Couple credit divine help in half-century ministry

The Rev. Melvin Mabra, third from right, and his wife Carolyn pose with friends from Iowa during an Oct. 30 program at Cornerstone Baptist Church to celebrate their 50 years in the ministry. They will retire Dec. 31 in Nevada.

Retiring next month after 50 years, Dr. Melvin "Mel" and Carolyn Mabra look back on challenging careers of carrying Southern Baptist theology out of the South and helping start churches in Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri.

Natives of Corpus Christi, Texas, they're retiring from Cornerstone Baptist Church and staying in Nevada.

"There are little pitfalls and discouragements in every successful journey, but I never doubted my calling to the Lordship of Jesus Christ or my calling to preach the Gospel," said Mabra.

He was licensed to preach at the First Baptist Church of Belton, Mo., and was music and youth director at Palmcrest Baptist Church in his hometown while attending the University of Corpus Christi from 1961-64.

The couple was at Union Baptist Church in Norborne, Mo., and Little Platte Baptist Church in Edgerton, Mo., while Mabra worked on bachelor and master of divinity degrees and a master's of religious education at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City from 1964-68.

"The three types of messages are topical, story and expository and I'm an expository preacher, verse and Scripture," said Mel, who later took a doctorate at the seminary.

"I have preached through the Bible three times, picking and choosing through every book. My favorites are the Psalms, the Gospels of Matthew and John and especially Revelation. I happen to be pre-millennial and pre-tribulation.

"I'm certain that Christ is coming again and I expect Him in due time."

Contacted in Menominee, Mich., where their daughter, DeShea Morrow, is a county prosecutor, the Mabras said Nevada's temperate climate and their friendships with Baptist ministers and their wives and other Southwest Missourians will keep them here.

Their son Bill owns real state and computer businesses in Cancun, Quintana Roo, Mexico. They have five grandchildren.

Carolyn said their lives have been "a calling you can't do without the Lord enabling you.

"This year, there are a lot of hurting people in Nevada," she said. "It's not only the economy, a lot of issues are facing families. No matter who you are, the challenges in life cannot be tackled without the aid of the Holy Spirit in line with God's will."

They started, or "planted," Omaha's Terrace Drive Baptist Church in 1968 and from 1971 to 1988 saw Temple Baptist Church in Mason City, Iowa, make the transition from being a mission of the First Baptist Church in Springfield to independence.

Temple Baptist then "birthed a new church plant" with Northwood Baptist Church in Northwood, Mo., they said.

The couple spent 1988-95 at Camp Branch Baptist Church in Sedalia, Mo., while Mabra worked on his doctorate and they were at Nevada's Calvary Baptist Church from 1995 to 2002 with Mel as pastor and Carolyn as teacher and principal at the church's school.

They retired in 2002 but were called back into service to help establish Cornerstone in October 2002. "I first invited Christ as my Lord and Savior at age 6 at Meadow Park Baptist Church in Corpus Christi," Mabra said.

"At 13, I received the call for missions, and at 15, I was called to preach. Every time the doors were opened to the church, I was there."