French and Swahili to speak to the African people, so they went on over to Africa and were missionaries there five years.”

When the mission board told the Hurlburts they had to leave the field due to an uprising, God protected them in an amazing way. Cheryl testified, “They had already learned to trust the Lord in all things out in Africa, and so they knew that God would give them a safe return. And they accidentally -- because of a bad thunderstorm, the plane veered over the Hungarian border, and they were forced down by a Russian MIG; and they were kept there. And they were looking for Americans on board, and my parents knew they were the only Americans. They were out on the black tarmac, and my dad offered a flashlight to assist them; and because of my dad's assisting them, they forgot to check their passports. After several hours, they released the plane, thinking there were no Americans on board.” Dr. Hurlburt ended up on the television show “To Tell the Truth” because of this event!

Dr. Hurlburt went on to be an influential dentist in the States, teaching at Northwestern University in Chicago and then as a professor and director of dental radiology at OU Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City, retiring in 1989, at which time he was made emeritus professor. Mrs. Hurlburt worked for many years as a nurse at Deaconess Hospital.

I have often thought of the Hurlburts. There they were, walking with God, serving Him faithfully. Their first big decision of 1995 was to begin supporting us as missionaries way over here in Japan so that we could win precious Japanese souls to the Savior! They were already so close to Heaven because of their love for the Savior, God just said, "Come on up, Charles and Jean. I have a special place for you. Well done, good and faithful servants. Enter into the joy of your Lord." ​

​

:saint: :saint: ​