2007.02.26: February 26, 2007: Headlines: COS - Oman: Obituaries: COS - Kenya: Crime: Missionaries: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Oman RPCV Zelda White slain in carjacking on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya
Peace Corps Online:
Directory:
Oman:
January 23, 2005: Index: PCOL Exclusive: Oman :
2007.02.26: February 26, 2007: Headlines: COS - Oman: Obituaries: COS - Kenya: Crime: Missionaries: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Oman RPCV Zelda White slain in carjacking on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya
Oman RPCV Zelda White slain in carjacking on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya
Prior to college, Mrs. White had studied briefly in L'Abri, Switzerland, where many young evangelicals sought the tutelage of the writer Francis Schaeffer. After college, she and her husband joined the Peace Corps in Oman. When he joined the foreign service, they moved around -- to Yemen, Iceland, Zaire, Washington, D.C., Oman and Kenya -- while she raised their three children.
Oman RPCV Zelda White slain in carjacking on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya
Missionaries slain in Kenya honored
Lois Anderson and her daughter were remembered for their lives of love, not the grisly way they died
Monday, February 26, 2007
By Ann Rodgers, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
NEW WILMINGTON, Pa. -- At a memorial service attended by 100 people who had supported or shared in their work, a slain missionary and her daughter were remembered for a faith that eulogists said would inspire many to enter the mission field.
Beaver native Lois Anderson, 79, and daughter Zelda White, 51, were murdered Jan. 27 during a carjacking on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya, where their multigenerational missionary family had gathered.
Their husband and father, the Rev. Bill Anderson, 80, and daughter and sister, Sylvia Moller, were present when the women were shot, and both attended yesterday's service in New Wilmington Presbyterian Church. For decades the Andersons, who retired to South Carolina in 2000, were popular speakers at the annual New Wilmington Mission Conference at Westminster College.
The Rev. Anderson said beforehand that the pattern of Kenyan carjackers was to steal a vehicle, take its contents, then quickly abandon it and steal another vehicle so it would be harder for police to chase them. Theirs was the third vehicle the thieves hijacked that day, he said.
"They didn't even take my wallet," he said, though a carefully edited manuscript of the Arabic translation of his book on the history of Christianity in Sudan was stolen and never recovered.
The Rev. Anderson said that attending this memorial service was a priority for him, because the congregation of New Wilmington Presbyterian Church had been an early and crucial supporter of the couple's ministry. Because of a collection the congregation took up on their behalf, when they were newlyweds, he and Lois were able to leave for the mission field in 1951, two years earlier than expected.
Then, during a 1971 furlough in the United States, the mission board said it had no money to continue their support. When he told his wife they might have to stay in this country and take a congregation, she became angry, he said.
"It's the first time she really stood against me. She said, 'No. We were called by God to work in Africa,' " he said. They contacted churches to support them, and among those that stepped up was the New Wilmington congregation, he said.
"She was a wonderful wife, and she was a wonderful missionary," he said. "The way you have to get the gospel to people is to love, and my wife knew how to communicate love better than anyone I have ever known."
They spent 49 years in Africa, mostly in Sudan, where he founded a theological college.
Most at yesterday's service knew Ms. Anderson far better than Ms. White, who was born in Uganda and, except for attending Geneva College where she met her husband, Craig, spent most of her life overseas.
Prior to college, she had studied briefly in L'Abri, Switzerland, where many young evangelicals sought the tutelage of the writer Francis Schaeffer. After college, she and her husband joined the Peace Corps in Oman. When he joined the foreign service, they moved around -- to Yemen, Iceland, Zaire, Washington, D.C., Oman and Kenya -- while she raised their three children.
At the time of her death, Ms. White had just earned a bachelor's degree in divinity from St. Paul Theological College near Nairobi, where she and her mother were buried.
Many people in Africa and the United States have given to a memorial fund for the two women, though no one has had time to count the donations yet. Ms. Moller said the fund would be used to help the neediest theology students at the Kenyan seminary, particularly women. And, if there was enough money, it would also do so at Nile Theological College in Sudan, which the Andersons founded.
"Early in the morning, on the day Zelda died, a student asked her to help him with his school fees. She told me, 'Oh, I wish I could help,' " Ms. Moller said.
Many speakers praised the faith, courage and cheerful spirit of Ms. Anderson, who had taught second grade in Beaver after her 1949 graduation from Geneva College.
Her older brother, Harold Crawford of Ames, Iowa, said the night she packed to leave for the mission field, he found her because he knew she would be giving up her way of life forever.
"But she said, 'To be a Christian, you have to give something up.' And she did," he said.
The Rev. Kenneth Bailey, a renowned New Testament scholar who lived most of his life in the Middle East, sent a written tribute. He has known the Rev. Anderson since they were at a school for missionary children, he said, while Ms. Anderson entered the life as an adult.
In 1952, the newly wed Andersons were studying in Cairo when antiforeigner riots broke out and major buildings in the city center were set on fire. The Andersons were caught in the worst of it, he said,
They "were obliged to walk through burning streets out of its center in order to find a taxi and escape from the mobs and the conflagration. From that point on all of us knew that Bill and Lois were made of steel and that they would be able and willing to face whatever life might throw at them as they fulfilled their high calling in Jesus Christ," he wrote.
When he visited them in 1978 in southern Sudan they were training evangelists in "harsh, stark isolated" conditions that were far more primitive than anything he had known in south Egypt, he wrote. She cooked on a hotplate fueled by gas made from cow dung.
"The Andersons were part of the African community. That meant that they were expected to share whatever they had with anyone who came to the door. The only way to survive in such a culture was to have nothing, and the Andersons had nothing," he wrote.
"In her life she served all who crossed her path. In her death she will inspire tens of thousands to re-examine their own willingness to go out in faith with Abraham, not knowing where they are going -- seeking a better country whose maker and founder is God."
Donations may be sent to Shenango Presbytery, marked for the Lois Anderson and Zelda White Fund, 4197 New Castle Road, Pulaski, PA 16143-9513. The mission conference plans a podcast of yesterday's service at their Web site, nwmcmission.org.
Links to Related Topics (Tags):
Headlines: February, 2007; Peace Corps Oman; Directory of Oman RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Oman RPCVs; Obituaries; Peace Corps Kenya; Directory of Kenya RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Kenya RPCVs; Crime
When this story was posted in March 2007, this was on the front page of PCOL:
Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers
| Chris Dodd's Vision for the Peace Corps Senator Chris Dodd (RPCV Dominican Republic) spoke at the ceremony for this year's Shriver Award and elaborated on issues he raised at Ron Tschetter's hearings. Dodd plans to introduce legislation that may include: setting aside a portion of Peace Corps' budget as seed money for demonstration projects and third goal activities (after adjusting the annual budget upward to accommodate the added expense), more volunteer input into Peace Corps operations, removing medical, healthcare and tax impediments that discourage older volunteers, providing more transparency in the medical screening and appeals process, a more comprehensive health safety net for recently-returned volunteers, and authorizing volunteers to accept, under certain circumstances, private donations to support their development projects. He plans to circulate draft legislation for review to members of the Peace Corps community and welcomes RPCV comments. |
| He served with honor One year ago, Staff Sgt. Robert J. Paul (RPCV Kenya) carried on an ongoing dialog on this website on the military and the peace corps and his role as a member of a Civil Affairs Team in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have just received a report that Sargeant Paul has been killed by a car bomb in Kabul. Words cannot express our feeling of loss for this tremendous injury to the entire RPCV community. Most of us didn't know him personally but we knew him from his words. Our thoughts go out to his family and friends. He was one of ours and he served with honor. |
| Peace Corps' Screening and Medical Clearance The purpose of Peace Corps' screening and medical clearance process is to ensure safe accommodation for applicants and minimize undue risk exposure for volunteers to allow PCVS to complete their service without compromising their entry health status. To further these goals, PCOL has obtained a copy of the Peace Corps Screening Guidelines Manual through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and has posted it in the "Peace Corps Library." Applicants and Medical Professionals (especially those who have already served as volunteers) are urged to review the guidelines and leave their comments and suggestions. Then read the story of one RPCV's journey through medical screening and his suggestions for changes to the process. |
| The Peace Corps is "fashionable" again The LA Times says that "the Peace Corps is booming again and "It's hard to know exactly what's behind the resurgence." PCOL Comment: Since the founding of the Peace Corps 45 years ago, Americans have answered Kennedy's call: "Ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man." Over 182,000 have served. Another 200,000 have applied and been unable to serve because of lack of Congressional funding. The Peace Corps has never gone out of fashion. It's Congress that hasn't been keeping pace. |
| PCOL readership increases 100% Monthly readership on "Peace Corps Online" has increased in the past twelve months to 350,000 visitors - over eleven thousand every day - a 100% increase since this time last year. Thanks again, RPCVs and Friends of the Peace Corps, for making PCOL your source of information for the Peace Corps community. And thanks for supporting the Peace Corps Library and History of the Peace Corps. Stay tuned, the best is yet to come. |
| History of the Peace Corps PCOL is proud to announce that Phase One of the "History of the Peace Corps" is now available online. This installment includes over 5,000 pages of primary source documents from the archives of the Peace Corps including every issue of "Peace Corps News," "Peace Corps Times," "Peace Corps Volunteer," "Action Update," and every annual report of the Peace Corps to Congress since 1961. "Ask Not" is an ongoing project. Read how you can help. |
Read the stories and leave your comments.
Some postings on Peace Corps Online are provided to the individual members of this group without permission of the copyright owner for the non-profit purposes of criticism, comment, education, scholarship, and research under the "Fair Use" provisions of U.S. Government copyright laws and they may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner. Peace Corps Online does not vouch for the accuracy of the content of the postings, which is the sole responsibility of the copyright holder.
Story Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Oman; Obituaries; COS - Kenya; Crime; Missionaries
PCOL36434
01