Message Magazine Online - Vol. 53, No. 01, Spring 2005

In This Issue

• A Church on Every Block
  By Donna Messenger
• Preparing the Bride
  By Michael G. Loftis, President
• Tsunami Relief
• DNA and The Church: Biblical Church Multiplication
  By Norm Nicklas
• The Most Powerful Human Force in the World
  Dr. Michael G. Loftis, President
• Why Is Missions So White?
  By Bill Commons
• Invoking the Hand of God Together
  By Rev. Charles Ware
• The Missions Committee
  By Jim Ruff
• Equipping a Generation of Global Leaders
  By Jim Jeffery
• Global Access Partnerships: One Church’s Story - Part Two
  By Dave Livermore
• Missions Conferences With Impact
  An Interview with E.C. Haskell
• Women’s Missionary Groups: A Thing of the Past?
  By Dotty Ashley
• Into Life Eternal
• Children’s Corner

Into Life Eternal

E. Gordon Wray  July 13, 1913—January 4, 2005

A soldier of Christ is now with his Lord, whom he faithfully served for over seventy years. Rev. E. Gordon Wray, retired ABWE missionary, entered heaven on January 4 in Salem, Oregon at the age of ninety-one.

During the second World War, Gordon and Martha, his wife for sixty-four years, ministered to US servicemen at the Victory Service Center in Rantoul, Illinois. In 1946 they were appointed as ABWE missionaries to the Philippines.

Gordon served as the Director of the Doane Evangelistic Institute (now Doane Baptist Seminary) for twenty years. Under his leadership, the school became one of the largest Bible Schools in Asia, with hundreds of graduates serving throughout the Philippines and in many other parts of the world.

After returning to the US in the 1960s, Gordon taught for several years at Western Baptist College. He continued to actively preach and teach until shortly before his death. He was a chaplain for several nursing homes in the Salem area and regularly ministered at the Union Gospel Mission.

Gordon was preceded in death by his wife on September 6, 2002. They leave five children, nine grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.

A memorial service was held at the First Baptist Church in Salem on January 8. We thank the Lord for the fruitful ministry of both Gordon and Martha in the Philippines, their “adopted” country, as well as in the US. 

Sherry Skirrow  January 18, 1957—January 19, 2005

On January 19, 2005, after a two-year battle with cancer, Sherry Skirrow, forty-eight, went home to be with her Lord. For fifteen years Sherry faithfully served as a nurse at ABWE’s Amazon Baptist Hospital in Santo Antonio do Ica in Brazil. In the spring of 2002, Sherry returned to Canada and was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. When it became apparent that she would never be able to return to Brazil for long-term ministry, Sherry and her sister made a trip back to Santo Antonio do Ica to visit the many people with whom she had ministered. On February 11, 2004, hundreds of people lined the Amazon River bank to welcome and honor Sherry on her final visit to the town she had grown to love.

Through the influence of Central Baptist Church in Brantford, Ontario, and her godly parents, Marvin and Ruth Skirrow, Sherry developed a passion for reaching people at a young age.

After high school she trained as a nurse, graduating as an RN in 1977. The following year the Lord led her to London Baptist Bible College in London, Ontario. She was accepted by ABWE for missionary service in Brazil in 1983, and commissioned by Central Baptist Church in Brantford on June 29, 1986. That same year she arrived in Brazil for Portuguese language study in the large Amazon city of Manaus and eventually learned to speak the language well. In 1987, she commenced her service at the ABWE hospital in the Amazon town of Santo Antonio do Ica, a three-day, river launch journey upriver from Manaus. There, she devotedly served as a nurse and midwife for fifteen years.

Why was there a large crowd to greet her on the riverbank on the day of her last visit? The answer is in a photo album presented to her. It holds current pictures of the hundreds of babies Sherry delivered, along with pictures of their mothers, with this introductory page, “Sherry: You specialized in first births and difficult deliveries. You coached mothers through that first baby. Sometimes the attention you gave opened the way for you to coach the same moms through the meaning of the process of the New Birth through faith in Jesus, the Saviour.”

Sherry’s children were the babies she delivered. In her sickness, she never complained, never whined. She took her illness as an opportunity to pray for the Brazil team, specific people, family members, and wayward friends to whom she remained loyal. A good number of the Brazilian mothers and babies will someday greet Sherry in glory. The ABWE Field Council and the entire town of San Antonio do Ica miss Sherry but are grateful for her great legacy and the lives she touched for God. “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”