Beth Wallace

By Rev. Dr. Robert Watkins

People using only two words to describe Beth Wallace might say “career missionary.” Ada Beth Hickmon was born in North Carolina and married Boyce Wallace while studying at Bible College in Nashville in 1955. They had two children, Andrew (deceased) and Melody, who currently lives in Gainesville, Florida.

Boyce and Beth began to feel the call to foreign missionary service and began conversations with leaders of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in 1962. That same year they accepted a call to the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Marlow, Oklahoma. They served for six months before learning of an opportunity for mission work in Colombia. They quickly applied and were accepted, and off they went to San Jose, Costa Rica where they attended language school.

In July of 1964, the Wallaces arrived in Cali, Colombia, and began their first ministry assignment in Armenia where they spent four years. The next assignment was to Cali, Colombia, where they made their home, serving in the Cauca Valley Presbytery.

Many people spend time on mission fields, but few give their entire adulthood to serve in a country other than where they were born. Beth made a missionary covenant with God in 1963 to serve in Colombia, South America. She had no idea she would be there for 60 years.

• She has done some particularly admirable things for all those years which merit praise.

• She has administered a bed and breakfast in her own home— hosting and feeding thousands of people.

• She has encouraged and led the Presbyterial and Denomination Women’s Ministry through praying, writing, and teaching.

• Her children’s ministry in the local church is impressive.

• She served decades as a counselor and teacher at Colegio Bolivar—a bi-lingual school in Cali.

• She has traveled extensively to visit isolated congregations in Colombia.

• She has promoted missions in the USA by visiting hundreds of CP congregations.

Beth Wallace has been a positive face of the love, joy, and faith in Colombia. She has left her footprints all over Colombia and the USA—and they resemble the impact of a person that loves Jesus. Beth Wallace currently resides in Gainesville, Florida.