Dr. John Dreisbach

Our office just received word that one of our missionaries, Dr. John Dreisbach, went home to be with the Lord yesterday evening. Dr. Dreisbach served as a medical missionary to Africa for years before retuning to the States to serve in an administrative capacity. In all, he was in active missionary service for over sixty years. The film Beyond the Night told the story of the work that he and his wife Bettie carried on.

Even as he advanced in years, Dr. Dreisbach continued to take trips to northern Cameroon to take the gospel to tribes who’d never heard, although his health sometimes prevented him. In an e-mail exchange I had with him almost one year ago, he wrote the following:

I had been tentatively planning a return trip to the Extreme North of Cameroon.  I had hoped that I could go early in ’09; but I was advised, in view of [a recent severe angial attack], to postpone that trip for the time being.  I do trust, if it is the Lord’s will, He will permit me to return to Cameroon sometime in ’09.  I [am one of few missionaries] in the north of Cameroon who speaks the Hausa language; and many of the people in that area, although Hausa may not be their first language, are fluent in that tongue; and I want to be used of the Lord to give them the Good News as long as I possibly can.  Please pray that I will have the mind of the Lord in knowing when and where I should go and that the Lord will direct my paths.  Pray for our GFA [Gospel Fellowship Association] team in the Extreme North of Cameroon as well as another team about 700 miles south by road where there is also a large pocket of Hausa-speaking people.

That is an unwasted life!

In his e-mail to the church office, Mark Batory, director of GFA, writes, “Although we will greatly miss our hero, coworker, and friend, we know that he has great joy in being with his Savior, his beloved wife, and a multitude that he pointed to Him.”