Feb 19, 2014 | Millie's Missionary Stories
When Millie, a retired missionary, was asked if she would be interested in taking some simple little dresses to Colombia on her next short-term mission trip, she was enthusiastic. After contacting her Colombian friends, Millie said she would like to take three hundred dresses. In four short months the dresses were made and shipped to Bogotá.
One of the locations where dresses were distributed was Juan Rey. Millie, with the help of local pastors selected different colors of dresses in each size then headed down the street to visit the children in their homes. The girls enthusiastically selected the color of dress they wanted to wear. Some of the girls even immediately put a dress on over their existing clothes as big smiles lit up their faces.
Millie is with two girls showing off their new dresses.
John Martyn, the United Methodist pastor in Benton, Kansas, and his wife Melinda were on the January mission trip with Millie and helped distribute the dresses. Estelle, a Colombian pastor’s wife asked Melinda if she had anything she wanted to say to the girls. Melinda said, “The ladies who made these dresses have the love of Jesus in their hearts. Because of that, they have a love for you.” It touched the hearts of the girls. Melinda says it was very special to have the opportunity to distribute the dresses and witness the impact that receiving a new dress had on the girls.
Estelle explains to a girl that her dress was made with love.
Melinda says that making and seeing the dresses delivered forms a connection. “That connection is not only important for them, but it is important for us because we become so isolated in our culture that we do not realize God is reaching out to other people too. We have no better way of touching those lives than through the gift of the dresses.”
Feb 6, 2014 | Millie's Missionary Stories
Millie teaches Colombian children about Jesus during a January 2014 missions trip.
The word “retire” is not in the Bible. As a matter of fact, God expects us to faithfully serve him until we pass from our earthly lives. Nevertheless if anyone deserves to have a relaxing retirement, it is Millie Young. She spent forty-nine years on the mission field, mostly in Colombia. She worked hard, courageously faced dangers, met challenges, and witnessed the amazing results of God working through her efforts.
During the time Millie was actively serving as a missionary, she had a dynamic ministry. She organized Christian schools for children in remote river villages and developed a program to train teachers for those schools. Millie was instrumental in starting and maintaining many children’s ministries including camps, vacation Bible schools, Sunday schools, and Bible Quiz teams. At one point she oversaw thirty-two rural schools. Toward the end of her career she served as assistant field director and then as field director for all the OMS missionaries in Colombia.
When Millie retired, she did not stop serving God. She joined and became active in a church in Benton, Kansas. She spoke to groups and maintained active correspondence to assist and encourage Colombian missions. Even after her eightieth birthday, she has continued to lead short-term mission trips to her beloved Colombia. Millie dedicated her life to bringing God to Colombians—especially the children.
How are you actively serving God?
Dec 18, 2013 | Millie's Missionary Stories
Millie sanded the seats and backs for 250 chairs.
When Millie Young leads a short-term missions trip, she does not sit around and supervise work even though she has earned that right at the age of eighty-one. Millie works right along side the Christians she is leading.
Millie is taking two trips to Bogotá, Colombia this winter. Both are work trips to complete projects the Christian schools in that area need. The December group is constructing chairs for the children. The January trip is to paint classrooms.
Men are varnishing the seats and backs for chairs.
Millie starts planning these trips months in advance. She lets OMS headquarters know about her plans then contacts the principal of the school to see if there are any projects which need done during their summer break. Once those arrangements are made she starts recruiting volunteers. This is a challenge because not only do people have to be willing, but they also have to free up their schedules. Naturally, the volunteers arrange financing, secure passports, and have the necessary shots administered.
The men are welding and filing the edges of steel to make a smooth fit for the frames of the chairs.
Yes, Millie busily labors along side the team, but that’s not all she does. She makes contacts with people on the mission field there. On this trip, she is having lunch with the lady she trained to work in children’s ministry and encouraging a pastor and his wife who are planting a church about forty minutes up the mountainside. Her humble smile, encouraging words, and love for God is an inspiration to everyone she encounters.
Dec 8, 2013 | Millie's Missionary Stories
Millie was already in her early thirties, and she had no prospects of getting married. A friend warned her if she accepted another term on the mission field in Colombia that her possibilities of getting married were very slim. Marriage was something that Millie wanted. To think of herself as an old maid was a bit startling. However, she was so busy happily serving God that the thought of marriage possibilities slipping away had not entered her mind. She was first of all dedicated to God. Even with the new realization that she may never get married, Millie returned to Colombia to serve God among the people she loved.
Mimeograph Machine
Millie was the mimeograph machine expert at Peniel Bible Institute in Christalina, Colombia. It was not that she liked running that smelly, messy machine, but she loved to help others. As she was running off materials she needed for her teacher training courses, the Bible teacher would drop by with a stack of stencils needing duplicated. Millie knew how busy he was and how he hated that machine, so she volunteered to do the task for him. Another staff member would drop by with a set of stencils that Millie volunteered to run through the machine. After all, she had that nasty purple ink all over her hands now. Why should they get messy?
It was during one of those times when Millie was running the mimeograph, with a smudge of ink on her face and purple stains on her hands, that an eligible male entered her life. Not just any male. But the male God had chosen to be her husband.
Years later, Millie would say, “God was with me, and he provided a loving husband for me while I was on the mission field.”
Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. Psalm 27:14
Nov 26, 2013 | Millie's Missionary Stories
Millie Young had a powerful ministry in Colombia even though she came from a very humble background. Millie was born on an Arkansas farm. The family moved to Wichita, Kansas when she was fifteen. She attended Friends University and graduated with a BA in both Bible and elementary education.
It was evident to Millie that God was calling her to the mission field in Colombia even though it was closed to evangelical Christians at that time. When she was admitted to Colombia, her visa said she was to teach the children of English speaking parents at the George Washington School in Medellín. It did not take Millie long to find ways to mingle with Colombians and to tell Bible stories to the Colombian children.
Well-meaning friends warned her that if she returned to the mission field after her first tour, she would probably never marry. Even though she desired to have a husband and family, Millie followed God’s call to stay in Colombia. In a most surprising way at a most unusual time, God placed Vernon Young in her life. They were blessed with three children. Their ministry to rural Colombians was thriving at the time Vernon had a tragic accident. Everyone thought Millie would return to the United States to raise her three young children. Instead, Millie sought God’s will and followed his command. She remained on the mission field. Throughout her missionary career, Millie met many challenges and allowed God to show her his solutions.
Sep 30, 2013 | Millie's Missionary Stories
Normally Millie humbly sits listening to others talk, but today she spoke immediately. The Bible study topic was God’s provision in difficult times.
Millie and her husband were missionaries in rural Colombia when an accident killed him. “I suddenly found myself supporting not only myself, but also my three small children and the three Colombians who were living with us at the time of Vernon’s death. All I had was my salary—and a missionary’s salary at that.” The family’s income was suddenly cut in half. Funding her children’s college educations in a few years seemed like an impossible dream. She would struggle to meet daily expenses.
During her first furlough trip to the U. S. after Vernon’s death, Millie learned that her children were eligible for Social Security benefits. No one had thought to give her this information while she was still living in the village of Magangué. Maybe friends were more concerned about her emotional and physical welfare. Possibly no one realized she did not have that vital piece of information. It does not matter why. For when she learned about the benefit, she applied for her children.
Before long Millie received a check for not only the current amount the children were eligible to have but also for the previous months for which they were qualified to collect benefits. What a blessing from God!
Millie could have spent that money on current needs and wants, but she did not. She set that money aside in separate accounts–one for each of her three children. These accounts were the source of funds she used to help finance the education of her children. God had provided.
And My God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19 NIV
What need do you have that only God can meet? Have your needs in a difficult time been met in a way that only God could have been the provider?
When Millie, a retired missionary, was asked if she would be interested in taking some simple little dresses to Colombia on her next short-term mission trip, she was enthusiastic. After contacting her Colombian friends, Millie said she would like to take three hundred dresses. In four short months the dresses were made and shipped to Bogotá.
