Dios es Amor It seems your publication isn't ready to go worldw | Page 142

Called By God
In about 1907 the family was appointed to missionary work in South Africa.
There the head of the household suffered sunstroke on a trip among the villages,
leaving his widow, three teen-age sons, and a young brother not much more than
an infant. Helen Mae took up the burden gallantly, teaching, preaching, consigning
her boys to boarding school and the toddler to the care of a Zulu girl… .
By 1914 when war seemed inevitable, the family returned to the States… .
As a new bride, I was decidedly an amateur in the kitchen, and my husband
[Lewis] used to wonder why I worried so about planning menus and preparing
meals. Eventually I learned that his mother had a set formula for food: she knew
how best to shop for and cook certain foods, and she stuck to these dishes! …
Very few women could have lived and worked as she did… .
Much success in your enterprise!
Katherine D. Williams
St. Joseph, MI
Documents Concerning the Life and Work of Minnie Sype (chapter 2)
2.1 Letter from Elder W. A. Howe, Hendersonville, N.C., to the writer, August 5, 1989

Dear friend Josephine:
… About Mrs. Sype, I had to have been somewhere between six and 10 years
old when I well remember her visiting the Des Moines, Iowa, church on several
occasions and doing the speaking. She was—even to me a child—a very interesting
and pleasant speaker. She smiled a great deal and was always treated like one of the
family by the Des Moines church members… .
I went back to Iowa as an intern, and I remember old time workers at that time
who had worked with her saying she had been voted ordination by the Iowa
Conference but had refused it. I don’t ever recall having heard her rationale… .
Rather than being considered unusual to have a woman preacher, we kids were
always tickled to death to have her. She was very interesting and seemed to love
people, kids in particular. I recall no fuss about her being a woman; she just took
the pulpit like any of the male preachers and always gave a good message.…
I never heard what her official capacity was in the conference, but she was indeed
recognized as someone from the power structure.(Minnie Sype was home missionary
secretary for the Iowa Conference.)
Very best to you,
Walt
W. A. Howe

142