November 13, 2000
Friend to missionaries dies
___By Brittany Jarvis
___SBC International Mission Board
___RICHMOND, Va. (BP)--A Texas Baptist known as a pen-pal and prayer partner for missionaries has died, leaving a significant loss in the missions support system.
___Missionaries all over the world received written cards from Clarence Richardson of Athens every year on their birthday just to remind them that someone was praying for them and their ministry.
___He continued his letter-writing campaign for decades and influenced innumerable missionaries.
___Bob Tucker, an emeritus International Mission Board missionary, is now the minister of missions at First Baptist Church of Athens, the same church where Richardson was a member.
___While serving as a missionary, Tucker traveled quite a bit to meet with missionaries in other countries.
___"Every time I went somewhere and told people where I was from, people would say, 'Do you know Clarence Richardson?'" Tucker said. The missionaries were grateful and surprised to receive birthday cards from someone they had not met, he said.
___Tucker also was a recipient of Richardson's prayers and cards.
___"It is a meaningful thing to get a card on your birthday," Tucker said. Richardson always knew how to time the cards just right so missionaries would receive them on their birthday, Tucker said.
___"It's very important (to get birthday cards), especially if it's from somebody you know," said Robert Davis, a former IMB missionary and Richardson admirer. "It's one thing to get one from somebody who just sends it once time in a lifetime. But a person who consistently writes to you through the years, that person becomes a real friend."
___Richardson spent his own money, either salary or retirement funds, to pay for cards and stamps.
___"He was not a wealthy person at all," Davis said, "but he made it a priority."
___Within his birthday cards, Richardson would list a special characteristic, such as joy or good judgment, that he was praying for the missionary. He would ask the missionary to write back if he or she experienced the gift for which he prayed.
___Richardson's love for missions spilled over into other ministry areas. Tucker and Davis both remember attending Royal Ambassadors, a missions education program for boys, as children and listening to Richardson teach. In church, many considered him the spiritual conscience who would remind members of the importance of missions.
___"He was the only guy I knew who wanted to join WMU," Tucker said. Woman's Missionary Union, or WMU, is a missions education program for Southern Baptist women.
___Richardson's legacy continued even during his memorial service. At the end of the service, friends and family gathered outside to watch dozens of balloons float away. Each balloon bore the name of a missionary who was celebrating his or her birthday on that day.
___"We need more people like him," Davis said.
___Since Richardson's death, three members of First Baptist of Athens have approached Tucker about continuing Richardson's ministry to missionaries, Tucker said.
___"His greatest achievement in life was that he was the guy who prayed for missionaries," he said.
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