Bible Center Church

The following article appeared in the Summer issue of "The Trumpeter" published by REMNANT MINISTRIES and is used by permission.

Judith Gentry was born in a little West Virginia village named “Gentry Town,” located near Scarboro. The villagers named the town after the business located there that was owned by her father and his brothers. A daughter was born to Charles D. and Bessie Alma (Harner) Gentry, ninety years ago May 7th. She entered the ranks of Jewish evangelism in 1942. “I knew as a child the Lord wanted me to be a missionary,” she recalls. “My mother was faithful in reading Bible stories to us, my brothers and I, at night. I knew many Bible facts but very little about the Bible doctrinally until I went to Moody Bible Institute.”

At the age of seven, Judith went forward in a church to “invite Jesus into my heart,” but no one showed her a verse of assurance. “It was at Moody that I learned my salvation didn’t depend upon my feelings but upon the finished work of Jesus Christ,” she recalls as she reminisces of those years. Unsure when she was actually saved, she can say with Paul in II Timothy 1:12 – “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.”

Mr. Gentry was a prosperous businessman until the days of the Great Depression, when he lost everything he had but his faith in the Lord and his family. Those were difficult times but the Lord took care of the Gentrys. Her parents’ example during that period helped Miss Judith through rough places in her own life.

VINEYARD MINISTRY

Led of the Lord to Moody Bible Institute, her intention was ministry work in Africa, not Jewish evangelism. As a school service assignment, she visited the Chicago Hebrew Mission. Before that evening, she had a queer idea about the Jews. Those fortunate enough to live until the Lord returned, would recognize Him and be saved. As for the rest, she wasn’t concerned about their destiny.

As the meeting began an elderly Jewess, whose appearance was anything but neat, caught her attention. Sheltered from the unpleasant aspects of society, Miss Gentry found a seat far away from that Jewess. At the close of the service, she saw a lady worker put her arm around her and tell her about the Lord.

“Something happened right then in my heart which has never changed, nor do I ever want it to,” she remembers. Born within her was a deep love for that Jewish soul, for all Jewish people, and a great desire to win them for Christ. After much prayerful consideration and many Saturday night experiences at the Chicago Hebrew Mission or at Jewish evangelistic street meetings, she gave up her plans for Africa and yielded to the Lord’s will

The final step came one afternoon when she attended a Hebrew prayer meeting and the leader read from Romans, “How shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard?” At this point Miss Gentry said, “Lord, that’s enough! If they do not hear, it will not be my fault. I am yours for Israel.

CHARLESTON VINEYARD

After graduating from Moody’s Jewish Missions Course in August of 1941, she returned to her old job in Charleston waiting further leading from the Lord. Charleston was the last place she wanted to be a missionary. However, some believers of the city earnestly prayed for their Jewish friends and neighbors.

Pastor Nordland of Randolph Street Baptist Church, first approached her about being a missionary in the city. Shortly after that conference she again met with Pastor Nordland, who was accompanied by Mr. Maxwell, founder of The Bible Center Church, and Mr. Smelser, superintendent of the Cleveland Hebrew Mission. During the discussion about Charleston’s Jewish community needing evangelism, they asked her if she would earnestly and prayerfully consider bringing the gospel to the two thousand Jewish citizens of that city. Clinging to His words, “Be still and know that I am God” from Psalm 46:10, He proved His faithfulness to her and she accepted His call to Charleston Jewry.

In May of 1942 she arrived in Cleveland for a year of training. Later that day she helped clean the apartment she would share with Miss Irene Wenholz, a missionary to Morocco stranded in the United States because of the world conflict. Valuing the months spent in Cleveland, Miss Gentry was closest to Miss Floy Hoover (later Mrs. Ralph Hill), learning valuable lessons in Jewish outreach work, lessons she continually uses in her ministry.

In 1943 while she began her work with the Charleston Branch of the Cleveland Hebrew Mission, the Lord led her to join The Bible Center Church. From an apartment near the city’s downtown, Miss Gentry was busy with visitation work locally and to the hundreds of Jewish people in other southern West Virginia towns. She taught a high school Bible club, held prayer meetings, sent out literature, and witnessed to and discipled inquiring Jews.

Assisting Miss Gentry in the work were volunteers, including her mother who also taught a weekly children’s Bible club. Two monthly Jewish prayer meetings were held, one in the afternoon and one in the evening. Her pastor, Reid Jepson, delivered a monthly radio message to West Virginia Jewry sponsored by The Bible Center Church.

BRAZIL VINEYARD

The Everlasting Father called Miss Gentry to Brazil’s Vineyard. In July of 1952 while attending the Ben Lippon Conference Center in North Carolina, she heard the Master clearly call her to go to the growing Sao Paulo-Jewish community. Returning home to Charleston after the conference, the first person she told about her call was her mother, Bessie. She was one of the few who encouraged her, though she would be the one who would make the greatest sacrifice.

Meeting opposition from family and friends, even Superintendent Smelser was against her going. Miss Gentry recalls, “I knew I had to go to Brazil and minister to the Jews there. If I wasn’t able to go with the Cleveland Hebrew Mission, that I had grown to love over the last ten years, I’d just have to leave my beloved co-workers. I’d just had to leave!”

God’s will was sought by all after she spoke personally with Pastor Ohman, president of the Trustee Board, who was excited about having a branch in Sao Paulo. After checking the Mission’s charter, he relayed to her that the Cleveland Hebrew Mission was indeed set up to go to the Jews “anywhere in the world!”

The Lord moved very fast. Within four months, without ever having to raise support or appeals being made, her full funding was raised. In March of 1953 she was on a ship headed to Brazil. Though Mr. Smelser secretly hoped that Miss Gentry would not pass her physical, he later told her that he regretted trying to keep her from going, and helped her get the papers, etc., that were needed. She remembers, “Mr. Smelser didn’t fire me and I am glad I didn’t leave.”

At the dock to see her off for this great adventure was her dear mother, who became the Mission’s part-time worker in Charleston. Also there was Rev. & Mrs. Coulson Shepherd, a New York City Jewish evangelist with Immanuel’s Witness, a vineyard work begun in December of 1904. Mr. Smelser was also there to see her on her way. Miss Gentry knew that at this point, he was glad she was off to start a new work in Brazil, her home for the next twenty-seven years.

SAO PAULO VINEYARD

After completing her first year at the Campinas language school, Miss Gentry found Sao Paulo Jewry was more than receptive to friendship, but not to the gospel. Nevertheless, she successfully conducted Bible classes in Portuguese, which grew to nine classes each week for children, young people and ladies over the years. “I taught a half-hour of English before the Bible class,” Miss Gentry states. It was the free English-language class that drew Brazilian-Jews into her sphere of witnessing. As she faithfully taught a Bible lesson the second half-hour, God’s Word touched hearts and He gave the increase.

In November of 1955 the Board of Trustees and Mission staff offered prayer on Sister Gentry’s behalf during the threat of civil war, when her physical safety was in question. In December she was invited by A.B.W.E’s. Northern Brazilian Field Council to challenge the hearts of national Christians for local Jewish evangelism outreach. Later reports gave glowing accounts of the success of this two-week venture. Because Sao Paulo Jewry is scattered throughout the city, the purchase of a Volkswagen automobile aided the visitation and tract ministry in her second term. From 1958-1962 she taught classes at the Baptist School of Sao Paulo, where several dozen Jewish young people were enrolled.

About her work in Brazil, Miss Gentry testifies: “It is still a thrill to look back on those early days and think of the Lord’s faithfulness. As a small town girl, I suddenly found myself alone (yet not alone, for the Lord was always with me) in a city of four million. The Jews were scattered. The means of transportation were buses, street cars, taxis and walking. The Lord brought Jews across my path. Each one would be a story in itself. There were a few close calls when little uprisings occurred, but for the most part I felt safer in Brazil than in Cleveland or Charleston. As far as the ministry work was concerned, the government never put restrictions on giving out the gospel in my years in Sao Paulo.”

Mrs. Bessie Gentry continued her work in the Charleston Branch. As part of the outreach, she began hosting an annual dinner to acquaint local Christians with the work. Her ministry continued until she broke a hip and leg in September of 1965. Whereupon Judith returned looking after her very ill mother.

Mrs. Gentry joined her daughter in Brazil the following year, one month before her eightieth birthday. She had a fruitful ministry among the children in the English-speaking church, and was a real help to Judith with home entertaining, correspondence, etc. In 1972 Mrs. Gentry suffered a serious stroke. The women temporarily returned to Charleston’s vineyard that year. Mrs. Gentry went to be with the Lord in October of 1976, and Judith returned to Brazil.

CLEVELAND VINEYARD

In March of 1979, Miss Gentry became “First Lady” of the Cleveland Hebrew Mission when she and Rev. A. Paul Tidball, a widower and the director, were married. They were united at Charleston’s The Bible Center Church, her home congregation. As the director’s spouse, Mrs. Tidball came to appreciate the scope of a superintendent’s responsibilities over the years as she witnessed her husband agonizing over Mission difficulties and problems.

In 1981 Mr. & Mrs. Tidball visited Leonard and Dona Meznar in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. When Judith flew on to Sao Paulo to visit former friends and contacts, Paul explored the Rio Jewish community with the Meznars acting as his interpreter. He met Jews from five continents and at least twelve countries. They were merchants, attorneys, laborers, secretaries, engineers, auto mechanics, housewives, shop clerks, university professors, elementary teachers, musicians as well as vacationers and retirees.

Two years later the Tidballs journeyed to Western Europe presenting Jewish evangelism work to personnel of World Evangelism Fellowship. In Berlin they met an Alexandria, Virginia, Jewess whose husband was with NATO, and shared the gospel with a Jewess, a student at the University of California, at the museum near Check Point Charlie, the American entry into the Communist East Berlin.

NORTH CAROLINA MINISTRY

Brother Tidball laid aside his administrative duties in May of 1987. They resettled in Carrboro, North Carolina and joined Calvary Baptist Church. The Tidballs began youth classes and activities in their home. Their outreach included Jewish and Gentile students and staff at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Campus and others residing within in the Triangle Cities area of Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Durham. However, it was all too soon when Brother Tidball entered eternity in April of 1990.

A VETERAN’S VINEYARD MINISTRY

Mrs. Judith Gentry Tidball celebrated her 50th year with the Mission in May of 1992. Her ministry continued by correspondence to distant Jewish contacts and locally with university students. She had cataract surgery on both eyes, and a corneal transplant in her right eye to correct Fuchs’ Dystrophy, done at the excellent medical facilities of nearby Duke University.

She moved back to South Charleston in late summer of 1999. Her apartment building is next door to the site where the three gentlemen came to invite her to join the Mission in 1942. She was thrilled to attend The Bible Center Church once again. Though the Jewish community has moved a few miles down the road into more upscale housing than Mrs. Gentry could afford, she began a Bible study for residents in her senior apartment building in the spring of 2001 at the age of eighty-seven.

The December 2002 meeting was attended by sixteen residents, who enjoyed learning of Israel as they completed the book of Genesis. The following summer, members of her church presented a special music program that was talked about for weeks afterward. Hindered greatly by Parkinson’s Disease and diabetes, she is no longer able to travel to supporting churches or vacation, but continues witnessing to Jewish contacts by mail, and counseling local believers seeking to know God’s direction in their lives.

In May of this year her family and friends celebrated Judith’s ninetieth birthday in a weekend celebration of activities. She trusts you will also discover great comfort with the words found in Psalm 73:24-26:

“Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.”