Tim Cearley is considering driving for Uber or substitute teaching — anything to continue meeting people from other lands, people like those who have been the focus of his missionary work in Africa.
His wife, Charlotte, who felt called to the missions field at age 5, will continue her prayers for “the unreached peoples of Africa” from the United States.
The Cearleys have been missionaries together for 33 years. But the couple now plans to take a voluntary retirement offer.
As of Nov. 8, the number of International Mission Board (IMB) missionaries stood at 4,707.
Fewer dollars
Southern Baptists join other Christian denominations in facing fewer dollars along with smaller numbers of people in their pews.
For IMB to balance its budget, 600 to 800 missionaries and staffers must be cut. In December, IMB will determine how many missionaries over 50 with at least five years of service have opted for the retirement incentive. On Nov. 2 eligible personnel indicated whether or not they wished to receive or reject the retirement incentive but that decision was not official until personnel signed an agreement the first week of December. That agreement can still be rescinded up to Dec. 11.
The Cearleys moved across Africa, learning four languages and living in five countries. They’ve helped start churches, converting Muslims and those of Africa’s tribal religions to Christianity.
“I arrived in Rhodesia during the civil war and had to fly into the bush on a smaller prop plane,” Tim Cearley recalled of his start in the 1970s. “I stayed two years anyway and took my family back five years later to the country after independence.”
They became a family of five during the 11 years they were in what is now called Zimbabwe, working in towns and sometimes, he said, “pretty far out in the bush, 100 miles from people that were speaking English.”
They lived in Mozambique for 10 years, after a stop in Portugal to learn Portuguese. And then Botswana, followed by South Africa, where he was a strategy associate for IMB missionaries. Their final stop was Senegal, where he oversaw 600 missionaries in sub-Saharan Africa.
“It’s just overwhelming to see the difference in the need, the need for the gospel,” he said, “and not just to get the gospel there but to establish churches that are healthy in leadership.”
Passing the torch
At 61, the Cearleys said it was not an easy decision to come home. The couple expected to serve at least another five years. But they see it as a way to let younger missionaries take their place.
They plan to move in early 2016 to a house provided by Eastern Hills Baptist Church, Montgomery, but they have no intention of losing their missionary zeal.
They expect to connect with internationals wherever they find them stateside — from the Muslim woman they met at a CVS Pharmacy to a Pakistani service station attendant. They want others to do the same noting there are reports that at least 75 percent of international students never visit an American home. (RNS, TAB)
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