This is a complete transcript of the oral history interview with Lydia Christine Wire Maillefer (CN 328 T1) for the Billy Graham Center Archives. No spoken words which were recorded are omitted. In a very few cases, the transcribers could not understand what was said, in which case [unclear] was inserted. Also, grunts and verbal hesitations such as “ah” or “um” are usually omitted. Readers of this transcript should remember that this is a transcript of spoken English, which follows a different rhythm and even rule than written English. Three dots indicate an interruption or break in the train of thought within the sentence of the speaker. Four dots indicate what the transcriber believes to be the end of an incomplete sentence. ( ) Word in parentheses are asides made by the speaker. [ ] Words in brackets are comments made by the transcriber. This transcript was created by Robert Shuster and a student worker and was completed in April 2016. Please note: This oral history interview expresses the personal memories and opinions of the interviewee and does not necessarily represent the views or policies of the Billy Graham Center Archives or Wheaton College. © 2017. The Billy Graham Center Archives. All rights reserved. This transcript may be reused with the following publication credit: Used by permission of the Billy Graham Center Archives, Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL. BGC Archives CN 328, T1 Transcript - Page 2 Collection 328, Tape 1. Oral history interview with Lydia Maillefer by Paul A. Ericksen on May 13, 1986. ERICKSEN: This is an interview with Lydia Christine Wire Mayfair...Maillefer by Paul Ericksen for the Missionary Sources Collection of Wheaton College. This interview took place at the offices of the Billy Graham Center Archives at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois on May 13, 1986 at eight forty-five a.m. [recording turned off and on] Well, Mrs. Maillefer, I=d like to begin by getting sort of a quick sketch of your life. Just want to check some of the figures and data that I=ve got. You were born in 1927 in Chicago? Is that.... MAILLEFER: Right. ERICKSEN: ...right? And where did you grow up? MAILLEFER: In Winnetka, Illinois, suburbs of Chicago. ERICKSEN: And I understand that you grew up speaking Danish. MAILLEFER: That is, I spoke Danish before I spoke English, and I stopped speaking Danish just about completely when I...when I started school. ERICKSEN: Okay MAILLEFER: Yeah. Uh-huh. ERICKSEN: And what did your folks do? MAILLEFER: My father was a cabinet maker, and my mother was a seamstress. My mother had applied to go to South Africa with a Danish mission and had gone to Moody, and it didn=t turn out because it was just after the First World War, I guess, and so she turned around and married my father instead. ERICKSEN: You attended a Free Church? MAILLEFER: No. Winnetka Bible Church... ERICKSEN: Okay. MAILLEFER: ...which had had a lot of Free Church leanings and direction over the years. We=ve had a lot of Free Church pastors, so when I looked for a mission board, our pastor happened to be Free Church, and he directed me that direction. ERICKSEN: I don=t know whether you can pin down a date. It=s not necessarily important. But is there sometime when you would say that your conversion took place? © 2017. The Billy Graham Center Archives. All rights reserved. This transcript may be reused with the following publication credit: Used by permission of the Billy Graham Center Archives, Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL. BGC Archives CN 328, T1 Transcript - Page 3 MAILLEFER: It was a...a struggle, because I was looking for feelings like a lot of kids reared in Christian homes do, but I would say that I accepted the Lord when I was ten. But when I was a freshman in high school, and again when I was a freshman in college, I took a stand of affirmation on it, because I was concerned that my childhood experience hadn=t been sufficient. Then it was while I was at Wheaton that I began to learn that a lot of kids going up in Christian homes have that problem. ERICKSEN: You graduated in 1949. MAILLEFER: Right. ERICKSEN: With a B.A. in...? MAILLEFER: Christian Ed. ERICKSEN: Okay. And during one of your furloughs in 1961, you got an M.A. in French? MAILLEFER: Uh-huh. ERICKSEN: From? MAILLEFER: Northwestern U. ERICKSEN: Okay. MAILLEFER: I also went to Northwestern a year after I graduated from Wheaton because the mission board wanted us to have a non-religious major. That is, the mission didn=t require it, but Congo required it as then, because you had to have a non-religious major in order to become a teacher in Congo. ERICKSEN: [Pauses] What year were you accepted by the Free Church to work in Africa? MAILLEFER: 1950. ERICKSEN: Okay. Do you recall when your furloughs have been? MAILLEFER: 1956 and 7. >Course, these are starting in the summer and ending [in the spring]. ERICKSEN: Sure. MAILLEFER: And then 1960 I came home because of the.... No, I came home to stagger furloughs, actually. I wasn=t evacuated. So, I came home to stagger furloughs. There were too many of us going at the same time, and I came home to work on my master=s, and then I got married the following summer. So I stayed home another year then, while Eric was at Trinity Seminary. And then we went back in >62. © 2017. The Billy Graham Center Archives. All rights reserved. This transcript may be reused with the following publication credit: Used by permission of the Billy Graham Center Archives, Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL. BGC Archives CN 328, T1 Transcript - Page 4 ERICKSEN: Okay. MAILLEFER: Then, we came home in >64 because of the rebellion. We didn=t have to be evacuated. I had come out earlier because of my daughter being expected, and I came home on a government paid ticket for school teachers. And by the time I was ready to come back after Renee was born, then the rebellion was in full bloom, so we stayed home then until the summer of >65. And then we were two years in Kenya and two years in Zaire, which had by that time become Zaire, and we came home again in >69. Went back again in >70 to Kenya. We came home in >74, went back in the summer of >75. And then we stayed six years because of allowing for our two daughters to graduate back to back from high school out there. So we came home in >81, went back the summer of >82, and came home the summer of >85, because our son had graduated from high school. ERICKSEN: And just on the future end, do you know where you=re going to being working? MAILLEFER: We=re going to be working in Brussels on loan from the Evangelical Free Church to the World Evangelical Fellowship European office, working in conjunction with the European Alliance and the Free Church work, and we plan to leave in August. ERICKSEN: Okay. Okay, well let=s...now let=s head back. I just have a few questions about your early life. What kind of religious background did you grow up in? You mentioned that.... MAILLEFER: Very...very strong Evangelical, because of living just a block away from the Winnetka Bible Church, which has always had a very strong Evangelical stance. Very meaningful church experience. And very staunch Christian parents, who were actually Lutheran State Church from Denmark, but who enjoyed the freedom of the American Evangelical Scene. ERICKSEN: What...do you recall any of your early impressions of church as a child? MAILLEFER: In what way do you mean? ERICKSEN: What do you remem...what do you remember about going to church as a...as a small child? MAILLEFER: Oh, I think I remember, just off the cuff, would be enjoying good Sunday School experiences and especially Daily Vacation Bible School, which was usually a joint effort with the Evangelical Covenant Church, which was a small church just a...around the corner from our church. And a lot of...lot of experiences in church where we young people were allowed to be in programs. I think that=s something that=s missing in the church today. And I think that led toward my being able to be a leader on the field and to not be afraid to stand up in front of people and...and to participate in one way or another in a service. Lot of Christmas Sunday School programs and playing piano and singing in trios in high school that I think a lot of young people miss out on today because of being in these huge churches. ERICKSEN: Did you ever get a chance to preach as a young person? © 2017. The Billy Graham Center Archives. All rights reserved. This transcript may be reused with the following publication credit: Used by permission of the Billy Graham Center Archives, Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL. BGC Archives CN 328, T1 Transcript - Page 5 MAILLEFER: You mean as a missionary or at home? ERICKSEN: At home. MAILLEFER: No. No, those were pre...pre-women=s lib days as such. However, our young people=s group, our high school group was not one where the youth leader entertained us and made all the programs. We sat down with committees and decided our programs, so I often participated in a program that we had high school kids would have led, which was very meaningful. ERICKSEN: Uh-huh.