ENTERPRISE, Ala. (BP) – First Baptist Church of Enterprise, Ala., considers Betty Jane Hunt its “resident Lottie Moon.” Hunt shares much in common with the iconic Moon, senior pastor Ben Bowden told Baptist Press days after the church celebrated Hunt’s 100th birthday.
“It’s amazing how many parallels Lottie Moon’s story has with her story,” Bowden said. Moon served in China; Hunt served primarily in the Republic of Korea. Both fell in love with Christian men, but chose to follow God into missions rather than compromise their convictions.
“He was a Christian man, but really did not sense a call to missions. Betty Jane Hunt did,” Bowden said of Hunt’s college days, based on an interview he conducted with Hunt more than 15 years ago. “They were in love. He basically indicated his intent to marry her, he wanted to. But she said, ‘If you will not go to the mission field, I cannot marry you.’
“In a similar way to Lottie Moon, she was a principled woman. She knew for a fact that God had called her to serve on the mission field, and so she said, ‘I’m going to choose God.’ And so she remained single her whole life because of that.”
Hunt has no regrets, other than the fact that others close to her have died. She doesn’t give interviews anymore, but this is how she described her feelings in 2021, when she was just 95.
“I’m not as strong as I used to be and can’t get around to do things, and don’t have a car. But those are not hard things to deal with,” she told Bowden in 2021. “So it’s a blessing. God’s blessed me so much. I can hardly believe it.
“I think, well why didn’t I die when some of these other people were dying? My best friend is gone, from Korea. We were very good friends. And of course, all of my siblings and my parents are gone. And so that’s the only regret, not to have those close associates and relatives around.”
She smiled broadly as more than 100 First Enterprise members of all ages, relatives and other friends threw her a birthday bash April 12 at the church. She posed for photographs, including one with a paper Korean parasol reminiscent of the 33 years she served as a Southern Baptist missionary there. She received gifts from many, including young children.
The church honored her by establishing the Betty Jane Hunt Scholarship for Mission Trips, giving her name to the church’s longstanding gift in support of missionaries.
“This is all so sweet,” Hunt responded to everything about the event. “So nice.”
She’s somewhat reticent to accept grandeur.
“I don’t want people to say that I’m this or I’m that,” she has said, “because I know we all have our mistakes – and what we do in life – that are hard. I’m so glad that the Lord still has allowed me to live this long, and I can still do a little bit. I can teach some.”
As recently as 2021, she continued to teach an adult Bible study class at the church she joined in 1992, having developed affection for the congregation while visiting a sister and extended family in Enterprise while stateside. She had retired in 1991 as an International Mission Board (IMB) missionary, but returned to the mission field from 1993-1996, serving in China with IMB’s Cooperative Service International.
She was well prepared for China, she has said, from her time in Korea. She had navigated Korea while witnessing political, economic and societal changes shortly after the Korean Conflict. She served in Christian education, held Vacation Bible Schools, taught others to teach, edited the Korean Baptist publication and worked as Baptist Mission treasurer.
“It was torn up by the war,” she said of Korea. “When I went there, I saw many evidences of bullet holes and buildings that had been torn down. And of course, people didn’t have cars and they were using bicycles and all kinds of ways to get around. It became modernized about 1970. So everything changed with that.”
Bowden met Hunt prior to 2015, while serving as associate pastor. His office was just across the hall from where Hunt would meet with others to pray. Often, Bowden would steal away to Hunt’s prayer group, sitting right beside her as she spoke with the Lord.
“I knew I was sitting next to one of those spiritual giants. I loved praying with her. I loved praying with the whole team, of course, but I loved sitting next to her, listening to her pray,” Bowden said. “And how she would pray for our church, pray for the sick in our church, pray for the hurting, and pray for the nations.
“She would pray for our missionaries, and she would just do it in such a way that it was like I was ready to walk an aisle at the end of her prayer,” he said. “When she said Amen, I was ready to give my heart to Jesus again. I mean, it was just, it was so real.”
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