Dec. 18, 2006 issue
Longtime missionary to Puerto Rico dies at 90
By Bethany Keener Mennonite Mission NetworkPage:
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GOSHEN, Ind. — Even at age 90, Gladys Widmer was a witness for Jesus wherever she went.
Widmer, a longtime missionary in Puerto Rico, died at her home Dec. 3.
“She was very persistent,” said Julia Naula, who attends Iglesia Menonita del Buen Pastor in Goshen, where Widmer spent her final years. “She never gave up. Even at 90 years old, she ministered intensively to anyone.”
Widmer served 30 years in Puerto Rico and also planted churches in Iowa, New York City and Florida.
She was born in Noble, Iowa, in 1915, to Daniel W. and Mary Schlatter Graber Widmer.
After her 1942 graduation from Goshen College, Widmer taught school and then worked for five years as an office assistant at the former Mennonite Board of Missions, a predecessor agency of Mennonite Mission Network.
All along, though, she knew her true calling was to be a missionary. She was appointed to serve in Puerto Rico in 1951.
After her appointment, Widmer’s parents said that before her birth, they had dedicated her to the Lord’s service.
In a 1994 letter to mission worker Mary Beyler, who continues to serve with MMN in Japan, Widmer shared this story. Her parents had kept her dedication a secret so Widmer would not feel obliged to choose a certain path.
Being a single woman missionary in the 1950s was no easy task. According to a 1999 article, “Finding My Place as a Lady Missionary,” in the Journal of Mennonite Studies, Widmer often needed to step out of traditional gender roles to preach and plant churches. “I had to do it,” she said. “There was no one else.”
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