When I first began attending Lansdowne Baptist Church Trevor and Rona Locke were legends. As pioneer missionaries in India they were supported by the church. We sent them about £5000 a year. With that they supported themselves, their young son Justin, and about six other workers. They were translators. Trevor used to visit tribal peoples committing their languages to tape. Rona, the librarian, kept countless records on file cards (no computers in those days) and together they would transliterate the spoken languages and provide a written form so that reading primers and the Scripture could be provided for these native peoples. Together they were in much demand, not just as missionary speakers, but as the greatest experts in indigenous Indian languages.
Their son was a fine young boy. I remember the church bought him a bicycle when he was 13. He had already had a bike, but seeing a local pastor without one, he had given him his. He grew into a fine young man who married and had two children. A few years ago he lost his life while trying to rescue a drowning friend.
When Trevor and Rona returned from the mission field they could not afford to live in Bournemouth, but settled in Sheffield where house prices are cheaper. Here they began an outreach to Moslems. Trevor suffered a heart attack in Sheffield and following that they returned to their sending church here in Bournemouth.
In their latter years they remained active in the church and Trevor continued to visit the local mosque where his gentle and winning manner was accepted as he tried to win Moslems for Christ. Recently, Rona has suffered a series of strokes, which left her frustrated and she began to find it difficult to communicate. She died this morning. Even now she will be welcomed in heaven. Well done, good and faithful servant!
We live in Sheffield and enjoyed fellowship with Trevor and Rona for many years. We were part of a small group who met every Friday evening, to pray for Muslims. We were very sad to hear of Rona's death a couple of years ago, and I was very surprised tonight, as I was reading through your blog of earlier years, to realise that you knew the Lockes too. It was good to be reminded of them... such very special people.
ReplyDeleteDear Dr Hamblin, as i said in my previous msg this is about Trevor Locke...pls refresh his memory by informing him that i was his neighbour on Lloyd's rd, Cooke town, B'lore...Thank you Sir.
ReplyDeletei remember Justin's mum's succinct & evenly-paced Tamil pronounced loudly & clearly(the first time i'd ever heard a foreigner speak Tamil) & she made a real effort to communicate. Not with myself, though, as my mum (being very enamoured with the British) taught me only English which remains the one language i use naturally. Wonder where the Locke's had their training in languages & how to deal with them...
ReplyDeleteWe were talking about them today. Rona was a very educated lady who spent many years in India. Trevor made many recording of Tamil speakers and I believe they were self-taught. They had attended couses on phonetics run by the Summer Institute of Linguistics of Wycliffe Bible Translators. But contact Trevor for more information.
ReplyDeleteyes Doc, i believe they were self-taught in the field mostly; when i first got to know them (as a boy of 5 in 1970) i think they didn't know the native languages - but 8-10 yrs later i found (i knew nothing of their activities - i was just Justin's friend) that Mrs Locke was quite easily conversing in basic Tamil(which is all i can manage even now) but with an English accent! They were both so dedicated to spend a quarter century or more in the service of the cause they believed in so far away from home - as so many have done...i read Pearl Buck's 'The Good Earth' just 10years ago though my mum had it in her collection those days...
ReplyDeleteTo share some memories - Aunty Rona taught Justin & me how to get stamps off envelopes & how to make paper-mache bowls...& she let me borrow any book(s) i liked as long as i wrote it down in her logbook(:-)have'nt we learnt the wisdom of that!) Trevor most gladly took Justin & me on half-a-day long excursions to the children's park for a movie or games, after that a picnic lunch (those days most adults ignored kids).
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