Covell Scholarship Winners
May 28, 2006 - Posted in ScholarshipThe Board of Missions of the First Baptist Church of Le Roy and Rev. Peter McCurdy honored and remembered the Covell’s through giving the Covell Scholarship to 17 well deserving recipients this past Sunday. This is the 10th year and the 11th award of the Covell Scholarship. “To honor the Covell’s let us meditate on their mission and sacrifice for the advancement of the Kingdom of God.” The Covell’s were commissioned to a ministry of mission work, James in July of 1921 and Charma in June of 1920 to serve in Japan and later in the Philippines. In Japan on July 14, 1922 they joined hearts and lives in marriage to set up a home which radiated light, joy and peace to hundreds of people who crossed their threshold, as invited and uninvited, but always welcomed, guests. Students came in large numbers, as “Jimmy” was a born teacher. He had the ability to draw out the hidden talents of youth and inspire them to attempt, and often to accomplish, that which they thought impossible. Charma Covell worked mostly out of her home. Into it came the students from “Jimmy’s” classes for hospitality marked by her radiance. Neighborhood mothers came for classes in western cooking and home making, or groups of industrial girls for games, or hymn-singing, or bible study. The Covell children, Margaret, David and Alice, reflect the beauty and faith that came from a loving, caring Christian home. When signs of war started showing the Covell’s sent their children off to America. This is about the hardest thing missionary parents ever do, but with the uncertainties of impending war, it was doubly difficult.
In 1939 the Covell’s transferred to the Philippine Islands. There in Iloilo, as in Japan, the Covell’s endeared themselves to everyone, by hard work and loving service. Their special assignment was to Central Philippines College, where students developed an interest in journalism and were encouraged to try “their wings as new young authors under the watchful eye of ‘Jimmy’”.
On Pearl Harbor day, December 1941, the American Baptist Foreign Mission
Society and the Woman’s American Baptist Foreign Mission Society had twenty-one missionaries in the Philippine Islands.
As early as December 15th, the mission hospitals at Capiz and Iloilo on Panay began to work in full cooperation with the United States Armed Forces. By January 2nd, Manila had fallen, and it had become clear that the Japanese would come to Panay. The two hospitals moved immediately to two separate inland areas where, until April 1942, they continued to operate under their regular missionary and Filipino staffs, drawing now more heavily than ever on the Armed Forces for equipment and supplies.
April 1942 found James and Charma Covell along with several other missionaries fleeing to a retreat in the mountains, prepared for emergency purposes.
In March 1944 communication was received from a number of missionaries,
among them a letter from the Covell’s, dated “Hopevale”, Panay, Sunday, May 16th, 1943. “Hopevale” was the name given to their hiding place. These communications revealed that all were safe and well, but the word “safe” was in quotation marks in the Covell letter because “safety in the ordinary sense is a relative matter on Panay.” The location of the camp had been chosen well in advance of their leaving Iloilo and Capiz and had been partly prepared. It was a small clearing at or near the top of a mountain “in the deep recesses of evergreen,” reached only by “a winding and misleading trail.” The population seemed to vary from fourteen to twenty-two or more. A chapel was built in “a beautiful, deep, dry gorge with giant trees growing in it. Worship was conducted every Sunday except on a few Sundays when the Japanese came near. “We live in a grass hut with bamboo floor,” wrote the Covells. “The people around supply us with plenty to eat, and we have a good spring…the Japanese came very close one day in and we have moved out thrice to hide…we have books to read and re-read…Singe, Dorothy D., Roundses with Doug and Daddy and I eat together. The Roses eat with some Masbate mining people who fled here with us. Dr. and Mrs. Meyer and Miss Adams are about a kilometer away . . . We live like natives here. We have rice every meal, greens every day, bananas, usually eggs and sometimes chicken. Once in a while we get carabao or beef or pork . . . Our prospects for freedom (in a larger sense) and seeing you all are most uncertain . . .” And then, under the date of March 20, 1944 a message was received from the Provost Marshall Generals Office in Washington concerning the Covell’s: “this office regrets to inform you that information believed to be reliable has been received which indicates that they, James and Charma Covell, died in Japanese custody on the island of Panay, Philippine Islands, on 19 December 1943.” A brief summary, not only of the event itself but of steps leading up to it are as follows: some Japanese troops seemingly knew all along where the missionaries were hiding and had decided not to molest them. Other troops, however, persistently sought where they were. Locating them was not easy. The camp sight had been well chosen, and the Filipino people who knew its location loyally kept the secret even at great risk to themselves. Finally, a detachment of soldiers came to a village at the foot of the mountain on which the camp was located. The people of this village refused to give any information whatsoever and suffered for it. The search continues, however, and the camp was located. At the time, our eleven missionaries, five adults and seven children were there. It was the week before Christmas, and everyone
was busy preparing for the Christmas season. When the soldiers came, the camp was completely surprised. All fled. Some of the men could easily have escaped, but when the women and children were taken all surrendered. Either that same day or the next they were told that they would be put to death. At their request, they were given time for prayer. After praying for about an hour, they all came forward saying, “now we are ready!” At some time in the whole proceeding, it is reported that Mr. Covell or Mrs. Covell (both perhaps) pleaded eloquently in Japanese for the lives of all. They having served as missionaries in Japan knew the Japanese language well. The soldiers were affected by the appeal, but said that they must carry out their orders, and this they did. “Surely this is one of the most tragic episodes in missionary history. The above summary of it may not prove to be exact in every detail, but it is essentially true. Some day, perchance, one fully certified as an eye-witness may appear. It may be one of the Filipino friends who watched from ambush, powerless to do anything to help. Or it may be one of those “who did the wrong,” now truly repentant because of the manner in which these friends of ours died. Or we may never know much more than we know now. If so, it is enough, for they who through troubled months had only a lodge in the wilderness have now passed through heaven’s shining archway unto a safe lodging, and there shall they be forever with their lord.” “And so, we honor these two soldiers of Christ. They were prepared to live or die, as they belonged to the Lord.” taken from: Unto a Safe Lodging” by Jesse R. Wilson, dated at New York, New York, June 30, 1945.
Covell Scholarship Awards were presented to the following students:
Branton, Angela Campo-Pitt, Sarah Callahan, Ryan W. Downs, Ashley Ferrando, Andrew Hempfling, Mark Herron, Rachel Kleinow, Caitlin Ladd, Stephen Lapp, Lindsay Mowry, Erika Parmenter, Stephen Skillman, Susie Skillman, Allison Smith, Timothy P. Wilson (absent) and John Zinni. The recipients of the Covell Memorial Scholarship were selected because of their academic interests, service to the community and commitment to Christ. A reception honoring the students was held after worship.
Source: leroyny.com