Missionary To Italian Immigrants In Wisconsin Louise Johanna Nienas was born in a sod house in Thompson, North Dakota and spent her early years on a North Dakota “free claim.” The family later moved to Wisconsin, where Louise received a degree in elementary education. Working as a public school teacher in Racine, Wisconsin, she volunteered […]
Mission And Hymn Translator Elida García de Falcón was orphaned at the age of ten in Guerrero, Tamaulipas, Mexico. She made her home with her only sister, Rosaura, who had married one of the first Mexican Methodist ministers, Pedro Grado. With them she itinerated and attended mission schools, including Holding Institute at Laredo, Texas. She […]
Raised Funds For Mission Through Her Disability From her home, in Casey, Illinois, Lizzie Johnson raised over $120,000 for missions. A back injury at age thirteen steadily worsened until, at age twenty-seven, she was unable to raise her head from the pillow. She could move only her hands and forearms. Interested in mission work, she wanted […]
A Methodist And An Activist Mai Gray, the first African-American woman to be president of United Methodist Women, was deeply dedicated both to the Methodist tradition and to fighting segregation. Born in Jackson, Tennessee, in 1922, Gray worked with her husband, a Methodist pastor, to build a coalition of leadership in the Central Jurisdiction, the […]
Encourager Of Methodists In Communist Bulgaria Mrs. Popov, widow of Simeon Popov, with translator and others; photo by Marcia Berry. The following story is submitted by Rev. Keith Berry. Rev. Berry visited Bulgaria with his late wife Marcia in 1992 while a member of the World Methodist Council. After a long and complex history, the […]
Pastor Of Largest Methodist Church In Korea Pastor Sundo Kim and wife with Keith and Marcia Berry; picture by Pastor Kim’s secretary. The following story is submitted by Rev. Keith Berry. Rev. Berry visited Korea with his late wife Marcia in 1991 while a member of the World Methodist Council. Sundo Kim had been born […]
Evangelist And Pastor In Kenya Keith Berry and Erastus Kathurima at equator sign; photo by Marcia Berry. The following story is submitted by Rev. Keith Berry. Rev. Berry visited Kenya with his late wife Marcia in 1986 while a member of the World Methodist Council. Erastus Kathurima graduated from a mission school in 1955 and […]
Mission Leader Within Segregated Methodism Born in North Carolina, Lillian Warrick Pope grew up in Philadelphia, where she was a social worker in the Zoar Methodist Church. A graduate of the Bible Institute of Pennsylvania and Temple University School of Theology in Philadelphia, she was ordained a local deacon in 1939 by Bishop Ernest G. […]
Educational Missionary In Liberia And Beyond Vivienne Newton Gray has been a public school teacher, religious social worker, Field Secretary with the Woman’s Division (1945-48), educational missionary in Liberia, West Africa (1948-74), and director of admissions and director of alumni affairs, Wiley College, Marshall, Texas. Working as a religious social worker with migrant families, Vivienne […]
Leader In Mission, Integration Growing up in a Methodist parsonage laid the groundwork for Nettie Alice Green’s keen interest in mission. She was a charter member of the Woman’s Society of Christian Service in the Scott Methodist Church of Detroit, held offices in the Lexington Conference, and was Secretary of Student Work (1960-1964) and of […]