In November 1992, a 79-year-old preacher and his 77-year-old wife drove from Greenville, South Carolina, to Courtenay, British Columbia. It was quite the trip for a supposedly retired man with a catalog of health problems. But a little church on Vancouver Island needed a pastor, and Marvin Lewis “just could not say no.” What was a 3,000-mile drive with a blizzard or two along the way?
Called to Preach
Lewis was a farm boy from Alabama. A 1936 graduate of Bob Jones College, he served as an evangelist, radio preacher and part-time pastor before his ministry as director of religious activities at Bob Jones University (1953–79) and director of missions at Gospel Fellowship Association (1979–90). He had preached since his student days and six decades later was not about to quit, his friends’ concerns about his health notwithstanding.
Helping the Church
The Lewises already knew the church, Grace Baptist Church in Courtenay — previously Comox Valley Bible Church. Its first two pastors were some of their own GFA missionaries, and Lewis had preached there in 1984. When GFA field representative John Dreisbach relayed the call from the church, the Lewises were happy to go.
Living in a rented trailer for three and a half months, Lewis conducted Sunday morning services in a rented hall. According to Lewis, it was “a building high on a hill, a breathtaking view all around of farmland and the valley and the shores of Comox Bay.” Sunday evening services and Wednesday prayer meetings, however, were held in homes. He preached regularly, encouraged the church in its support for missions and left after a new pastor was called.
The Lewises’ stay in the Comox Valley was brief, but they provided vital support at a time when the church needed help. Their few months of ministry continue to bear fruit today.
Service for Life
In his autobiography, From This High Hill, Marvin Lewis describes Bob Jones Sr. as “that evangelist with fire in his eyes and with love and zeal in his heart, just ready to jump up when the time came for him to preach.” Lewis was very much an alumnus of Jones’ school: he shared the same zeal for preaching. Retirement was not about relaxing and enjoying himself. Christian service never ends, and when the Lord’s call comes, the minister answers it.
His wife felt the same way. After supporting her husband for nearly 57 years, Dorothy Lewis survived him 20 more, passing in 2018 at the age of 103. (At 99 she told me she hoped she would never make it to 100; it sounded so old.) Right up to the end of her life, Mrs. Lewis faithfully prayed for the Lord’s work around the world, including the church in Canada where she spent the winter of 1992–93. Only death ended her ministry.
Her husband had closed his memoirs with Psalm 90:17: “Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.”
“We are not here forever,” he commented. The Lord has work for His people to do, and they must make the most of the time He gives them. Marvin and Dorothy Lewis are examples of the Lord’s beauty in the lives of faithful servants. Who else will follow them?
