We are happy to present to you Rev. Paul Brown and his family who are going to South America in January as our new missionaries. We were shocked when we learned they were going, but that shock rebounded. Why should they not go to South America? A tremendous sacrifice? Yes, Paul is pastor of one of our leading churches. He is also president of the Board of Christian Education and instrumental in its far-reaching program. He is definitely among the recognized leaders of our Church. Mattie Ree is a wonderful little mother and a great worker in the local church. Their three children are four, six, and eight years old. It is a sacrifice.

Christianity itself is a sacrifice, but a joyous one. The world was peopled for a definite purpose. That purpose has been somewhat thwarted and God's kingdom has not been allowed to come nor His will to be done upon earth as it is in heaven. God has repeatedly broken man's distorted efforts, and always at the price of personal sacrifices on the part of consecrated souls who were willing instruments in His hands. The acme of such sacrifices was joyously made by Jesus Himself. Who ever opined that those who carry the message of Christ must not make and be living sacrifices! God has always arrested the attention of the world through great souls who could make the greatest sacrifices. Always He has brought it a bit closer to Him by pulling it from its philosophy that inevitably leads to greed and war, by means of souls willing to be used by Him.

Brother and Mrs. Brown's going will call for a deeper consecration in the whole Church. We admit that we have been easy in Zion and slack in doing His work. From our very midst God has chosen a family of our most successful church workers. Their going is a greater sacrifice than many of us would be willing to make. They will have to unlearn many things they have been years in learning, and learn again from the point of view of those with whom they are to work. Brother Brown says, however, "It is no sacrifice when you do the thing you really want to do and the thing God wants you to do." Nevertheless, it jars us into a realization that the Lord has a work to do and that He does not find us very willing to do it lest it be too much personal "sacrifice"!

Brother and Mrs. Brown's going opens our eyes to the fact that god is calling for us to go out into the byways and hedges and compel people to come in. It has been easy for us to center all our attention on our local church. It has been easy for us to think of attending service on Sunday morning, contributing our dollar, going home or for a car ride for the rest of the day. Our Paul has brought us renewed consecration in his vision on his road to his Damascus. We feel the pull and the surge of the consecration that is now his and Mattie Ree's.

Below is a statement from them: "The decision to go to South America is in response to a spiritual experience occasioned by a re-discovery of the essential nature and price of the kingdom of God. The experience of revitalized spiritual life has been the main thing. The choice of field has been entirely the Lord's. Had He led differently the field might easily have been at some other point in the states, or the same from which we now go. With our family there is no doubt of the Lord's leadership throughout. We would not be human if we did not pray that this clear experience of faith in which we go may be the faith, too, of the Church which makes our going possible. Our immediate departure to South America is by no means as hurried as it may possibly seem to some. Our going is no immediate or temporary effort to satisfy an emergency. It is rather a settled conviction of work which has long been the Lord's will for us. Our going will exemplify fully and completely, we trust, a type of Christian life which we have preached to others. There is within our hearts calm, and joyous acceptance of this field for our future ministry."
                --Paul and Mattie Ree Brown.
[Source: The Cumberland Presbyterian, November 23, 1939, page 1]

REV. PAUL F. BROWN, 89, of Memphis, retired Cumberland Presbyterian minister, died Monday in Memphis after a long illness. Services will be at 11 a.m. Wednesday at Faith Cumberland Presbyterian Church with burial in Forest Hill Cemetery Midtown. Memphis Funeral Home Union Chapel has charge. He was a member of West Tennessee Presbytery and served as moderator of the General Assembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Rev. Brown, the widower of Mattie Ree Suddarth Brown, leaves a daughter, Betty R. Foster of Kerrville, Texas; two sons, Dr. Paul B. Brown and Rev. David A. Brown, both of Memphis; a sister, Ina Brown True of Lawton, Okla.; a brother, Frank A. Brown of Duncan, Okla., seven grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that any memorials be sent to Faith Cumberland Presbyterian Church.
[Source: The Commercial Appeal, January 11, 1994, A8]

Remember in Prayer:
The family and friends of the Rev. Paul F. Brown who passed away January 10, 1994, in Memphis, TN. Paul served the Cumberland Presbyterian Church many years in the pastorate, as a missionary to South America and he also served as moderator of the General Assembly in 1948. His funeral was January 12, at Faith Cumberland Presbyterian Church, Memphis, TN, with the Revs. Dr. Hubert Morrow, Joe Ben Irby and James Knight officiating.
[Source: The Cumberland Presbyterian, February 1994, page 11]