Malcolm and Mardelle
Servant Encouragers of the Lord

After an absence of over two months, a brief return with a story of Malcolm and Mardelle Brown. Especially arduous legal matters have consumed me and my time that last couple months. I hope to return to blogging on a more regular basis after Election Day.

Malcolm and Mardelle were saintly people. I met them in Lincoln, Nebraska, on the occasion of my first board meeting of Back to the Bible. I learned very little about them as they wanted to know all about Susan and me. As time passed, I came to realize they were not much for talking about themselves, although there was plenty to talk about.
They were both missionaries beginning with Gospel Missionary Union. They worked together for over twenty years. Apparently, it never crossed their mind that they should be married. Or, at least, it took 20 years for Malcolm to muster up the courage to ask her hand in marriage. So it was that they were married in their 40s. Two dynamic people living for the Lord became one marriage reflecting Christ and His Church. Individually and together they were encouragers and servants like few others.
Recently Mardelle went on to meet her Lord, Malcolm having predeceased her. When Elisabeth Elliot went to Ecuador in 1958 to reach the very folks that killed her husband in 1956, Mardelle was one of her biggest supporters. Listen to what Elisabeth says about Mardelle:

Mardelle was such a wonderful help and blessing to me, encouraging me in what I had thought was a very dangerous thing that I was about to walk into. She kept in touch with me by short-wave radio and she would see to it that various gifts were dropped to me--things like food; little sun suits for my daughter, Valerie; and other little things from the airplane above.

Mardelle was also the first person to visit Elisabeth, her daughter Valerie and Rachel Saint, sister of Nate Saint, in Tiwanu.
When Malcolm and Mardelle left the mission field, they did not retire from the Lord’s work. That is where Back to the Bible comes in. They were “volunteers” there. But, they were more than that. They helped Elisabeth put together her program Gateway to Joy. Through their eighties they answered thousands of letters for Gateway and Back to the Bible. They were always available to pray for listeners and staff alike. And, as always they found ways to encourage others in the faith.
Elisabeth recounts a letter from Malcolm at a particularly difficult time, where he said:

Mardelle shared with me your cry for help at the beginning of this week, since it was a little bit too much for her to handle alone. We immediately stopped and held you up to our great High Priest. We realized you couldn't very well share these things with anyone else. After thinking and praying over this crisis, I couldn't help suggesting that maybe you have been going too fast and intensely for several months.

Perhaps you might even be suffering from what some people call 'burn out.' Maybe your body has gone ahead of your spirit as the porters for Livingston told him as he asked them why they had laid their cargo down and were just sitting. Now the Lord has chosen to slow you down for awhile. Could it be a case of what your tract calls 'when the music stops'? Both of us realize that there are various factors in life, but the Lord will show you what to do.

What wise and godly counsel. These two are gone. Where cometh the encouragers and servants of today? Whenever I saw them they always wanted to know how they could pray for me and my family. They were keenly aware of the pressures of the world and Satan. I am a better person for knowing them. They both had a dry sense of humor, were no-nonsense about the things of this world and were astute about missionary activities all over this world. They were not pursuing “retirement dreams”. They lived in a small bungalow in Lincoln, in the race to the finish. And, they finished strong. In my twice yearly encounters I was greatly blessed by these wonderful, godly folks of prayer, encouragement and service. May we all be as Malcolm and Mardelle.