2007 Alumna of the Year
Betty Loudermilk has served the Lord faithfully as a missionary to Japan for more than fifty years. A native of Georgia, she graduated from Bob Jones University in 1954 with a degree in Bible. She went to Japan in 1955 and spent a term there with another mission before joining GFA in 1964.
As a young missionary she often heard news reports of babies abandoned by their mothers. She visited doctors’ offices and left her missionary card, saying that she would gladly take babies and find them homes.
She began receiving babies whose parents did not want them. The concept of adoption was not popular with the Japanese, who were very concerned with bloodlines. However, of the more than 200 babies she has seen adopted, more than half have gone to Japanese Christian homes. The rest have come to American homes, to families recommended by pastors. Adopting families paid no fees, except for the adoption expenses of about $2000. Sometimes she paid those fees also in order to get the babies into Christian homes.
The national Japanese TV network NHK aired a thirty-minute program on the adoptive ministry for Japanese children in a culture where adoption is not an acceptable option to abortion.
She adopted 15 Japanese children of her own, giving them a Christian home rather than the idolatrous atmosphere they would have grown up in. Four of her children have attended Bob Jones University.
The Alumni Association gave her an Alumni Citation in 1986. At its annual conference in 1996, GFA recognized her for over 30 years of service under GFA. She became a Post-field Worker in 1998, but she continues to make frequent trips to Japan. She also continues her ministry of placing Japanese children in Christian homes.