Dr. Gordon Wetmore

Mildred and Ralph Wynkoop were two distinctly different individuals who served effectively together in Christ and through His Church. During some of their later years I was privileged to serve them as their pastor. My words are from a pastoral perspective.

The Wynkoops’ lives are a glimpse of the people of the 20th century holiness movement. They were both products of the complementing streams that made up that movement.  Pasadena College (now Point Loma Nazarene University) was the place where they met and where their partnership in ministry began. They would often reminisce about God’s very evident leading throughout their almost century-long lives, and how their different gifts and graces and points of view mutually supported each other in the pastorate, the field of fulltime evangelism, and in the classroom.

Early in their careers they both wanted earned research doctorates.  Ralph commented often of their prayerful and mutual decision to give Mildred the limited resources to achieve that goal.  He would tell of his sense of the rightness of that decision.  He was very proud of his Mildred. Mildred, in turn, respected Ralph’s strong array of abilities and his keen intellect.  As pastor I would listen as she would spell out, with her philosophical mind, the breadth of Ralph’s accomplishments. They loved each other and respected each other very much.

Mildred and Ralph demonstrated a profound appreciation for the people of God, both in the local congregation and in the global church. They were faithful stewards of God’s resources in the local church.  They gave, without hesitation, of themselves to the people of God through witness, service and teaching. They also received from the people of God, especially in their declining years. Dr. John and Helen Cashman, who are here today, served as their “children” and guardians. Mildred’s theology of love was given and received in Mildred’s and Ralph’s lives.

Their attitudes and acts in their closing years and days seemed, to me, to define who they were.  Mildred would grace the conversation and their home with her winning smile and reflective words.  Always the inquiring and creative scholar, always the learner.  Ralph had a wonderful sense of humor and a word of encouragement to fit the occasion.  Always the servant pastor.  They liked distinctly different favorite foods. They still allowed each other to enjoy what they wanted in ways they wanted.  Even in their closing days, they were distinctly different persons with a beautifully commingled mission—to glorify God through faithfulness to Christ.

In their final earthly days the Presence of God in their lives was remarkable. Following major heart surgery, Mildred’s conversation turned often to the comforting realities of eternity with Christ.  Often with a stack of books around her she would witness to the divine assurance that Christ would be with her in the valley of the shadow in ways that echoed the theological affirmations she had written decades earlier.  She died well.  She was a living illustration of her own writings, to the glory of God.

Ralph lived a few years longer than Mildred. Dr. John Cashman, his dear fried and guardian, tells a beautiful story of Ralph’s final hours.  Dr. Cashman said that in Ralph’s final moments Ralph’s face glowed with a rosy hue. It was different than before.  His eyes brightened.  Even though Dr. Cashman was with him in the room, Ralph was talking to someone else as he stepped into Christ’s presence as Mildred had done a few years before.

Mildred and Ralph Wynkoop. Models of partners in ministry.  Two unique Christian individuals obeying God’s call on their lives. One distinctly Christian couple together serving Christ and His Church.