ROCKFORD, Ill.— M.O. and Jean Burman have celebrated God’s faithfulness over 70 years of marriage and ministry. Many family members and friends attended a special anniversary celebration in their honor. In spite of having an inconsistent memory, it was a special moment when M.O. (age 91) recognized an unexpected visitor who had flown in just for an hour. Johnny Williams, Baptist Church Planters missionary, was mentored by M.O. many years ago.
M.O. made the transition from corn planting to church planting after being saved as a child in Waverly, Iowa through the testimony of a teacher in the one-room school he attended. He later studied at the (then) Omaha Bible Institute (now Faith Baptist Bible College) and Wartburg College, later graduating from Baptist Bible College (then in Johnson City, N.Y.).
Jean (age 88) caught M.O.’s eye in their church youth group at First Baptist in Waverly, but they waited to marry on Thanksgiving Day, 1937 after she had graduated high school.
Their missionary career spanned forty-eight years, serving with the Montana Bible Fellowship, the Fellowship of Baptists for Home Missions and Baptist Church Planters, from which they retired in 1994. They were used of God to help start ten churches and strengthen twelve others.
The Burmans have six children, seventeen grandchildren and 26 great-grandchildren, many in career ministries.
