May 22 – Never Too Old
Some stories inspire my soul and today’s is one of those.
Evelyn Brand was sixty-eight years old and the mission board was making a decision about sending her back into the mission field for another five year contract. Their decision was to not do this because of her age. She and her husband, Jesse had gone to India and set forth a plan, to build mission stations in five mountains there. When he died and it was time for her to return home, there were still four mountains to go.
She had lived quite modestly on a small inheritance and turned all funds raised for her stipend back into the mission field, buying land for the mission. Her entire life was wrapped up in the people of India and here they were, planning to send her away. She cried and wept, begged and pleaded, finally getting them to agree to send her back for one year, at which point she would quit arguing with them.
During the next year, with the help of her son, she built a small home, bringing in supplies in small enough loads to haul up the mountain. At the end of her service with the mission board, she officially retired and then told them of her plans to stay in India. Over great protests, she left and moved back to the place she had spent most of her life, caring for the people and teaching them about Jesus Christ.
For Evie Brand, life began at 70, and the hope for India that she had created with her husband was about to be set into motion. Everyone called her Granny Brand as she traveled throughout the mountain ranges, teaching, praying, rescuing abandoned children children and offering medical help. Within fifteen years, her work alone nearly eradicated Guinea worm disease from one of the mountain ranges and over the rest of her life, she not only evangelized the five mountain ranges she and Jesse had planned, but added two more and built missions within all of them.
Granny Brand proclaimed Christ wherever she went, even while in the hospital with a broken hip. When she couldn’t walk easily because of broken and misrepaired bones, she used two canes and continued working, all the while exclaiming “Praise God!” When her son traveled to India to visit her, he found her looking younger than ever. She told him that she let everything else in her life fall away except love … that was how to grow old.
She died in 1974 after spending 24 years in the mission field following a declaration that she was too old.
Some stories inspire my soul and today’s is one of those.
Evelyn Brand was sixty-eight years old and the mission board was making a decision about sending her back into the mission field for another five year contract. Their decision was to not do this because of her age. She and her husband, Jesse had gone to India and set forth a plan, to build mission stations in five mountains there. When he died and it was time for her to return home, there were still four mountains to go.
She had lived quite modestly on a small inheritance and turned all funds raised for her stipend back into the mission field, buying land for the mission. Her entire life was wrapped up in the people of India and here they were, planning to send her away. She cried and wept, begged and pleaded, finally getting them to agree to send her back for one year, at which point she would quit arguing with them.
During the next year, with the help of her son, she built a small home, bringing in supplies in small enough loads to haul up the mountain. At the end of her service with the mission board, she officially retired and then told them of her plans to stay in India. Over great protests, she left and moved back to the place she had spent most of her life, caring for the people and teaching them about Jesus Christ.
For Evie Brand, life began at 70, and the hope for India that she had created with her husband was about to be set into motion. Everyone called her Granny Brand as she traveled throughout the mountain ranges, teaching, praying, rescuing abandoned children children and offering medical help. Within fifteen years, her work alone nearly eradicated Guinea worm disease from one of the mountain ranges and over the rest of her life, she not only evangelized the five mountain ranges she and Jesse had planned, but added two more and built missions within all of them.
Granny Brand proclaimed Christ wherever she went, even while in the hospital with a broken hip. When she couldn’t walk easily because of broken and misrepaired bones, she used two canes and continued working, all the while exclaiming “Praise God!” When her son traveled to India to visit her, he found her looking younger than ever. She told him that she let everything else in her life fall away except love … that was how to grow old.
She died in 1974 after spending 24 years in the mission field following a declaration that she was too old.
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