This is an article from the November-December 1991 issue: IFMA Member Mission

At the Center - Farewell to Ernie Heimbach

At the Center - Farewell to Ernie Heimbach

"...he obtained the testimony that he was righteous, God testifying about his gifts, and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks."

From time to time, we lose people from the U.S. Center for World Mission. We get to know them, work alongside them, sense their heart for reaching the unreached peoples, and then they hear a call from God to go elsewhere. We miss them, even though we're glad they are where God wants them to be.

Recently, we lost a fellow workman who received a different kind of "call"--the final one from God that says, "Come up here!" We miss Ernie even though we are glad he is where his Lord wants him.

Ernie and his wife, Mertie, have been here at the Center almost from the beginning, preceded only by a handful of others. They served for many years among an unreached people, the Miao, also known as Hmong.

The Heimbachs arrived in China in 1946, among the first missionaries after the War. Their hearts were drawn to the Miao tribal people, but they had lived among them only three months when forced by the Communists to leave China. They were then sent to northern Thailand, where they found two branches of the same Miao people, there called the Hmong. Ernie began translating the scriptures for them, and a fruitful work of evangelism, translation, literacy and medical work resulted which continues growing today. The Hmong-English dictionary which Ernie produced during these years was published by Cornell University and is still used today. One incident of God's working through them among the Hmong is sketched in the book, Catch the Vision 2000!

Later years brought even heavier responsibilities for the Heimbachs in the Overseas Missionary Fellowship as Ernie assumed leadership in Thailand, Singapore and for eight years served as the U.S. Director of OMF. Because of this experience in administration, Ernie led the Strategy Division here at the U.S. Center for nine years. Even in the last years, he was active in the final checking of the Hmong Bible.

Just 12 days before he died, Ernie was diagnosed as having cancer of the brain. In God's loving-kindness the entire family of five children (several in mission service) was able to gather at their father's bedside. Even Ruth from Thailand was there when God took him.

Those speaking at his crowded memorial service at Lake Avenue Congregational Church in Pasadena, CA included Larry Allmon of Gospel Recordings who spoke of his years as one of their Board members. Dr. Daniel Bacon, U.S. National Director of OMF, recounted his dedicated leadership over the years with OMF Ernie's brother-in-law, Jack Armes, P.C.A. missionary to Africa, gave a loving tribute to Ernie's devotion to God.

More than anything, however, people were struck by the testimonies of the Heimbach children. Clearly, Ernie had deeply loved his wife and children and had made them one of his top priorities. One USCWM staff member, a young father and former pastor, said he got more from the children's testimonies at the memorial service than from many family- life conferences he'd been to! Many said they were challenged to be the kind of husband and father Ernie was.

It is fitting that the USCWM Board of Directors have renamed the room where most of our morning devotional meetings are held as the Ernie and Mertie Heimbach Community Room. Ernie's life has been an inspiration to all who knew him.

Don and Charlene Sands

We would like to introduce Don and Charlene Sands, some of the people who make the Center a great place to work.

Behind the scenes here at the Center are a number of ministries which seem trivial but are extremely important to our entire operation. The Telecommunications Department is one of these and it is here that Don spends most of his time.

As manager of "Telcom" Don oversees the entire operation of the bookkeeping and maintenance of the 250-plus phone lines in the PBX phone system. He also keeps our campus computer network running. These phones link people here at the Center with others all over the world, enabling us to receive information that is essential to our overall strategy and mobilization efforts. When a phone ceases to do the job intended, Don solves the problem in his usual faithful fashion.

Charlene is an organized person, attentive to details, who likes to see a job completed. Rather than complaining about the public school in our area, she and others, with management approval, got the the William Carey Academy going in a matter of six months. WCA is a missionary school that includes K through 7th grade. She also spends several days a month at a computer terminal, processing ministry accounts for provisional and some regional staff people. But she is also a mother, trained to give child-birth classes to Center couples. She also loves to make Laotian egg-rolls 200 at a time.

Many people would not be satisfied with such "behind the scenes" jobs in an already "behind the scenes" organization, but Don and Charlene accept their call here graciously. They agree together that they will serve here faithfully until the Lord leads them elsewhere.

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