Once Upon a Retirement

Betty Wilson has served as a missionary in Central Asia for 21 years. In many ways, she’s lived the classic missionary story. She first felt the Lord nudging her toward cross-cultural ministry in fourth grade. After a class about the Soviet Union, Betty felt Him prompting, “One day, you will go someplace for Me.” Eventually, that initial “someplace” narrowed to a snowy Central Asian valley where she shares the gospel and blesses the community through children’s camps and medical care. But here’s the big surprise in Betty’s missionary career: She started at age 66.

“I’m 87 now,” she says, “and I feel that I need to retire soon. Not yet, but before long.”

Farmer, Widow, Nurse

Born into a farming family in central Pennsylvania, Betty grew up in a narrow valley similar to the one where she now serves as a missionary. She could stand in the fields at the foot of one mountain and hear her voice echo back from the opposite slopes. As Betty tells it, “God prepares you for where He wants you to go. I never even had an indoor toilet until I was 18. When I got to Central Asia, it was easy to adapt because I grew up that way. I knew how to take care of what might seem like problems to a city child. Where I’ve been sent to is exactly the kind of place where I grew up, except we had churches. Here, there are none.”

Betty didn’t intend to wait until retirement to follow the call she sensed in elementary school. She planned to enroll in a nursing program after graduation and become a medical missionary. But, she explains, “That was not reasonable for my situation.” The RN program started in June, and Betty’s family needed her help with the harvest. So, she stayed home that summer, and in the fall, she enrolled in Bible school instead. While studying, she met and married a man interested in missions, but not ready to pursue it. They agreed to put the idea on hold temporarily. Unfortunately, they didn’t have as much time as they expected. Betty’s husband died at age 39, leaving her with four children between the ages of 2 and 10. For the next 25 years, Betty tucked the idea of missions away and focused on the work at hand. She was finally able to attend nursing school the year her daughter graduated high school—they enrolled together.

“God never put a time on when I was to go.”
Betty

Betty first visited the country she now calls home a few years before she retired from nursing. Her church decided to focus its outreach efforts on an unreached Central Asian people group. The church sent short-term mission teams each year, and Betty joined with enthusiasm. At the end of her second trip, she asked if, on the next year’s trip, she could stay for an extra month. Her team leader agreed and started naming places where her medical skills would be valuable, even though she didn’t speak the language.

On Monday of the last week of that extended trip, Betty met a teenage girl working in her family’s fields. A large open wound distorted her whole face. Since Betty had limited medical supplies, she advised the girl to apply warm compresses and keep the area clean. On Friday of the same week, they met again. The girl’s face had healed so dramatically, Betty only recognized her by her sweater. She felt God saying, “If you go, I will use you.”

Commitment and Community

People told Betty she had long since aged out of a career in missions, but she refused to accept their verdict. “I never forgot I was to go,” she insists. Her children weren’t surprised she wanted to move to the other side of the world in her 60s—Betty had talked about missions their whole lives. They embraced the idea with varying levels of enthusiasm.

Because of her age, Betty’s church advised her to commit to just one year of overseas ministry. In her heart, she was in it for the long haul. She checked the two-year box on the mission agency application form as a compromise. “I made myself a nuisance to our missions pastor,” she admits. “I know it. But I’ve also been here for 21 years.”

“Learning language at 66 would have been easier than it is now!”
Betty

Arriving in Central Asia with a limited timeframe in mind, Betty jumped straight into medical ministry. She says, “People knew I was a nurse, and I could help them with blood pressure problems.” That didn’t leave a lot of time for studying the language, which Betty now regrets. She can engage people in simple conversations, but she relies on a translator in more challenging situations. The Lord provided Betty with a helper, a young woman fluent in three languages, including English, and conversant in at least three others. For many years, she has faithfully traveled with Betty, translated for her, and helped her navigate cultural dynamics.

Betty was the first outsider to develop a lasting relationship with the valley community. When she first asked a local government official for permission to work there, he emphasized how other foreigners had visited, claiming they wanted to help, but they never came back. Betty felt God saying to her, “Don’t be someone who does that.” She followed through on her commitment, first endearing herself to the community by providing their head surgeon with new glasses and hearing aids and then continuing on with basic medical care and children’s programs for another two decades. And despite the rough mountain terrain, Betty’s bilateral knee replacements have already outlasted their advertised lifespan by more than five years.

Betty’s main regret is that she never became a full-time resident of the valley herself. Her leaders consider it unwise for her to live there permanently without another foreigner for support. She never found such a teammate, and so has been limited to making frequent visits from her home in a larger city. From June to October, when the dirt roads are clear of snow and the rivers low enough to ford, the trip takes about six hours. The rest of the year, it’s a 14-hour drive each way. “If I could have just had someone to go with me,” Betty says, “I would have liked to live in the valley among the people.”

The need for teammates motivates Betty to keep mobilizing others who may assume they are too old for foreign missions. “People are retiring while they have good health and lots of energy,” she points out. “A lot of the skills they have used in their careers could be a real blessing to people and to businesses here.”

Betty’s story illustrates the main idea we’ll explore in this book. Have you assumed—or, like Betty, been told—that you’ve aged out of missions? Do you still feel drawn toward the nations and have a persistent sense that God has more in store for you in the next chapter of your life? Let’s not short-change ourselves—and our Great Commission calling—with our assumptions. Whatever your journey to this point, I encourage you to read on with an open mind and a sanctified imagination. Let others’ stories broaden your horizons.

Your most adventurous and fruitful chapter of life may yet lie ahead. Don’t be afraid to voice one of my favorite prayers— “Lord, surprise me with Your superior plan.” Then, take steps of faith as God opens doors. In Betty’s words, “Don’t push it, but pursue it. Don’t think, I can’t. If God wants you to go, He’ll open the way.”