MISSIONARY SPOTLIGHT - LEWIS AND HELEN HULL

Lewis and Helen Hull
726 McDaniel Mill Road
Conyers, GA 30094
lhhull@bellsouth.net

They are known as “encouragers,” and as Mission Service Corps (MSC) missionaries, Lewis and Helen Hull have earned that title many times over.

For 11 years until this past May, they were the state volunteer coordinators for the Georgia Baptist Convention (GBC). But their short-term volunteer experiences started long before that.

“We were involved in missions separately for 20 years,” said Lewis. “I would go with the men’s group, and Helen would go with the WMU ladies. We didn’t start serving together until we started working with the GBC.”

Both Helen and Lewis grew up in Georgia and live in Conyers. “I joined the church at 11 years old,” said Helen, “but that’s all I did. I was in my 30s before I really turned my life over to Jesus. I was one of those ‘lost church members.’ I taught Sunday school, sang in the choir and did all the ‘things’ I was supposed to do, but I didn’t have that joy, peace, and love that you are supposed to have.”

The Hulls were high school sweethearts. Their professional careers (Lewis served in the Navy and then as a postal worker and Helen was a nurse) afforded them with retirement income that enables them to do volunteer work as MSC missionaries. When they retired in 1990, they knew that being involved in missions was the next chapter of their lives. As they considered how that would happen they got a phone call from ministry friends Joe and Margaret Coon, who told them about MSC. They soon applied to be MSC missionaries, and their first assignment was with the GBC.

“We had no idea what we were going to be doing, as it was a new position,” said Helen. “But everyone was wonderful helping us, and we began to travel the state recruiting others into the MSC program and helping with the state partnership mission efforts.” Their personal contacts over the years have created special friendships and incredible memories. They ministered during the Atlanta Olympics and through GBC partnerships with Alaska and Connecticut.

In their current MSC role, they are encouragers and church strengtheners for Hope Baptist Church in Conyers. Even in that volunteer capacity, they have found the need—and the time—to volunteer in other ministry opportunities.

Recently, the Hulls were in Florida, serving with one of the Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief feeding units in Gulf Breeze after Ivan devastated the area. Not part of their MSC duties per se, disaster relief is a mission experience in which they love to participate. “God has provided and protected us and so we must do what we can do to help those who are devastated in disasters,” said Helen.

Their family (three adult children, nine grandchildren, and five great grandchildren) are supportive of their MSC work. “Some people have admonished us, ‘You’re retired and are supposed to be doing what you want to do!’ said Helen. “We tell them, ‘We are!’ I remember my father’s words—it’s not what you retire from but what you retire to.”

Pray for the Hulls as they face some health challenges and as they continue to serve Christ through their role as MSCers. “The older we get,” said Helen, “the more we see the need to serve.”

MISSIONARY SPOTLIGHT ARCHIVE

Copyright 2004 North American Mission Board, SBC