Always Abounding in the Work of the Lord

This Day in Baptist History Past



March 31, 1939 – Helene Metzler, the daughter of Paul and Etiennette Metzler, wrote the following in her journal as she and her father took the long journey to Ft. Lamy, where she was to take the bus across the Sahara Desert to Algiers. “Well, it was no use hoping, for the bus has not arrived…” The March 30 entry read: “This afternoon, we received very sad news, telling us that our dear little Etienne went to the ‘Home for little children, up above the bright blue sky.’…but could say only ‘Have Thine own way Lord.’” Helene became a medical missionary, returned to Chad and in Nov. 1967 succumbed to cancer, the fourth child of the Metzlers to precede them in death. Paul and Etiennette Metzler had ministered for 47 years on three continents and several islands. In summary: In Africa: Chadian Churches, to French and British soldiers, a school, a dispensary and Bible translation; Bordeaux, France, Europe: civilians and soldiers from all over Europe and the USA and the Bible Institute; the U.S.: Baptist Mid-Mission reps, scores of young people volunteering for missionary service, and a burden for missions instilled in hundreds. ” In Nov. 1923, Etiennette left Bordeaux, for Africa. After a long journey in sweltering heat, she joined Paul in marriage and together they experienced perils of war, wild beasts, exhausting journeys, accidents and disease. In 1968 they attended a banquet at the White House at the invitation of Pres. and Mrs. Johnson for Chadian President Francois Tombalbaye who told Mrs.Johnson that he had been a student in their school and had awarded Paul a medal of honor for distinguished service. Condensed by Greg J. Dixon from: This Day in Baptist History II: Cummins and Thompson, BJU Press: pp. 176-78. [Joyce Metzler Baker, Not by Might nor by Power (Scahumburg, Ill. Regular Baptist Press, 1990), p. 215.