Portrait of Brenda Martin. IMB Photo

Brenda Martin, an International Mission Board missionary emeritus who shared the gospel in Taiwan, died March 7, 2025. She was 73. 

Brenda was born Dec. 6, 1951, in Corbin, Kentucky, to the late John F. Laws and Nawana Nelson Laws. She graduated from Lynn Camp High School and received the Bachelor of Science from Cumberland College (now University of the Cumberlands), Williamsburg, Kentucky, and a master’s degree from Azusa (California) Pacific University. 

She married Roger Douglas Martin on May 29, 1971. After graduation from college, she taught elementary school.  

While seeking missionary appointment she wrote, “As I became more involved in mission work at our church, I began to feel that the Lord might be calling me to foreign missions. After attending Day Spring at Ridgecrest, I felt even more sure. It seemed as though everywhere I went I would meet a missionary from China or Taiwan. While attending the Kentucky Baptist Convention in Paducah, again I met a missionary couple from Taiwan. After the convention, the Lord gave me a real peace in my heart that this was His will for my life.”  

In 1985, the International Mission Board appointed Roger and Brenda missionaries to Taiwan. She taught English as a Second Language in several churches in Taiwan and English to the staff of the Presidential Office Building in Taipei, Taiwan. She also established and implemented programs of language learning and cultural acquisition in the Chinese, Indonesian and Japanese languages for missionaries.  

She is survived by her husband of 53 years, Rev. Roger Douglas Martin; three children, Stephen Douglas Martin (Carol), Tara Lynnette Martin, and Karen Danielle Martin; and nine grandchildren.  

A funeral service was held March 11 at the Hart Funeral Home Chapel in Corbin, with burial in Calvary Cemetery, Corbin.  

Read an obituary here.