Farewell, Uncle Al

When I was a little girl, I was thrilled to have two uncles, aunts, and 4 cousins serving as missionaries in Africa. It gave me great joy to share the things they brought us during "Show and Tell" in school. We only saw them every four years, and not often then, but it was a huge time of excitement for me. My brother, sister, and I used to play missionary in our back yard. We had a merry -go-round that we pretended was an airplane (one uncle was a pilot) and we would fly into the village, preach to the chief in his hut, and he would give his heart to the Lord.

I didn't really know my aunts and uncles that well until they were home in retirement - of course, we spent our time with our cousins when we were all visiting at Grandma Swanson's house. What wonderful memories.

Uncle Al went home to Jesus after a long life well lived. He would have been 88 soon. He was deeply into dementia and his lungs failed him at the end. He would not have known us if we had arrived before he went home. The service was a celebration. It was held in the church that my dad and his family grew up in. This church sponsored my two uncles and their families for their entire missionary service years. I will share some of his history with you, as it was printed in his obituary.

Uncle Al's life verse was from II Timothy 2:2 - "And the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, these entrust to faithful men (and women), who will be able to teach others also." One thing that was so amazing about this man was his gift of language. In six weeks' time he had absorbed enough of his new language to preach to the African tribe he worked with for 45 years.

My grandpa and grandma "entertained many missionaries in their home during those years growing up, and from an early age Alan felt the call to be a missionary. . . (after college) Genevieve and Alan were married . . . and after a short honeymoon, were off to attend the Missionary Training School of the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Nyack, New York to prepare for overseas missionary service.

"By a series of circumstances, the Lord led Alan and Genevieve to the Sudan Interior Mission, and they left for Africa in October 1945, first by ship to Egypt on a troop carrier, and then by air through Khartoum, Sudan to Kano, Nigeria, where they began to prepare for a life of service in helping to open up a new ministry in what was then the French West African country, under French control, of Upper Volta. Following early language learning and trekking to villages in the region, SIM asked Alan and Genevieve to start the first indigenous language Bible Training School near Fada N'Gourma. For the next 25 years, the school trained Gourmantche young men and women to become the future pastors, evangelists, and Christian lay leaders in this region of what was to become known as Burkina Faso. The Bible School was turned over to local leadership and Alan and Genevieve went on to other ministries - starting a Christian Youth Center. . . in Ouagadougou, and then becoming the SIM Regional Director for all Francophone countries. During these years, Alan and Genevieve were the core of a small group that translated the Bible into the Gourmantche language, and during their retirement years they completed a Bible Commentary in the Gourmantche language with the assistance of their home church, Riverside Alliance Church. They returned to Burkina Faso four times to lead pastor refresher training programs . . . "

The church in Burkina Faso, when they heard of Al's death, wanted to be represented at the funeral service. A young man whose parents were students in the Bible school begun by Al and Gen, is now completing his Ph.D. in New Testament at Wheaton College in Chicago. He drove 7+ hours from his home, arriving around 2:00 a.m., to share greetings from the Gourmantche people. We enjoyed getting to know him and his young son, who came with him. We talked him into spending the night instead of heading back to Chicago after the funeral, as he had planned.



My dad was privileged to have part in his brother's service, and also prayed the committal prayer at the very old cemetery - it is way out in the country in a little community called Orrock. I'll share more about that in a later post, but it was quite the trip down memory lane. My aunt Gen was buried here 10 years ago -

This is the other uncle (the pilot) and my aunt and cousin.

This is my aunt, the only sister - who admits that she was very spoiled.



Al's two children, Ann and Richard, are in the middle - their spouses with them. Both couples have been missionaries in Africa, and Ann and Larry are still serving in Mali.

The remainder of the trip was memorable, and I'll be sharing more as time goes on.