Page 26 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2017 - Online Magazine
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Senior Senior
A Life Well-Lived
by Burke Bunyard
I had the pleasure church where a missionary speaker
of first meeting lit the way to the next chapter in their
Phil Langley on a lives. After hearing his story one Sunday
mission trip to Israel evening, Judy turned to Phil and said,
last March. Over “We can do that.” With that, the couple
the course of those applied to the Southern Baptist Foreign
ten days, I began to Mission Board and was appointed to the
develop a picture into poverty-stricken land of Rhodesia.
the heart he has for
both missions and At that time in Rhodesia (modern day
life in general. With Zimbabwe), there was no United States
great humility and a diplomatic presence due to the fact that
plethora of one-liners, the United Nations did not officially
we began to develop recognize them as an independent
a friendship, and nation. This became a predicament when
when the opportunity the Langleys had their second child,
presented itself for Jonathan, there and had to send all of
me to sit down and his credentials to the U.S. Embassy in
hear his story, I Malawi for a birth certificate. However,
happily accepted. despite the inconveniences of the land,
like finding snakes in the bathroom, the
Phil’s journey began in the Colony of Rhodesia became home. Phil
panhandle of Texas in 1942. added, “There are sixteen varieties of
Born and raised in Lubbock, poisonous snakes there, but I never knew
he eventually graduated from of a missionary or their child who was
Wayland Baptist University in bitten.”
Plainview, along with his wife,
Judy. The couple began their During the Zimbabwe years, Phil
careers teaching on the Navajo taught secondary English classes and
Indian reservation in Shiprock, mentored young leaders at a Bible school
New Mexico. Phil was early for pastors. Judy taught and wrote
drawn to different cultures, elementary curriculum. She established
having majored in sociology. a kindergarten in the village where dirt
In a couple of years, they floors served as endless sheets of paper
ended up teaching in Grants and sticks served as pencils. However,
Pass, Oregon, where the next as the Rhodesian war for independence
steps in their lives would take from Britain escalated, Phil was informed
them toward foreign horizons. that the missionaries all but had targets
painted on their backs. He recalled
While in Grants Pass, Phil and Judy times where he and his family had to be
Langley became involved in a local accompanied by a full military escort in
26 Lubbock Senior Link
