Beulah Marjorie Hall was born in Salem, Ohio, on January 23, 1932, in the home of Lindley Hall and Orpha (Pike) Hall. This honest, hard-working Quaker family was made up of the parents and three older siblings—Evelyn, Raymond, and Mildred. An adopted sister named Betty became part of the family when Marjorie was nine years old.

Although Marjorie was born during the Great Depression, the Hall family were better off than many Americans during that time, for they were living on a farm. They had a large vegetable garden, and Mother was a very careful housewife who knew how to make a few pennies go a very long way by canning produce from the garden and selling what the family did not use for themselves. The Hall family never went hungry as some families did at that time although shoes and new clothing were a much bigger problem. Mother’s careful washing and mending kept the family decently clothed.

When Marjorie was seven years old, Father was convicted of his sin by the Holy Spirit. He pulled his truck to the side of the road one day when the load of sin was too heavy to bear. As he knelt there beside the truck, God spoke peace to his soul and gave him the assurance that all his sins were forgiven. He began searching for a church where he could find food for his soul. Through a tent meeting held in East Palestine during the summer of 1939, he came in contact with Christians from the Emmanuel Association. He felt that God was leading him and his family to join that group, and a church was formed in Salem.

After Marjorie finished high school in the Salem Bible School, she went to Colorado Springs, Colorado, to attend the People’s Bible College. Her college days were a happy time for her, and she had many beautiful memories later in her life about that time. She also made many lifelong friends during those years.

After receiving her Bachelor of Arts in Education degree, Marjorie was asked to teach in several of the day schools associated with the churches of the Emmanuel Association. She enjoyed teaching and had a lot of fun with her students. One time the pastor’s wife taped a hand-lettered sign to the schoolroom door “The Giggle Box.”

In spite of enjoying her teaching, Marjorie kept feeling the call of God to mission work. The Lord finally opened the door for her to go to Guatemala as a missionary. She spent more than twenty years there extremely busy with many tasks--learning Spanish, teaching missionary children, teaching students in the Bible School, doing mission bookkeeping, giving music lessons, and purchasing the large quantities of groceries that were needed for the Bible School as well as the multitude of other tasks that fill a missionary’s life.

Finally duty called her back to the United States as her aged, widowed mother began to need care. She spent some time in Salem at home with Mother; but after a couple of years, Mother needed skilled nursing care. When Marjorie was free again from family duties, the Bible School in Logansport, Indiana, requested her services as a teacher. She accepted the call, and she gave her time to the school until the Emmanuel Association opened up a mission work in Bolivia. Marjorie was asked to become a member of the pioneer group going to work in South America, and she responded joyfully.

For more than twenty years she devoted herself to the missionary work in Bolivia. Once again her days were filled with the many duties of holding services, teaching, and more ordinary tasks of mission life. Her love for the Bolivian people endeared her to them. But the hard work as well as living at very high altitude for such a long time in the unsanitary conditions all around finally took their toll on her health. After a debilitating bout with hepatitis that threatened her life, it became necessary to retire to the United States. Marjorie felt that her life was at an end when she had to return from Bolivia, but God had other things for her to do.

The church in Herndon, Pennsylvania, had no pastor at that time; and she was asked to fill the place. She loved the church and the people there in Pennsylvania. She reached out to people in the community, and drove (sometimes a little too fast!) along the hilly roads in the area. But age was creeping up on Marjorie, and it became necessary for her to retire.

She chose her birthplace of Salem, Ohio, for her retirement home. Her niece Judy who lives in the area was able to find an apartment that met her needs perfectly. Once again, Marjorie was able to reach out to others in the apartment building where she lived and to Hispanic children living in rented houses a few blocks away. So long as she could give of herself to others and tell them about Jesus, she was contented.

In 2017 she became very ill. After testing, the cardiologist told her that her heart was worn out and that she had only six months to live at the longest. She was too weak to care for herself; so it became necessary to find a place that provided skilled medical care. God opened the door for her to be admitted to Copeland Oaks, Crandall Medical Center.

Many people might have given up and just waited to die. However, after regaining her strength a little, Marjorie was off again in her new mission field, trying to bring Jesus and hope to the residents around her. For nine years the Lord allowed her to minister to those around her reading the Bible to some, playing the piano for those who enjoyed singing the old hymns, and testifying to anyone who was willing to listen. Even when she became too weak to walk to other rooms, a friend would push her around in a wheelchair passing out Sunday School papers to those who enjoyed reading them.

Approximately three weeks before her passing, Marjorie’s hearing aid stopped working. Without it she could hear almost nothing, unless someone put a set of headphones on her and spoke directly into the microphone. We can hardly imagine the complete silence that must have enveloped her, but even then Jesus was with her. She told her pastor shortly before her death that she just wanted to see Jesus. Early on the morning of June 19th, her desire was fulfilled when she heard the call to come up higher. Just think of stepping away from earthly pain and complete silence into the glory of the presence of Jesus where she can hear every word that He says and every note of the songs sung by Heaven’s choir.

Marjorie was preceded in death by her parents and all of her siblings except Betty who lives in Salem, Ohio. She leaves behind eight nieces and nephews and many, many friends in Bolivia and Guatemala.