(Jan. 30, 2014 - by Harold Goerzen) If there’s one term that characterized the life of longtime missionary retiree Grace Rowley Schmucker, it was “soul-winner.”

Always smiling, her countenance reflecting the love of Christ whom she accepted as a child, Grace led hundreds—perhaps thousands—to Christ in her 78 years of life. She never stopped talking about Jesus, whether it was holding evangelistic meetings on the streets of Quito, Ecuador, as a missionary with HCJB Global (now Reach Beyond) or sharing with the nurses who attended to her needs in her final days. She died in O’Fallon, Mo., on Wednesday, Jan. 1, after a few years of declining health.

“Even in her last hospital stay while she was in excruciating pain, when the nurses or visitors asked her how she was doing she always said, ‘I’m OK,’” related her son Sam Rowley Jr. “Then with no exception she would turn and ask them how they and their families were doing and then proceed to tell them about Jesus.”

Grace was born to Herman and Helen Wood in St. Louis, Mo., on Nov. 22, 1935, and grew up in the St. Louis area, the second oldest of 12 children. Although she wasn’t reared in a Christian home, her love of sports got her involved in church because she wasn’t allowed to play on church teams unless she attended church. Her Sunday school teacher led her to Christ at a young age, and it wasn’t long before she began showing a keen interest in missions.

Her calling to the mission field was reconfirmed while attending Moody Bible Institute in Chicago and then Sterling College in Kansas where she completed a bachelor’s degree in education in 1958. At college she loved getting involved in ministries where she told people about Jesus.

Grace met classmate Sam Rowley at Sterling, and they were married on May 30, 1958. Sam and Grace both received the college’s Alumni Citation Award in 1980. She later continued her education, completing a master’s degree in education from Azusa Pacific University in California in 1983.

As a newlywed, Grace worked as an elementary schoolteacher in Chicago and served as a secretary at Slavic Gospel Association. Sam, an engineer, was an instructor at DeVry Technical Institute in Chicago and Wheaton Christian Grammar School. He also studied at Moody, majoring in missionary radio and communications.

The Rowleys’ background in engineering, education and Bible prepared them well for their 40-year missionary career with Reach Beyond. They joined the ministry in 1963, studying Spanish for a year in Costa Rica before arriving in Ecuador in April 1964.

Their first assignment was in Papallacta where Sam worked in power line construction. The Rowleys also taught Sunday school and served at a birthing clinic in nearby Pifo, helped start churches in Puembo and Tumbaco, and took part in evangelistic outreaches to remote areas of the country.

In 1968 the Rowleys moved to Quito where Sam directed the Engineering Department. Grace served in areas such as the English and Spanish language services, communications, the Bible Institute of the Air and the Alliance Academy, a school for children of missionaries.

A gifted coach, Grace led the girls’ basketball teams at both the Alliance Academy and Colegio Anderson, a high school in Quito. She is known for taking the last-place team from Colegio Anderson and transforming it into a city championship team in just one year. “Through that ministry many girls came to know the Lord,” Sam Jr. added. “One of the girls is now married, and she and her husband are serving as missionaries in Spain.”

After hours, the Rowleys were equally busy helping in women’s prison ministries, assisting with child evangelism, teaching Sunday school at English Fellowship Church, leading Bible studies both at home and through Camino de la Luz (Path of Light), and even doing a beach ministry during their vacations. As retiree Tom Fulghum put it, Grace led “scores of people to Christ.”

“I’m thankful that the mission allowed me to help at the station, yet have time to minister to the people, telling them of Christ, bringing them to the Savior, helping them get into studying God’s Word and seeing the Holy Spirit work in their lives,” Grace said in an interview several years ago. “The greatest joy is to know Him and to make Him known.”

In 1988 the Rowleys were transferred to the HCJB Global Technology Center in Elkhart, Ind., where Sam, who died on Oct. 18, 2003, focused on “radio planting,” working with local partners to establish local Christian radio ministries, especially in Latin America and Papua New Guinea.

“They always had a deep love for the people with whom they worked, and they had a great willingness to adapt to whatever situation they faced,” said Technology Center Director David Russell. “For me it was a privilege to spend time with the Rowleys when they were in Papua New Guinea and see how the people loved and honored Sam in deep appreciation for his help in the local radio ministry.”

Grace retired from Reach Beyond at the end of 2003, and nearly three years later she married Don Schmucker, a former Youth for Christ missionary, on Sept. 9, 2006, at Memorial Presbyterian Church in St. Louis. This was a congregation that had supported the Rowleys throughout their career with Reach Beyond.

“After Don and my mom got married the work did not stop,” explained Sam Jr. They both went on numerous mission trips to the Matamoros, Mexico, area across the border from Brownsville, Texas, where Inspiracom, one of Reach Beyond’s cooperating ministries, operates KBNR-FM.

“The church I attend in St. Louis is very active in that area, and I was blessed to have my mom along on many of those trips,” Sam Jr. added. “Our pastor and so many others in my church referred to her as a ‘soul-winning machine,’ always listening and then telling whomever she was talking to about Jesus!”

Grace and Don also went on mission trips to Honduras, Belize and Brazil, working with local churches to witness to local residents, including street kids and children in the slums around São Paulo, reaching thousands with the gospel message.

In addition, they were involved in Bible studies, Sunday school groups and various stateside mission trips, reaching out to poor areas of Colorado and helping with vacation Bible schools near Springfield and Branson, Mo.

“My mom did not let too much slow her down, and her biggest frustration was all the surgeries in the past several years that sidelined her from going on more mission trips,” Sam Jr. said. “Her attitude was that wherever she was, the Lord had somebody whom He wanted her to tell about Him, and she did!”

The day before her death, Grace talked with her children and grandchildren, counseling them to live the rest of their lives for Jesus. “She still had the strength to speak, often with great difficulty, with many relatives and friends,” Don shared. “When I told her again that I loved her, she responded with a strong, ‘I love you, too, Don.’ We also shared about several other things we have enjoyed in these short seven years that I will cherish forever.”

“Grace loved the Lord and shared Him with everyone she possibly could,” added missionary retiree Susie Lind. “She leaves a great legacy behind.”

In addition to her husband, Grace is survived by four children, Carol Sue, Sam Jr., Steve and Shari, as well as seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. A memorial service was held on Saturday, Jan. 4, at the Baue Funeral and Memorial Center in Saint Charles, Mo. The family has asked that memorial gifts be made to Reach Beyond.