Missionaries Honored for Half Centuries of Service

Christian Reformed World Missions missionary Gord Buys was inspired to be a missionary pilot by reading “Jungle Pilot,” the stirring story of Nathaniel “Nate” Saint who was killed in 1956 while trying to evangelize a remote tribe in the rainforest of Ecuador.

Saint died along with four others during what was called Operation Auca, during which the missionaries had flown overhead a few times, lowering gifts for the tribe in a basket and then receiving gifts in return.

Believing they had made friends, the missionaries landed one day and set up camp, but were then killed.

“I remember being a sixth grader and writing an essay ‘The Flying Preacher’,” says Buys.

“I felt a sense of call to be a missionary pilot. I ended up buying into a portion of a plane for $1,000 and began to learn how to fly.”

Buys was recently honored, along with his wife, Florine, for 50 years of service to CRWM, which is currently celebrating its 125th anniversary. Tina Ipema and Win Gritter were also honored for half-centuries of service.

Ipema served 30 years in Nigeria and 20 in the home office of CRWM. Gritter served five years among the Zuni Indians, eight years in Taiwan, and 37 in Latin America.

Buys and his wife, as well as Ipema, recently attended a celebration  in the Grand Rapids, Mich. office of CRWM for their years of service. Gritter was out of the country.

“It is truly amazing to realize how many years these people have given to the agency.We wanted to honor them,” said Rev. Steve Van Zanen, CRWM’s director for missions and engagement.

After he graduated from Calvin College in 1963, Buys started to work for CRWM as a geography teacher in Nigeria. Five years after starting as a teacher, he began flying for CRWM.

He shuttled missionaries to remote regions to hold services and give the sacraments. He flew school children to and from boarding schools and took missionary officials to various places in Nigeria for meetings and other purposes.

He also flew medical evacuations. Since very few communities had radios at that time, he was often alerted to a medical emergency by bike riders who traveled from the site of the emergency, bringing news of the need.

“I logged almost 10,000 hours, most of the time flying short flights in Nigeria,” said Buys, who dealt with mechanical problems and other challenges during his years as a pilot. “We calculated that one hour of flying time saved seven hours of driving overland.”

When he returned to this country, he worked as an administrator for Africa and then in recruitment for CRWM. He currently works part-time in the CRWM office.

“World Missions has been a good organization to work for. It feels good to be recognized,” said Buys.

“I also feel grateful for being given the gift to be involved in missions work. The Holy Spirit is active and goes before us.”

Tina (Van Staalduinen) Ipema, one of the other missionaries honored recently, recalls flying into Nigeria where she would be serving with CRWM.

“As the plane I was on was landing, I  saw pyramids. I thought, ‘Eygpt?’ No... it was Kano, Nigeria ...the ‘pyramids’ were stacked bags of peanuts.”

When she left in 1991, the last thing she saw, “as we took off from the Mkar airstrip in Nigeria, were hands waving goodbye’.”

In between, she says, she taught domestic sciences and English language at Mkar Teachers College, sub-taught at Hillcrest School for missionaries’ and other children in Jos, Nigeria, and taught English language and served as a librarian and registrar at the Reformed Theological College of Nigeria in Mkar.

She married Rev. Peter Ipema in 1990.

For the last 20 years, she has served part-time in the CRWM office, mainly processing mission documents and records.

As she reflects, Philippians 2:13 comes to mind, summarizing how she feels about her service to God and to his church: “For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”