Supported Missionaries
Don Donell - Argentina
Don Donell began his life reared on a chicken and cattle farm in northwest Arkansas.
He learned the value of a close family and hard work. Like many in his small rural community
he attended the local Baptist church with his family. His father and mother, as well as their
fathers and mothers, were Christians. They valued the Scriptures and were burdened for the
souls of each of their four children. Don, like many in his day, made a profession of faith
as a child under the influence of the “easy-believism” that is a substitute for the gospel
in many churches. It was not, however, until he was faced with the testimony of a godly young
pastor, who in God’s providence came to his home church, that he saw the reality of faith in
the life of one truly born again and heard the gospel preached from a heart aflame with its
truth. Convicted by what he saw and heard, Don was truly converted at the age of 17, and was
impressed even then, that the ministry would be his calling.
He attended Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Missouri, with a hunger for the word
of God and a longing to become fully prepared for the ministry. After his first year there
he married his high school sweetheart from his hometown. Gail had also become a Christian
the previous year, and though they were only nineteen years of age, believed that the Lord
had graciously brought their lives together for ministry and service in his kingdom. It was
while in college that the Lord led them both to embrace the reformed faith, evangelism and
preaching. The reality that the Lord had “a people” began to turn their hearts toward missions
with a desire to preach the gospel and see His elect called out and Christ’s atonement for them glorified.
Don attended seminary for a year at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. God
graciously began to add children to their family. Their first daughter, Rachel, was born in 1979 and in 1982,
a son, Ryan. Don was the pastor of a Southern Baptist Church in Oklahoma from 1982-1984 where he faithfully
taught the Reformed faith in the face of much adversity and traditionalism resulting in his dismissal. It was
after this that their third child, Amy, was born and they moved to Tanglewood Baptist Church in Sand Springs,
Oklahoma, once again in secular employment. In this reformed Baptist church, Don soon became an Elder and later,
co-pastor. While there, Rachel and Ryan were converted, and the desire in Don and Gail deepened for missionary
service, though it seemed no door was yet open to them.
While in secular employment, Don had many opportunities to minister to people; none so profoundly affected him
as that which God provided to several Latino young men. Convinced more than ever of a call to missions, he was unsure
as to the place that God would send him, but these relationships and opportunities, in God’s providence, began to
burden his heart for the people of Latin America. This was a burden yet unfulfilled.
In 1994 the Donell’s moved to Greenville, South Carolina with his job and soon became members of Grace Baptist
Church, Taylors. This was a blessed time in their lives as they saw there youngest daughter, Amy, converted. Also,
Don served in the congregation, first as a deacon and then as an elder. Then in 1997, while attending as a messenger
to the Reformed Baptist Missions Services convention in Mesa, AZ, Don heard an appeal via a letter from a missionary
of 24 years in Argentina for reformed Baptist pastors to come and plant churches and train men there. It was then that
the burden of his heart was fixed upon Argentina. After twenty years of perseverance and preparation, on April 19, 2000,
Don was commissioned to missionary work in Argentina as a church planter.
After the addition of another son, Ian, and following the marriage of their oldest daughter, Don, Gail, Ryan, Amy
and Ian moved to Costa Rica for one year of Spanish language training. On the morning of September 11,2001 the Donell´s
arrived in Buenos Aires to further their language and cultural adjustment as well as begin to make inquiry as to where
they might begin a church planting endeavor. After ten months the Spirit of God directed them to the interior of
Argentina, 750 km west of Buenos Aires, to Cordoba province and the city of Villa Carlos Paz. After moving to their
third home in three years in June 2002, by the following December, they began to meet as “Misión de la Gracia” with
eight people in attendance. By the following Easter, the Lord had given them their first Argentine soul to be baptized
a disciple of Jesus Christ. Now, following the departure of Ryan and Amy to attend college in the states,
they continue with church planting and a free book distribution ministry to more than 70 pastors in Cordoba
and Buenos Aires province.
|
|
