a song in a strange language by Neil Gilliland   Find out more about Free Will Baptist International Misisons at www.fwbgo.com.

“Un hombre de noche llegóse a Jesús, Buscando la senda devida yde luz…”

Last night, I sat in church and listened to a young couple who had answered God’s call to go to the ends of the earth. Their words echoed a familiar theme. The young man said, “I heard a missionary speak at my church when I was five years old, and the Lord began to deal with me about being a missionary.”

His wife’s story was similar. God used a missionary couple who visited her church when she was young to speak to her heart.

My story is the same. The missionary was my great aunt. She would sing in Spanish, and I would say to myself, “I want to do what Aunt Bessie does.” Her story is simple yet profound.

In December 1895, President Cleveland delivered a historic address to Congress regarding a border dispute with Great Britain over Venezuela and British Guyana. A month before, in a little community in Scioto County, Ohio, Ben and Mary Yeley’s eleventh baby, Bessie, was born. Thirteen years later, President Cleveland died, and Bessie was born again into the Kingdom of God. At age 18, she heard her first message on missions and was moved. The missionary sang “Ye Must Be Born Again” in Spanish and a great desire sprang up within her to sing that same song in Spanish.

Bessie began praying that the Lord would send someone to Latin America to reach the unevangelized. The Father’s response came as a jolt, “Why don’t you go, Bessie?” But there were obstacles: she was caring for her sick mother and lacked proper education.

However, that year her godly mother went to be with the Lord and a Bible school opened in nearby Portsmouth. God provided. Later, he gave her the opportunity to attend Bible school in Kansas City. In May of 1935, under a faith Baptist mission, Bessie and another single lady set sail for Venezuela (the country that made headlines the year she was born). They stopped in Barbados, and were not allowed into Venezuela. After three months of trying, she returned to America claiming Joshua 1:9. In 1936, she left again—this time alone—and had no difficulty entering into the country. For six years she ministered in Venezuela, living in an adobe house. With no regular salary, she often reached the very bottom of the meal barrel just in time for God to provide (Joshua 1:9).

In 1942, she returned to her Free Will Baptist roots and joined Mom and Pop Willey on the island of Cuba.These were her most difficult years, as she battled numerous health problems; but continuing to hold on to God’s promise, she labored in Cuba for 12 years. She taught young people at the seminary and traveled to villages on weekends to teach Sunday school and do anything she could to build the Kingdom.

In 1955, she left FWB Foreign Missions and joined Home Missions in Arizona and Texas, working on the border with Spanish speakers. Her first convert eventually became the pastor of a Mexican church. She later moved to Miami where the Cuban Refuge Center was organized. She ministered there until her retirement in 1964, for, as she put it, “Just a change of work…nothing more.” After almost 30 years of service, she returned to southern Ohio where her journey had begun.

Relatives wanted her to move back to the little community where she was raised. But Bessie had a calling not many understood. She chose to move to one of the poorest neighborhoods in town and organized Bible clubs for children and Bible studies for senior citizens who were unable to attend church. She was riding the city bus on January 23, 1969, when her Father called her home. I have often thought it was a rather “un-glorious” death for someone who had given so much, but I am sure the welcome on the other side was grand.

In nearly all the services where I have spoken since leaving for the mission field in 1981, I have tried to say something in French. I never know when the next little one in the congregation will be just like me, or the young couple who spoke last night. So, the next time a missionary visits your church and quotes a Bible verse or sings a wee song in another language, watch the children. One of them could hear the Father whisper the words of Joshua 1:9, “Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.”

ABOUT THE WRITER: Neil Gilliland is the director of member care for the Free Will International Missions Department.