Category: <span>Mission Exemplars</span>

Lucy Rider Meyer (1849-1922)
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Lucy Rider Meyer (1849-1922)

First Priciple of Chicago Training School and “Archbishop of Deaconnesses” It is said of the first college in the United States to award degrees to women, Oberlin (1841), that it is peculiar in that which is good. A compliment equally applicable to an Oberlin graduate, Lucy Jane Rider. She became a physician when most medical...

William Orwig (1810-1889)
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William Orwig (1810-1889)

Advocate for Missions and Education in the Evangelical Association Distinctive bulges on the bridge of Bishop Orwig’s nose appear in Orwig family members to this day, testifying to the persistence of genetic traits. The bishop himself stood out in a debate over another persistent human trait: sin. He defended the position that only those who...

McEldowney, James E.
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McEldowney, James E.

Classical Early 20th Century Mission Story James E. McEldowney represents the classical missionary story of the early twentieth century. At a student volunteer meeting in Detroit in 1927, he pledged to be a missionary. Stories of the needs of the people inspired him. He continued his education, thinking that he might be going to China...

Lawson, James M., Jr.
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Lawson, James M., Jr.

Civil Rights Leader and Short-Term Missionary to India Lawson was born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, in 1928, one of nine children of a U.S. Methodist pastor and a Jamaican mother. He took much of his attitude toward others from his mother, who did not believe in violence. Lawson grew up in Massillon, Ohio, where he became...

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Kawai, Michi (-1953)

YWCA Worker and Educator Kawai was born the daughter of a Shinto priest in a small village near Kyoto. She became a Christian through the influence of an uncle, going first to a Methodist school at age ten and then as a teenager to a Presbyterian school in Hokkaido, where she mastered English. Japanese friends...

Haskin, Sara Estelle
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Haskin, Sara Estelle

Leader in Settlement Work When the Methodist Episcopal Church, South (MECS), began its foray into settlement work at the turn of the twentieth century, it asked Sara Estelle Haskin to take up the post in Dallas. With no equipment and no real pattern to follow, she plunged into the work and began a very successful...

Guerra Olivares, Eleazar
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Guerra Olivares, Eleazar

Bishop and Ecumenist of the Methodist Church of Mexico Guerra was born in Reynosa, Mexico, and studied in the U.S. He ordination in the U.S. was in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He became a district superintendent of the Methodist Church of Mexico and was elected the third bishop of the church in 1938. Although...

Tshangand Kayeke
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Tshangand Kayeke

Founder of Lunda Methodism The following is from an article by Nancy Woodcock Riley, daughter of Congo missionaries Vera and Everrett Woodcock. In the late 1800s, when Tshangand Kayeke was a young boy, Portuguese slave traders came through his village. He was among the men and boys who were shackled together and marched into Angola....

Golden, Charles Franklin (1912-1984)
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Golden, Charles Franklin (1912-1984)

Advocate of Integration in Methodism Born August 24, 1912, in Holly Springs, Mississippi, Golden received degrees from Clark College and Gammon Theological Seminary, both in Atlanta. He was ordained an elder in the Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) in 1938. He served several congregations in the South before becoming professor in the Department of Religion and...

Ewing, Betsy (1923-2013)
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Ewing, Betsy (1923-2013)

Leader of Deaconesses and Women’s Mission Work Ewing came out of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, although it became part of The Methodist Church when she was a teenager. As she was growing up, she planned to go to Scarritt College. She not only completed her education there but stayed on for fifteen years to...