Last week I interviewed Southern Seminary donors Elaine and Darrell Cook for the next issue of Southern Seminary Magazine. They had a great story of obedience that I thought I'd share, what struck me most about the Cooks was their willingness to get out of their comfort zone and move to the other side of the word - at age 60...
...More than 30 years ago Elaine and Darrell Cook came to believe that giving is more than the act of writing and mailing a monthly check. Rather, they came to live by the idea that giving is a lifestyle.
A career executive in the business world, Darrell taught Sunday School in his Birmingham, Ala., church for 30 years and for the past eight years he has been a faithful member of the Southern Seminary Foundation Board.
“We have found that Southern Seminary has been a good place to invest our money,” Darrell said. “Over the years we have personally invested in several young men at the seminary and we’ve found that Southern is a great place to invest in for training Baptist pastors and missionaries.”
As a couple, the Cooks made it a priority to carve out time for short-term mission trips and have financially supported mission trips when possible.
In 2003, as Darrell approached age 60, the couple accepted an invitation to a three-day meeting of the International Mission Board (IMB). Throughout the meeting they heard accounts of missionaries across the world going to great lengths to share the Gospel with the lost. As they heard stories of achievements, they were also made aware of the need for additional IMB funding and manpower across the globe.
“Halfway through that meeting we heard that some missionaries were having to step away from their main focus to dedicate energy to some administrative tasks — and they needed to get back to their focus,” Darrell said in a 2007 Southern Seminary chapel service. “I looked at my wife and said, ‘I could do that job.’ From that time on we began to pray individually and together and the Lord clearly revealed that we needed to go. I was 60 years old! In a matter of months I took early retirement and we said goodbye to three beautiful daughters and three beautiful grandchildren and we were off to our orientation with the IMB in Richmond, Va.”
With no interest in a traditional “retirement”, the Cooks took part in the IMB’s Masters Program designed for those 50 years old or older with no dependent children who are available to make a two-or-three year commitment to serve overseas utilizing the maturity, skills and experience they have gained over their lifetime.
As orientation came to a close, the Cooks assumed they’d be doing some sort of administrative work overseas, but at the time there were none of those jobs available. An acquaintance challenged the Cooks to prayerfully consider church planting. Soon the Lord provided an opportunity for church planting and the Cooks headed overseas to serve the Tswana people of Rustenburg, South Africa.
“We spent six months in Rustenburg working with the people in the towns, villages and squatter camps,” Darrell recounted. “After about six months there was a need for an IMB treasurer in the big city of Johannesburg, South Africa. Since that was in my skill set, we took that job and moved to Johannesburg.”
In Johannesburg the Cooks observed the effects of extreme wealth and extreme poverty and the vast lostness of South Africa’s third largest city.
“In South Africa a lot of people think they are Christians – it is a cultural thing – but just like it is in America, cultural Christianity isn’t exactly biblical Christianity.”
As a treasurer for the IMB, Darrell related to 100 missionaries, taking care of their finances and fuel, rent and medical bills. Darrell’s night and weekend responsibilities brought him equal joy.
“The most exciting things was that on the weekends, for the last year and a half, I was the pastor of a very diverse local church,” Darrell said. “When I say diverse I mean Indians, Africans, refugees from Zimbabwe, even little grey-haired white ladies. We had a very meaningful job with the IMB but then we were involved in hands-on ministry in this suburban church.”
As the Cooks time in South Africa neared a close, Elaine encouraged her husband to consider enrolling in seminary once they returned to their Alabama home. The Cooks live only a short drive from Beeson Divinity School, on the campus of Birmingham’s Samford University.
“Within six months of us moving back to Birmingham I was a full-time student at Beeson Divinity School. And one of the exciting things was that within a year after that, I was called to pastor a small church just outside of Birmingham,” Darrell said.
For nearly a year Darrell, who is now approaching 70, has served as pastor of Dogwood Grove Baptist Church, located about an hour from the Cooks’ home, in Adger, Ala.
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