PAUL ARTHUR ERDEL

12 December 1927-13 December 2024

Paul Arthur Erdel was born on a family farm in Clinton Co., Indiana, on 12 Dec. 1927 and died peacefully in Mishawaka, Indiana, on 13 Dec. 2024, age 97. His life of humble service included global leadership; but he wanted to be remembered primarily as an evangelical missionary to Esmeraldas, Ecuador, who followed the call of his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Paul was preceded in death by his parents, George W Erdel and Bessie M. (Glick) Erdel, by his first wife, Chloetta E. (Egly) Erdel, by his sister, Julia E. (Erdel) Farley, and by two infant great-grandchildren. He is survived by his second wife, Ruth F. (Deyneka Shalanko) Erdel, by his four living children, Timothy (Sally) Erdel, David (Laura) Erdel, John (Lorena) Erdel, and Ruth (Tim) Stuck, by 12 grandchildren, and by 14 great-grandchildren, as well as by two stepchildren, John (Maria) Shalanko and Lydia Shalanko, by three step grandchildren, by two step great-grandchildren, and by many extended family members, especially on the Egly side.

Paul was a small but precocious child who begged to start school a year early.  He won a statewide 4-H insect identification contest at Purdue University as a teen, and he graduated as valedictorian of both his Stockwell HS and his Fort Wayne Bible Institute (FWBI) classes, taking further degrees at Taylor University, Indiana University, and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, while also studying at Purdue, Ball State, St. Francis (Ft. Wayne), Winona Lake School of Theology, and Jerusalem University College. Work as a “Seagoing Cowboy,” taking farm animals to Kalámai (Kalamata), Greece, under the combined post-WWII relief efforts of the United Nations, the Church of the Brethren, and the US Merchant Marine, proved formative. An energetic walker who played pickup basketball into his 70s, Paul was his high school and college ping-pong champion.

He married Chloetta in 1950, and theirs was an unusually gifted partnership in ministry for 40 years. She was a direct descendent of the 19th century Amish Bishop Henry Egly, the valedictorian of her Monroe HS and FWBI classes, and the first person to earn a degree from FWBI. By the age of 23, Paul was concurrently an Indiana school principal, an athletic director, and a full-time teacher, as well as helping pastor a circuit of six rural Presbyterian congregations in the Martin M. Post Memorial Parish. Paul & Chloetta both held life licenses as Indiana school teachers and were licensed for ministry with what is now the Missionary Church. They became career missionaries to Esmeraldas, Ecuador, in 1953, where Paul served until 1998. There he founded a short-term Bible institute that became El Seminario Bíblico del Pacífico and a Christian school, Luz y Libertad, that would swell to over a thousand students, a model for others with the same name; and he helped plant some 60 congregations with La Iglesia Evangélica Misionera Ecuatoriana. He loved doing rural evangelism, sometimes trekking for days or weeks.

In 1960 he was unexpectedly and in absentia elected president of the Inter-Mission Fellowship in Ecuador. In 1965 he was called to lead the global ministries of the Missionary Church Association, then of its successor, the Missionary Church, a mission today known as World Partners, a name he suggested. He was the youngest (and last living) major architect of the denominational merger that gave rise to the Missionary Church in 1969. After eight years of global leadership, he resigned to return to his first love, front-line mission work in Ecuador.

A strong advocate for Christian higher education, at various times Paul led three different Spanish language Bible institutes; and he taught at eight institutions of higher education in four countries. Many students, some later famous, others not, called him the best teacher they ever had.

Among numerous honors, the Taylor University alumni magazine once put Paul on its cover as the model of a servant leader, and Bethel University, Indiana, made him an honorary alumnus.  The Confraternidad Evangélica Ecuatoriana (CEE) recognized Paul repeatedly, and he was the sole North American invited to speak at a great three-day CEE gathering in 1996 that celebrated the centennial of an ongoing evangelical witness in Ecuador. Although he had spoken thousands of times in hundreds of venues, he considered this the greatest honor of his life. When the fabled Waorani, Mincaye, was introduced to Paul in 2002, Mincaye immediately took his jungle boar’s tooth necklace from around his own neck put it on Paul’s—one grizzled old warrior (physical, then spiritual) instinctively paid tribute to another old warrior (spiritual).

In 1996 Paul married Ruth, a missionary widow with a former global radio ministry in Russian, Spanish, and English from HCJB in Quito, Ecuador. She is the remarkable subject of a biography by Eric (a British astrophysicist) & Gillian Barrett. Paul loved each of his wives deeply.

In retirement Paul personally led Bethel University’s semester abroad study program in Ecuador for eight years, continued occasional teaching at Bethel and elsewhere, and encouraged Missionary Church Latino pastors working in the Michiana area. At the urging of his oldest son, he wrote a three-volume autobiography. Throughout his entire adult life Paul was known for his loving kindness, his shrewd insights, his humorous stories, his selfless hard work, his ability to encourage others, and his enduring hope in the face of many obstacles. He loved to quote William Carey, “The future is as bright as the promises of God!”

               The family would like to thank those who helped with Paul’s care as he slowly lost his memory, especially his wife, Ruth, friends and neighbors, and finally, Home Instead helpers. Palmer Funeral Homes (River Park Chapel) is facilitating arrangements. There will be a visitation at St. Mark Missionary Church, Mishawaka, Indiana, on Saturday, 21 December 2024, at noon, followed by a memorial service at 2 pm. There will be an internment at the M.R.E. Cemetery outside Berne, Indiana, at a later date. Donations to Bethel University, Indiana, or to World Partners of the Missionary Church are encouraged in lieu of flowers.