A Tribute to a Good Worker

      The Missionary Society is saying thank you to a longtime friend and employee, Rev. Ronald J. Elston. Ron presented his letter of resignation to the Executive Committee at our April meeting. He will be retiring the end of June after more than 26 years of faithful service. The Executive Committee debated for a long time before deciding to recommend the acceptance of his letter of resignation. There were many things that needed to be finalized before deciding how the work was going to be done without a National Director of Extension. It was finally decided that the position would not filled. With this in mind it was further decided that we would not need to have him stay on to help train a new employee. We are pleased that he will not have the stress of the job to contend with during his recuperation period following an operation on his esophagus.
Over these many years he has held many titles. Among them include National Field Director and National Director of Extension. In actuality, there were many title changes, too many to remember. While the title changed, the work never changed drastically. Contacts were made. Churches were planted. Seminars were held. The goal, to establish the church and help people decide if Seventh Day Baptists were for them, was always clearly seen in his work.  The time and effort of his work was most important to him and he worked to finalize each assignment to the best of his abilities.
Under his guidance the Field Development Team (NFDT) was led and utilized. Lay people were trained to help plant new churches. They came from all over the denomination to help Pastor Ron. The training material for this program was developed in conjunction with Rev. Rod Henry who was then the Director of Pastoral Services for the denomination. Seminars were held in several regions at different times to accommodate those wanting the training. These training seminars continue to be periodically offered, mostly held at the office of the Missionary Society in Ashaway, RI. The NFDT will play an important role in the work that was left behind by Ron’s retirement.
We appreciate the amount of travel that Ron has taken over these years of work. He has traveled the length and breadth of the Conference many times over the past 26 years. He would often travel by car to enable visits to potential SDB groups as he went to one of the established groups or churches. He spent an inordinate amount of time visiting those groups as well as established SDB Churches. For those who requested help he was able to give them advice on growth and development as well as solutions to their church problems. He was always available to those who requested help.
His work has not been restricted to just this continent. With his background in other denominations, prior to becoming a Seventh Day Baptist, he has also gone overseas for the Missionary Society. Traveling with the Executive Director he has helped in several African countries by diffusing situations where another Sabbath-keeping denomination was trying to take over the churches involved. These countries included: Malawi, Rwanda, and Zambia. He was also available to travel to Lebanon when we were trying to establish churches in there.
And so, we can say, “Well done, of good and faithful servant of the Lord. We know that He will bless for the service you have given to Him all these years.”