For Paul Sanderson, the Ides of March call for a celebration, not a Shakespearean warning. On March 15 he marked 60 years of service as a Baptist minister in locations ranging from Brazil to Birmingham.
Members of Berney Points Baptist Church, Birmingham, honored the retired missionary and his wife, Martha, with a reception at the church Feb. 29. On hand were old and new friends from Howard College (now Samford University) days, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., the missions field and churches Paul Sanderson has led as pastor. Sanderson has special ties to Berney Points, having served there both before and after his work in South America.
As a missionary, Paul Sanderson helped found the Equatorial Theological Seminary in Belem, Brazil, about a decade after he was assigned as a missionary there in 1950. His wife says there was great need for such a school.
“Belem is close to the equator and has a sweltering, tropical climate,” Martha Sanderson said. “Young men would be called to the ministry, go away to seminary and then go to churches in locations with better climates. In the meantime, we needed trained workers. Establishing the seminary enabled us to keep most of our young ministers at home.”
Paul Sanderson served as president of the seminary the first year. Then, feeling the call to return to missions work, he became the school’s dean and a professor of Greek, Hebrew, theology and comparative religion.
“Brother Sanderson was a humble man, one with a reputation for caring for his students,” said Aias de Souza, director of the International Seamen’s Center in Mobile.
De Souza first met Paul Sanderson upon entering Equatorial Theological Seminary as a student more than 40 years ago. Later, de Souza worked with him as a fellow pastor in Brazilian churches and became a colleague on the seminary faculty. “We all respected his wisdom and his opinions,” de Souza said.
While dedicated to his work at the seminary, Paul Sanderson also was a frequent visitor to churches in remote jungle locations. “We would drive a truck as far as we could,” recalled Martha Sanderson. “Then our Brazilian Christian friends would meet us with dugout canoes for the next stage of the journey. Usually we would walk from the river bank to the church through the jungle.”
Living in the tropics was a challenge, according to Martha Sanderson. “There was no air conditioning in that hot, humid climate, no hot water, and 18 years passed before we had a telephone,” she said. “We boiled all our drinking water — even that we used to brush our teeth. Our youngest son slept in a hammock until he was 16 years old. In Brazil, you take your hammock with you when you travel, so you can string it up and sleep in it when you need to.”
Despite adverse living conditions, the Sandersons bonded with the warm, friendly Brazilian Christians who weren’t afraid to profess their faith. “Most people are religious. If they’re not presented with the truth, they’ll build faith on a lie,” Paul Sanderson said. “So we did the best we could to present the simple gospel. Many responded and trusted in Christ publicly.”
The seminary also helped in spreading the gospel. “I could go up the Amazon River 1,000 miles and find ex-students,” he said.
Lengthy stateside assignments enabled the Sandersons to spend time with his family in Birmingham and hers in Kentucky. Berney Points was their home church, and they usually lived in a missionary apartment at Samford. It was there they met Tom Cleveland, then on Samford’s staff and now interim pastor of Berney Points. Cleveland helped plan the celebration of Sanderson’s ministry.
When the Sandersons’ three boys — Ray, David and Robert — were ready for college, all chose Samford. All still live in the Birmingham area.
After 20 years as a missionary, Paul Sanderson was called to the pastorate of Central Baptist Church in Talladega, where he spent 12 years. “He was a wonderful pastor, and his teaching is even better,” said Louis Willoughby, a longtime member at Central. “He taught me that when you teach the Bible, you don’t skip around. If you’re teaching from Acts, you read the whole book of Acts to make sure you’re familiar with the biblical background.”
“Paul could have gone into law, medicine or engineering. He has the ability and intelligence that would have enabled him to do anything, but God called him to preach,” Willoughby added. “He’s one of my preacher-heroes.”
After leaving Central Baptist, Paul Sanderson also served interim pastorates at Tannehill Valley Baptist Church, McCalla, and Maytown Baptist Church.
The couple also taught English as a second language to students, gaining many friends in Birmingham’s international community.
For the past 10 years, Paul Sanderson has weekly led two worship services on Sunday and two Wednesday Bible studies at Mount Royal Towers, a retirement home. “You can’t quit the Lord,” he said.
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