In memoriam: Emeritus missionary Margaret Hale, 84

Margaret HaleMargaret Hale, an emeritus International Mission Board missionary who shared the gospel among American Peoples in Canada and Brazil and among Sub-Saharan African Peoples in Zimbabwe, died July 4, 2019. She was 84.

Mrs. Hale died a few weeks after the death of her husband, emeritus IMB missionary Broadus Hale.

Mrs. Hale was born July 6, 1935, in Lake Charles, La. She attended Albuquerque High School; Wayland Baptist College (now University in Plainview, Texas; and New Mexico State University in Farmington.

While corresponding for a year with Broadus Hale, she conveyed that she felt a similar call to missions, and the two were married on Aug. 31, 1956.

“In August, 1965, we attended the foreign mission appointment service at Glorieta,” Mrs. Hale wrote in her missionary application. “I was miserable during the service because there seemed to be a terrible conflict going on within me, and I kept thinking that God had intended that I take part in such a service. On the ride home, Broadus and I talked about how we had never settled the matter of our appointment. We immediately contacted the Foreign Mission Board. … There has come a peace in knowing that I am pursuing what I have felt for many years God wanted me to do.”

The Hales were appointed as IMB missionaries in August 1967 and served 29 years. For many years, Hale taught and served in leadership roles at the Baptist Theological Seminary of South Brazil and the Women’s Training School in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. During their first year at the Brazilian seminary, he and Margaret saw a new church born.

“Our little church has been a blessing to us this past year,” they wrote in December 1969. “We shall have our first baptismal service the Sunday before Christmas. … Our church is composed of very poor people, some of whom receive less than thirty dollars (equivalent) a month, too poor to buy a Bible —even if they could read. But they are joyful crentes (believers) and know … joy in their salvation.”

In 1985, the Hales served a short time in Zimbabwe, where he supervised the Portuguese Department of the Baptist Theological Seminary of Zimbabwe in Gweru for one semester and served as pastor of Gweru Baptist Church.

The Hales transferred in 1988 to Canada, where they served through the Canadian Southern Baptist Seminary in Cochrane, Alberta, until 1996.

The couple is survived by their children. A joint memorial service was conducted July 19 at Eastern Hills Baptist Church in Albuquerque, N.M., with Interment at Santa Fe National Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Lottie Moon Offering, IMB, 3806 Monument Avenue, Richmond, VA 23230, or online at www.imb.org/give.