News at ABWE
Dorothy Rose Adams with the Lord
(December 31, 1946 – March 18, 2007)
After a fight with Alzheimer’s disease, Dorothy Rose Adams went to be home with her Lord on March 18, 2007. Throughout her more than twenty-five years of ministry at our hospital in Bangladesh, Dorothy Adams lived a sweet, consistent, and compelling testimony before her missionary colleagues and her national friends and patients.
Dorothy’s life was eternally changed in October 1966 as a senior nursing student in Nebraska. There, though a religious young woman, she attended Bible classes taught by her nursing professors and realized that she needed to be born again. Her life was never the same!
Dorothy attended Faith Baptist Bible College where she was challenged to use her life in medical evangelism in Bangladesh. She was appointed for missionary service in Bangladesh in August of 1973. After language study, she began her ministry at the hospital. Her quiet and loving demeanor won the hearts of her patients and gave her an effective witness to them. The Lord gave Dorothy a genuine love for the Bengali and tribal people. One of her greatest joys was teaching God’s Word to the tribal women.
Dorothy, along with her colleagues, faced many challenges: natural disasters such as cyclones, tidal waves and floods, strong opposition to the message of the gospel, including threats of violence and frequent government upheavals and restrictions on their ministry. Through it all, she maintained a gracious, poised spirit, which greatly encouraged her national brethren.
In December 2000, Dorothy returned to the United States for a medical evaluation, and it was determined that she had an Alzheimer-like condition. In early 2001, she returned to Bangladesh for the last time to say her tearful “goodbye” to missionary and national colleagues.
Dorothy’s life and testimony can be summed up by the request in a familiar chorus: “Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me.” Psalm 116 seems to sum up much that Dorothy faced the last few years of her life. Verse 15 brings her challenge to a culmination in God’s mercy: “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints.”
On behalf of the Board, Administration and ABWE missionary family, we thank the Lord upon every remembrance of this dedicated woman who has now entered the very presence of her Lord and has heard Him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant…enter into the joy of thy Lord.”
Grateful for her dedicated service to Christ,
Michael G. Loftis, D.D., D.R.E.
ABWE President
Memorial Service
Saturday, March 24, at 10 a.m.
Iles Funeral Homes-Grandview Park Chapel
Burial in Oakwood Cemetery, Pleasant Hills, Iowa