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Three Tribes BLESSED Slocum for Her Faithful Ministry

MARIANNE SLOCUM met Bill Bentley in 1940 at Camp Wycliffe in Arkansas. Twenty-two-year-old Slocum had recently committed to serving as a missionary. Bentley, four years her senior, had already spent two years in southern Mexico where he had made headway among reserved Tzeltal Indians and was translating the Gospel of John. Slocum liked Bentley but he barely seemed to notice her.

Training done, Slocum went directly to Mexico where she began language study among the Chol people with her coworker Evelyn Woodward. Bentley, in his role of regional manager, helped the pair find a home. Although even short treks left him overly tired, he walked to check on them more often than necessary. Early the next year he proposed to Slocum. They set a wedding date for August in her native Pennsylvania.

As they traveled north, Bentley rejoiced because the unfriendly Bachajon Tzeltals had finally invited him to work among them. When an American suggested Bentley could make a better living in the United States than in Mexico, he replied, “I’m not interested in merely making a living, I want to make a life!” Around that time, Bentley also reminded Slocum that if God required it, she must be ready to give him up.

The week before their wedding date, the pair attended a Keswick conference in New Jersey where Bentley spoke on the needs of the lost. After sight-seeing in New York, Slocum and Bentley had to run to catch their train back to Pennsylvania. The next morning Bentley was late for breakfast. Thinking he had overslept, Slocum’s father went upstairs to wake him so they would not be late for church. But Bentley’s faulty heart had given out.

Later that afternoon the grieving Slocum spoke with Cameron Townsend, founder of Wycliffe mission. She asked if she could take over Bentley’s work among the Tzeltals. He agreed. But the Bachajon people had changed their minds and wanted nothing to do with the mission. Slocum settled among the highland Tzeltals at Yochib. Despite frequent interruptions, she studied their language. She was trying to meet medical needs, show hospitality, and keep up other duties at her outpost.

Three years later Florence Gerdel, a nurse, joined her. The pair were able to help many suffering Tzeltal as much by prayer as by medication; and Slocum was able to devote more time to language study.

One night, Juan Mucha, a Tzeltal from Corralito, arrived at Yochib. “I have heard that God speaks in a book,” he said. “Is that true?” Once the gospel was explained to him, he believed and became a powerful evangelist among his own people. Despite fierce opposition from traditionalists, Corralito soon had a flourishing congregation. At great sacrifice, its impoverished Christians erected a church building.

But shortly before Easter, on this day, 25 March 1951, enemies set fire to the church. At great danger to themselves, the Christians rescued what they could from the inferno. Trusting the Lord to meet their needs, they dug deep into their already depleted resources and rebuilt with a metal roof, completing the new building in time for a civil marriage ceremony of 225 couples in August that year. (Mexico only recognizes civil marriages as legally valid.)

In 1956, Slocum completed the translation of the Bible into the highland dialect of Tzeltal. Later the Bachajon people had a change of heart and invited Slocum and Gerdel to work among them. Slocum completed translation of the New Testament into their dialect by 1963. The following year, she and Gerdel began work among the Paez Indians of Colombia, again translating the Bible and meeting medical needs.

In addition to her other work, Slocum published papers on linguistics and anthropology—studies of tribal mores and transcription of local myths. For their part, Tzeltal Christians spread the gospel widely, developed schools, and learned to run their own medical clinics. Several died as martyrs for their faith.

—Dan Graves

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