Biografia Lee

Until I reached the age of eleven my parents had not attended any church regularly. My mother had been saved before they were married but had not grown spiritually. When I was about seven or eight years old some of the neighbors begin holding what they called “prayer meeting” in different homes around the community. It was at one of these prayer meeting, after the preaching, that my dad found Christ as his Savior. For a short time after that we attended a Pentecostal church. When we stopped going to this church, we began to attend the Methodist Church in Hurley, Missouri.

By this time, it had become very difficult to make a living on a small farm and my dad had taken a job in Hurley, Mo. Since he didn’t like the Sunday School class at the Methodist Church (because of the woman teacher) he talked to the manager of the store where he worked and arranged to open store on Sunday mornings. This went on for perhaps a year and for reasons that I don’t know, Mom, Deloris and I stopped going to the Methodist Church.

In the fall of 1950, some students of Baptist Bible college of Springfield, Missouri, had come to Crane, to start a church. A preacher was invited to hold special meeting. He had grown up in the area and at one time was in the same school that my dad had attended as a boy. Because of this, and because Dad´s brother John, was a member of the new church. Bro. Howard Ervin came to visit us. Shortly after his visit we began to attend the bible Baptist Church of Crane.

At first, we didn´t go every Sunday. Sometimes only Deloris and I would go. It was on one of the days that my Mom and Dad didn´t go that I realized my need of salvation and accepted Jesus as my Lord and savior. A few weeks later, on Easter Sunday of 1953, I was baptized (by immersion) in Crane Creek. (To this day the Bible Baptist Church of Crane uses the creek for their baptismal services.)

My parents, and my sister Deloris and I were baptized the same day. From that day until now only in very unusual circumstances have any of my family not been in all the services at church. We all began to grow in the Lord, and, in this time, both my parents became Sunday School teachers. Dad also served as a trustee of the church and as Sunday School superintendent.

I was in my thirteenth year when I first began to sense that I perhaps God was calling me to preach His Word. At first, I didn’t tell anyone what I felt but, as time passed and I became more sure of God´s will, I began to mention this desire to others. When I was fourteen, our pastor taught me to lead singing and gave me the opportunity to be the song leader in our church. In the summer of the year I turned fifteen and I attended my first youth camp. As the preacher gave the invitation on the second night of camp I responded and surrendered my life to be a preacher of the Gospel. My next goal was to finish high school and enroll in the Baptist Bible College in Springfield, Mo.

I was seventeen when our pastor asked me is I would teach the young people´s Sunday school class, I was the oldest of all the faithful young people of our church but to this day I still am not sure why my pastor would have given me this responsibility. I am thankful that I had this opportunity along with leading the song service.
In September 1959, I took two small suitcases (and probably my guitar) and went to Bible College. Since Springfield thirty-five miles from Crane I was able to continue serving the Lord in my home church. Some of my classmates from other cities also began attending church in Crane. One of them had a car so We were able to go to all the services during the week.

That same year God began to speak to me about surrendering my life to be a missionary. Our home church had always been involved in missions giving and many future missionaries had served the Lord in our church. I knew several missionaries personally, but I thought that only very special people could be missionaries. As God continued to speak to me through His Word and by the Holly Spirit, I began to understand that God could use me if I would only allow Him to do so. In November 1959, I yielded to His leadership and began to prepare for service on a mission field.

When I first surrendered to be a missionary many people were making preparations to go to Ethiopia. The emperor of Ethiopia was pleading for one hundred missionaries within ten years. What a strong appeal this was for all of us who were considering where God would have us to serve. The thinking was that if you were not planning to go to Ethiopia surely you didn´t what God´s will was for you. In spite of this it seemed that God moving me toward Mexico. My thoughts were that Mexico was too close to U.S.A. and that surely in order to be a real missionary you had to go across an ocean. But Mexico still filled my thoughts. On very side there was something that reminded me of Mexico. I could only respond, Yes, Lord, I am willing to go to Mexico.

II. Rebeca Sue (Stewart) Lee

Date of Birth: April 29,1943
Place of Birth: Galena, Missouri.

Becky was born to Ernest R. Stewart and Ina Lois (Johnson) Stewart in April, 1943. She was the third of four children born to this family. Both her dan and her mom were resident of the area and had married when he was 18 and she was 16.

When hard times came to the area Ernest and Lois had taken a few of their belongings and their two children and had made the long trip to California in Riverside, California. Ernest found work and for a while, things were going better. There was only one problem Stone County, Missouri was a long way from California and all their family was back in Missouri. They decide to return to Missouri and shortly, after In Galena, Mo. Becky was born just a few months after their return.

It was about this time that Howard Ervin, a young Baptist preacher, was pastoring a small independent Baptist Church in Galena Mo. Both Ernest and Lois had trusted Christ as their savor before this time. (Lois´s father had been a nondenominational preacher who preached the Gospel of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ.) Howard Ervin was to have a great influence in the lives of the Stewarts. He became their pastor and their teacher in the Lord. They became Baptists in their convictions and have continued faithful in serving the Lord.

Within a few years of their return to Missouri, Ernest bought a farm southwest of Crane, Mo., and moved his family there. Also Bro. Howard Ervin moved to California to found and pastor several churches in the Los Angeles area. The Stewarts attended a Baptist church in Aurora, Mo. And their oldest child, Elaine, made plans to leave home to attend a Baptist Bible college in Texas. However, in 1950, when the Baptist Bible college began in Springfield. Mo., Elaine enrolled there, in the fall of the same year students of this new school went to Crane, Mo. To start the Bible Baptist Church of Crane, The Stewarts were the first members of this new work and were, in fact, the reason that the students had chosen Crane as the location for a new church.

Since Becky´s family was so active in church She grew up hearing the Gospel. In her home her mother was constantly singing the gospel hymns that meant so much to her. The High Street Baptist Church of Springfield had a radio program whose broadcast reached into the Stewart home. On one occasion, in the absence of Bro. Howard Ervin, Dowell the music director of the High Street church, Bro. Earl Smith, brought the message. While listening to this broadcast, Becky realized that She was a sinner in need of savior, only a few days later she accepted Jesus as her savior. Later, she would follow her Lord in scriptural baptism. Becky was nine years old when she made the most important decision of her life; the decision to trust Christ for the salvation of her soul.
Becky´s life changed very little outwardly when she accepted the Lord. Within, however, she now had peace with God. She knew that she was saved. Sher and her family continued attending and serving in the Bible Baptist Church of Crane. Her mother taught a Sunday school class. Her dad serves as trustee of the church. Becky´s knowledge of God and His word grew, and she often was heard to say that she wanted to some day be the wife of a preacher or missionary. God was preparing her for His work, and she was not resisting His leading. All through those difficult teen years Becky always had a good testimony. She lived for the Lord and God blessed her life ang guided her in the steps of preparation for the work He had for her.

• Jimmy and Becky
Growing up together in the same church Becky and I had known each other since she was nine and I was eleven. Deloris my sister and Becky are the same age and spent many Sunday afternoons together. Because Becky was with Deloris in our home, Becky and I saw one another often. I am not sure when there was the first spark of interest in each other nor am I sure who noticed it first. As is often the case sometimes we were close friends and sometimes we did not see things the same way.

One day things took a turn of a more serious nature. We had our first date. She was fifteen and I was seventeen and both of us wanted to serve the Lord. We were finally in love and glad of it. Neither of us was to ever date anyone else.

A year or so passed and I went to Bible college and she continued her studies in high school. We would see each other on Wednesday evenings and on weekends. It seemed that time we were separated was extremely long and the time we could be together was extremely short. We wrote letters which we hand delivered and would read many times over. I asked her if she would marry me. She said she would.

On June 1, 1961, we were married in the Bible Baptist Church of Crane, Mo., the church had meant so much to us not only in our relationship to the Lord but also in our relationship to one other.

We made our first home in an apartment in Springfield, Mo. We were there three months then purchased a small mobile home. (We would live in mobile homes from then until we came to Mexico in 1973.) Becky enrolled in Baptist Bible College that fall and I continued my final year of studies at the college.

• Jimmy, Becky and Company/Our first Three Children
On October 25, 1962, our first child was born. We chose a very original name for him. We named him Jimmy Hearl Lee, jr. He was a good healthy boy and gave us much joy. Becky, however had some difficulty at his birth and could not return to classes at B.B.C. that year.

The following year on December 21, our second son was born. We named him Timothy Allen Lee. Timmy was often sick during his first year and, again, it was necessary for Becky to discontinue her studies at B.B.C. After his first year he gained strength and Becky was able to attend classes once more.

We were blessed with another child while Becky was still in B.B.C. this time it was a girl, born on July 29, 1966, and we named her Angela Susan Lee. Thankfully, Angela was a healthy baby and the boys were doing fine. Becky was Angela able to continue her studies and graduate from Bible College shortly Angela was born.

• Our last 2 children
We have often said that we have two families because the youngest two of our children were born several years after the firs three. Brett Philip Lee was born on November 15, 1974. By this time had already been in Mexico for a year and seven months.

Our last son, Bryce Stewart Lee, was born on December 18, 1976. Each one of our children has received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. They also been missionaries, perhaps not in the sense of public preaching, but by sharing in the work and joys of serving the Lord here in Mexico.
God certainly blessed our home when He gave us our children.

III. The family in the Work of the Lord

• Bible Baptist Church, Crane, Mo.
From the time I was fourteen I have been actively involved in work of the church. My pastor taught me to lead singing and the pastor that followed him gave me the young people´s Sunday school class. I continued to serve in both these capacities all during the time that Becky and I were studying at Baptist Bible College.

• Ozark Baptist Temple. Warsaw, Mo.
The year that Becky graduated from B.B.C. a small country church near Warsaw, Mo., called me as pastor. The Ozark Baptist Temple was a young church located about three miles east of the town of Warsaw. We would serve this congregation for four years. They were a good people and were kind to a young preacher and his family.

When I went to preach in the church in view of a call, we told them that we felt that God had called us to be missionaries. We told them that we felt we could promise them to stay at least for two years. They asked me to be their pastor. Those two years passed, and I began to ask the Lord how much longer He wants me to stay. We were not anxious to leave were searching to know the will and timing of the Lord. We were to stay there for two more years, making a total of four. In those four years God taught us many things we have used in our ministry. When I thought I was teaching the people there, God was teaching me.

• Becoming missionaries
In the fall of 1970, God use His word to show me that it was time for us to begin preparations for going to Mexico. I wrote the missions office of the Baptist Bible Fellowship requesting information about how to be accepted as a missionary of the group. Upon receiving the information, I immediately began gathering the necessary letters of recommendation and other things that were required. In May 1871 may wife and I were accepted as a missionaries with the Baptist Bible Fellowship International.

June of 1971 found us doing deputation work, visiting churches, presenting our vision and our needs, with the goal of being in Mexico as soon as possible. In all, we would take about twenty -two month to have the support needed to live and work in Mexico.

• Arriving in Mexico
The spring of 1973 found us busy packing, sorting, deciding what should go, what should stay and what we should throw away. We were in the final stages of leaving for Mexico. The churches that we had visited had responded, we had raised the support that we could. We were excited and God was blessing all the years of preparation.

We had contacted Bro. Martin Hooge and Miss Georgia Webb about our language studies. They were expecting us in April to begin learning Spanish.

Finally, the big day came when we had everything, we could possible get in a Dodge van and a four by six utility trailer. Our home church had given us a beautiful going away service. The moment had arrived to give those last long hugs to our families. It was then that we realized that we really were leaving. We were going to a foreign country and would be far away form our home church and our parents. Without any doubt of God´s calling, it was still hard to climb into our van and start to trip. God´s calling is sure and when He calls also makes the way clear.

We began our journey.
Two days later we crossed the Mexican- American border at Laredo, Tx. By my wife´s own confession, when we sow Nuevo Laredo she thought “is this what we have worked so hard for?”
We drove that evening to Monterrey expecting to stay with a missionary family that we had known since they were in Baptist Bible College in the middle 1950´s. Since we had not contacted them, they had no way of knowing that we were coming. They were not at home. Since we didn´t speak any Spanish and since we didn’t know anything else to do, we spent the night in our van in front of their home.

Early the next morning we found a gas station, filled the tank and started south toward Queretaro. It was a long day, with new experiences at every stop. Finally, at 4.30 PM we arrived at the home of Marvin and Rosalie Hooge. A house had already been rented for us and we had bought some furnishings form another couple who had finished their language studies in Queretaro. That night we slept in the house that was to be our home for about nine years. We had arrived on the mission field.

The following week we began classes in the Queretaro Spanish language school. This was to be the hardest year of learning that I have ever experienced. At the end of the year we graduated from the school and we were equipped with the basics of the language on which we continue to build.

• Finding the place to work.
One of the things that a missionary has to know is where he is to live and work within the country or area to which God has called him. Even before arriving in Mexico, I believed that we would be working in the central Plaza of Mexico. This is the area of Mexico with the highest concentration of people per square mile. As we began to visit some of the cities in this area, we were more convinced that we were right as to the area. There was only one problem. We still didn´t know were. We were impressed with the city of Queretaro but there were other cities where there was no missionary.

In Queretaro, the Hooges and Miss Webb were already working. Of course, the city was growing, and the need was great but I couldn´t decide just to stay without knowing God´s will. While I was considering all of this, one day Bro. Marving Hooge asked me would consider staying in Queretaro and working with them and Georgia Webb. I told him I would pray about it. I did and God gave me peace about staying here to work. At the time, we did not know that within one year God was going to lead Bro. Hooge and his family to going to Los Angeles, Ca., to work in the Pacific Coast Baptist Bible College, When they left, we accepted the responsibility of the work they had been doing. We had found where God wanted us.

IV. Working in Mexico

Calvary Baptist Church.
In May of 1974, having graduated form the Queretaro Spanish Language School, we assumed the responsibility of the new mission which Bro. Hooge had started in October of the previous year. We were not new to this mission for we had been attending and working there from the first service. Under our leadership The Calvary Baptist Church continued to grow and seven years later we left it in the hands of a national pastor with an average Sunday morning attendance of 175.
This church has remained strong and today has a very nice building which they built with fund raised in that congregations. Their new auditorium will seat about 250 people.

• Queretaro Spanish Language School
At the same time that we took the new mission we also began to work with Miss Georgia Webb
In the Queretaro Spanish Language School. My work with the Language School has primary been in helping the students to get settled here, helping in such areas as buying furniture, looking for a house to rent, and opening bank accounts. I have also helped with the general aspects of the Language School such as maintenance, etc. On occasions I have also taught grammar classes. In the year that we have worked with the Language School more than 250 missionaries have studied Spanish here. Most of these are still serving the Lord some where in the Spanish speaking world.

• San Luis Potosi
One hundred and twenty miles north of Queretaro is the city osSan Luis Potosi. In that city there was a mission with which Bro. Hooge was working. This work too, was left in our care. I continued to help this work financially and, as often as possible , with my presence. After about five years we left this work in the hands of a national pastor. This work has struggled but to this day they continue to serve the Lord.

• Bethel Bible Baptist Church
In November , 1980, we began a new church on the east side of Queretaro. Since then this work has been the main thrust of our ministry. The Church is located in a middle class area of the city and we have been able to reach many people of this social economic leveol. We have reached doctors, mursers, lawyers, arquitects, bankers, and other professionals as well as small business owners.

Within thre months of the first service the church started supporting a national misisonary.
Since that time the church has been a mission-minded church, giving to the support of several missions projects here in Mexico and two latin-american misisonary families who work in Spain and the Dominican Republican. The former co-pastor of the church is now working in Villa Hermosa, Tabasco, Mex. He and his family receive about seventy five percent of his support from Bethel Bible Baptist Church.

When the church was about three years old, they bough a house to use for a meeting place. Since then they have built and auditorium and three more classroom. The building has capacity for some growth, however,we are planning to buy more property for the future.
Presently our high attendances are near 190 on Sunday morning.

• Bethel Baptist Bible Institute
Since the fall of 1985 the Bethel Bible Baptist Church has had a Bible Institute as one of its ministries. Under my leadership, and with the help of other missionaries and national teachers, several people from the church have studied with the purpose of serving the Lord better. We have graduates who are now pastoring and others who are looking in our church. This year (1991-1992) we have a total enrollment of 15 students in the three-year course.

• Queretaro Christian School
Another ministry that God has given us is an A.C. children´s school. This school is for our own children as well as for the children of missionaries who are studying in the Queretaro Spanish Language School. The School is not large but has been an answer to the need of our children and their education.

• Teamwork
Obviously two people cannot do all the work involved in all the aspects of the work. Through the years we have always worked as a team with others. At the present time this team includes: Jimmy and Becky Lee, Georgia Webb, Tim and Elaine Amador, Tim and Nora Lee (our son and his wife), and various nationals.
We believe that God has blessed us and use us far beyond our abilities.
We thank Him for allowing us to serve Him here in Mexico.

Biography of Jimmy and Becky Lee, Missionaries to Mexico

II. Rebeca Sue (Stewart) Lee

III. The family in the Work of the Lord