A Family on a Mission: The Fletcher Family Story

This year saw a significant event in the life of Pioneers. Peggy Fletcher, co-founder of Pioneers, went to be with the Lord on January 4, 2026, at the age of 92.

Peggy, during her long life, witnessed quite a list of the Lord’s praiseworthy deeds. Psalm 78 encourages us to tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord. Members of Pioneers, as part of her spiritual family, will be sharing those stories for generations to come.

Will you join us in giving God glory for the life of Peggy Fletcher? Maybe He wants to do things like this in your life, too.

Faithful aunts introduce Peggy to missions

Peggy was born into a non-believing home, but she had two single aunts who were devoted to the Lord. They prayed on their knees for the nations of the world, for Peggy’s salvation and for the generations to come. Once, when Peggy visited them as a child, they were entertaining a missionary from India. This was the very first contact Peggy had with an overseas missionary, and she didn’t forget it.

Years later, Peggy was fixed up on a blind date with a young Marine named Ted Fletcher. They married in March of 1956 and went on to have four children. By that time, Peggy had come to know the Lord personally and shared Ted’s passion for the nations.

We praise God for Peggy’s aunts. He uses each generation to influence the next. May He use you to encourage those who come after you.

Learning to merge motherhood and ministry

Peggy’s daughter Arlene describes her mom as calm, confident and very content as a mother. But she did not find her identity in her children alone. Instead, Peggy merged motherhood with ministry, equipping her kids to build relationships and share their faith.

“Once, we put a big white sheet over our garage door and invited all our friends over to watch a Christian movie. We ate pizza, and my brother shared the gospel.”

As Ted got promoted and took on new jobs, the Fletcher family moved around the country. Arlene went to three different sixth grades and four high schools. Peggy was flexible, willing to live one day at a time and go with the flow, but she also ran a tight ship. Arlene says,

“She picked her battles, and she didn’t have too many with us because she had our respect. If we misbehaved, she ‘removed us from the environment.’ She didn’t want anybody to spoil the fun!”

Mothers all over balance dynamics like this, raising kids and reaching out—or, like Peggy, raising kids to reach out, too.

A family with open doors and open hands

The foyers of the churches Ted and Peggy attended were usually decorated with large world maps. They would stare at those maps and wonder about the people groups of the world. When their church had mission conferences, the Fletchers always offered to host missionary families in their home. Once, a family with six kids visited from South America. Who wanted to keep a family with six kids? Peggy did. And she had a very close relationship with the mom for many years afterward.

The Fletcher kids also saw their parents’ generosity to others. Ted loved to give furloughing missionaries his credit card to buy new clothes. He and Peggy often loaned out their cars. Arlene reflects,

“Is it any wonder that all four of us kids caught their contagious faith and wanted to go to the mission field ourselves? Mom put eternity in front of our eyes. We were secure, loved and unleashed.”

May our Heavenly Father multiply moms and dads like Ted and Peggy.

Writing in the pages of your life

The Lord brought an Australian mission leader named Gil McArthur into the Fletchers’ lives through their hospitality. After staying with them, he became a lifelong mentor and friend. Gil knew God was working in the Fletcher family. “Ted,” he said, “What are you writing in the pages of your life? You can only spend your life one time.”

Ted and Peggy pondered Gil’s challenge. In 1979, they decided it was time to go all in. Ted left his job at The Wall Street Journal and stepped out by faith. It seemed like a terrible time to take such a risk with four children needing to go through college.

After pursuing many other possible pathways, the Fletchers used their savings to start a new ministry, now called Pioneers, in their basement near Washington, DC. Their home was the mission headquarters—mobilization, finance, HR, member care and fundraising.

Most women want security and stability, but Peggy joined Ted in saying yes to God’s call. Arlene puts it this way:

“She never let risk and hardship discourage her. Our whole family was all in.”

Today, Pioneers is full of families who are “all in.”

Guests in the closets and the bushes

In many ways, Peggy was an ordinary person, but in other ways, she was extraordinary. God blessed her with special qualities and values that He used as the whole family pursued a great adventure. These became unwritten core values that have impacted the whole Pioneers community.

Most importantly, Peggy felt immense gratitude for her salvation. She had been rescued. Out of that gratitude flowed generosity, and out of generosity flowed hospitality. As Arlene says,

“It wasn’t about the menu. It was about facilitating a conversation around the dinner table.”

Since the Fletchers lived in Washington, Ted and Peggy befriended foreign dignitaries and embassy staff of countries where they hoped to send Pioneers missionaries. “No one has ever invited me into an American home,” an embassy official shared one day, and Peggy promptly invited the entire staff over for dinner. They arrived in big vans. They opened kitchen cabinets and bedroom closets, curious to see what the family owned and how they lived.

“They were all over our house, and my mother loved it.”

Another time, a foreign government official visited. Peggy fed the Secret Service agents who accompanied him and then let them hide in her front bushes with their walkie-talkies.

“All through those early years, God brought unexpected guests to our home, and mom just kept adding more water to the soup.”

Letting them go

Peggy raised all four of her children to follow Christ to the ends of the earth. Half of Peggy’s grandchildren were born overseas, and she was there for almost all of their births. As Arlene says,

“Many mothers want to hold on to their kids. She let us go and then came to visit.”

In addition, Peggy was instrumental in organizing and launching the ministry’s short-term mission program. Edge has given thousands of young adults a taste of cross-cultural ministry.

We’re grateful for parents of missionaries who are willing to let their kids and grandkids go far.

Same heart, opposite styles

Peggy shared Ted’s vision for Pioneers, and they made a great team.

Ted was always on the move. He was the energy, and Peggy was the calm. In large groups, she used to whisper to the kids, “Just watch your dad ricochet from person to person.” He was gregarious and extroverted, and she balanced him. In Arlene’s words,

“Dad was the get-it-done person. Mom was the do-it-right person.”

Ted had a little saying: “Let ‘she be she’ and ‘me be me.’”

Peggy stayed true to the way God wired her all of her life. She and Ted unleashed each other to be themselves. They shared the same heartbeat for the Lord and for His world.

We praise God for using all kinds of people to accomplish His purposes, together.

Doing small things with great love

Peggy Fletcher did not believe in sloppiness, so she taught etiquette at Pioneers orientations. If new missionaries were going to travel and represent the organization, they needed to behave themselves. She taught them to be good guests, make their beds, have good manners at the dinner table and bring a gift for the hostess.

In 1992, Pioneers made a strategic move to Orlando, Florida, in order to expand operations. The new property hosted an old, dilapidated campground on a two-lane country road. As Arlene recalls,

“Mom didn’t know a thing about camping, but she was game to learn.”

She evicted some of the squatters (treating them like her children and “removing them from the environment”) and helped turn the property into an award-winning campground.

Peggy loved beauty and excellence. She used to say,

“It’s the little touches that matter. It’s doing small things with great love.”

That’s why she loved the office landscaping team, and why our property is so beautiful today. She valued the kitchen team and the staff who cleaned the guest rooms. It all mattered, and it represented the Lord and how we stewarded what He has given us.

Whatever we do, may we do it all for the glory of God.

Far-fetched or far away?

In 2003, the Lord took Ted Fletcher home to heaven unexpectedly, and Peggy transitioned into a new chapter of life as a widow. Pioneers kept growing, and she kept traveling, encouraging and praying.

She and Ted had been praying for an unreached people group in West Africa called the Banda Ligbi. Right after Ted died, Peggy went to Ghana to encourage the Pioneers-Africa missionaries reaching out to them. Today, there are churches among the Banda Ligbi.

Peggy also had a special heart for widows who had never heard the gospel. She visited countries in the Middle East and South Asia where wars had left many widows. Arlene shares,

“Instead of turning inward, Mom continued to look outward.”

As Peggy’s health started to fail near the end of her life, she spent some time in the hospital. A nurse confided to her kids, “Your mom is starting to imagine things. She keeps talking about far-off places.”

They assured the nurse,

“She’s telling the truth. You wouldn’t believe where her feet have been!”

We rejoice that God has raised up many to follow in Ted and Peggy’s footsteps and beyond.

No regrets

From Peggy’s availability to follow an uncertain path and trust the Lord with everything, including her own children, our great God set a missionary movement into motion that is still blessing the nations and taking the good news of the gospel to so many.

Psalm 138 says, “God will fulfill his purpose for me.” God has fulfilled His purpose for Peggy Fletcher. Some of her last words were,

“I would do it all again.”

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Adapted from Arlene Richardson’s tribute to her mother at Peggy Fletcher’s celebration of life service on January 30, 2026.