Imagine a mother whose fifteen children rise up and bless her. Imagine further that these fifteen are adopted children and that their adopted mother is a foreigner.
Click!
The shutter of your imagination’s camera just photographed long-time GFA missionary to Japan, Betty Loudermilk.
Betty Reba was born on November 15, 1930, near Atlanta. She came to Christ during high school and went on to study at Bob Jones University, graduating with her bachelor’s degree in 1954. She traveled by freighter ship to Japan in 1955, where she would spend the next fifty-plus years of her life in missionary service.
But what was she to do as a single lady missionary in post-World War II Japan? A door opened for her to fill in for some furloughing missionaries at a children’s home called Heaven House. What she did not realize at the time was that caring for unwanted or orphaned children would become her life’s calling. She would eventually open her own home for children called the Ebenezer Children’s Home.
After leaving Heaven House, the Lord brought to Betty an unwanted baby girl named Mary. Betty looked at this baby and thought to herself, What do I do with this? I don’t even have a diaper! The Lord brought to her mind His words to Moses, “What is that in thine hand?” (Exodus 4:2).
To Betty, that question became the Lord’s voice to her: What is in thine hand?
The answer: “a baby.”
Well, then, what do you think I want you to do?
Betty would go on to adopt fifteen children, both boys and girls, as her own. These were children who were orphans or the fruit of unwanted pregnancies. She found one baby in a dumpster. A Japanese medical doctor who was a Christian began connecting Betty with pregnant mothers in difficult circumstances. Betty would encourage those mothers to give birth rather than abort. Eventually, doctors from other clinics began contacting Betty, knowing of her willingness to help. She would then take the newborn babies and arrange for their adoption by Christian couples, many of whom were in the States. (There was no legal opposition to placing these babies up for adoption since the Japanese parents wanted no trace of the babies to be left behind.) Those for whom she could not find parents, or who bonded too closely with her and her growing tribe, she would keep for herself.
Betty was known all over Japan. She knew well the people at the Japan U.S. Embassy who helped her get the needed visas for these babies being adopted by American couples. She was known on the airlines due to her constant trips with these babies. Nagoya, at the time the fourth largest city in Japan, boasted a population of about two million people, but when Betty would show up at the Delta ticket counter or at the gate, the airline personnel knew her. And they would take care of her, often giving her business-class treatment! Over the years, she placed some 250 Japanese babies in homes with Christian parents.
What stands out about Betty, one missionary colleague observes, was her compassion, especially for children. By Betty’s own testimony, she never said “no” to helping the next unwanted baby. Every baby was a gift from God, a life to be loved and given the opportunity to experience a Christian home. Her love for and work with children places her in the category of missionaries such as Amy Carmichael and Mary Slessor.
Early in her ministry, what God put in her hands were babies. Those babies now rise up and call her blessed. Betty finished her earthly course on December 16, 2022, at 92 years of age, but her legacy lives on very literally in the 400 babies, by one estimate, that she rescued! As one of her children testified that without Betty “I would not be where I am today and most likely would have never known anything about God.”
Let Betty’s life challenge you. Many rise up and bless her because her compassion led her, like the Mary who poured out her ointment on Jesus’ feet, to do what she could (Mark 14:8). Betty’s life illustrates that genuine compassion demands action. Compassion is an emotion with hands and feet. It must touch someone, help someone. For whom do you have compassion? What has your compassion compelled you to do? Whom has it constrained you to help? Who will rise up and call you blessed?