Forbes family photo, left to right: Stephen Adelbert, Mary Esther, Forrest Dale, Esther Katherine ("Kathie")
This is the story of Forrest Dale Forbes and his wife Mary Esther. I first started researching their story because they worked briefly with the Duru people of Burma in the 1930s and 40s, but after researching more, I found their lives to be interesting in their own right, as an example of a family who took many twists and turns in their journey of faith.
Early years
Forrest
was born on January 10, 1907 in Damascus, Clackamas County, Oregon. His father,
Adelbert, was originally from Iowa and his mother, Lottie, was born in Kansas
on the Oregon trail but reached Damascus four years later in 1880. Forrest had
an older brother named Claude, who was nine years older, and when Forrest was
three, they got a baby brother named Lyle. Sometime later, they moved to
California, and when Forrest was six, his sister Madalene was born.
By
1920, when Forrest was 13, the US Census shows his family as living in
Monrovia, a small orange-farming community near Los Angeles. After high school,
he became a journalist and wrote for the Associated Press, eventually getting
his own syndicated newspaper column.
Then
he heard the gospel as preached by Paul Rader, a radio evangelist with a large
church in Chicago, who also established a church called the Tabernacle in Los
Angeles in 1929. Forrest was converted and went to Bible college. While he was
studying there, he fell in love with a fellow student named Mary Esther Allen.
Mary
Esther, a native of Riverside, California, was born on August 24, 1913. Her
father Clarence was born in Canada and her mother Alice was born in England.
Mary Esther had three older sisters, one older brother, and one younger
brother: sisters Evalyn (born in 1901), Beatrice (born in 1907), and Charlotte
(born in 1911), and brothers Chester (born in 1905) and Wilford (born in 1916).
Marriage and sending out
On
January 22, 1932 in Los Angeles, Forrest and Mary Esther were married. Forrest
was 24 and Mary Esther was 18. The officiating minister was Rev. Thompson Eadle,
a Foursquare Gospel preacher associated with the Pentecostal evangelist Aimee
Semple McPherson.
The
following year, on March 4, 1933, Mary Esther gave birth to a baby girl named
Esther Kathleen, nicknamed "Kathie". During this time, they also
spent time witnessing, and regularly attended the Go-Ye Bible Class, an
missions-focused adult Sunday school class at Paul Rader's Tabernacle led by
George and Mary Berryhill and taught by Jennie Mitchell. One day, after Jennie
challenged the class to send out missionaries from their own group, Forrest and
Mary Esther volunteered. They were interested in the Lisu tribe along the
borders of China, Tibet, and Burma, and so they started researching the Yunnan
ethnic area of China. Their fellow class members pledged their support, and
Paul Rader himself promoted their plans on his radio program, gaining donations
for them from his listening audience.
In early 1935, they set sail for China. Once they arrived, Forrest wrote news articles for the Associated Press as a means of income. They continued writing prayer letters back to the Go-Ye class in Los Angeles. In one of these letters, they reported being on night watch against people who wanted to burn down their mission! During this time, their mission work included printing and binding Christian literature, such as the first volume of a book called the Grace Book. Later newsletters spoke of success as the danger passed.
A quick return
Their first stay in China turned out to be a short exploratory trip, likely after they found out that Mary Esther was pregnant. In any case, on May 8, 1935, they boarded a Japanese ocean liner in Hong Kong called the M. S. Asama Maru and headed back to the US. At the time, Forrest was 28, Mary was 21, and little Esther was 2. The voyage lasted almost a month. On May 29, they stopped in San Francisco, and on June 1, they landed in Los Angeles. Their address in Los Angeles was 1305 Waterloo Street, just two doors down from number 1307, the house of Jennie and Andrew Mitchell from the Go-Ye class. On November 10 that same year, Mary Esther gave birth in Riverside to her second child, a boy named Stephen Adelbert -- the middle name came from Forrest's father.
Yunnan and other places
Records after this are sparse, but it appears that they went back to Yunnan and served there for several years. Also sent to Yunnan by the Go-Ye class were Mary's sister Beatrice and her husband Lester Van Meter, and Katherine Baerg.
The
timeline is not clear, but after their first term in China, Forrest and Mary
Esther went to the Holy Land, India, and Burma. They started working in the
"remote Alpine section of Burma" in northern Kachin State. From
there, Forrest wrote to the Go-Ye class, describing their contact with
Mongolian (i.e. T'rung and/or Duru) pygmies who had been enslaved by Tibetan
invaders. Again, it is not clear whether this was before 1940, or whether it
was after World War 2.
Oregon and Chile
They
must have returned to the States by 1940, when Forrest registered for military
service. Around this time, they moved to Oregon, where Forrest was born, and
Forrest started the Miracle Book Club, a program for children that met in the
home of George and Edwina Cote, near Cedar Mill, Oregon. In December 1940,
three local Christian small groups in Cedar Mill got together and asked Forrest
to be their teacher. The resulting congregation met in the old Wesley Chapel
rented from Burton Reeves, and became what is now known as Cedar Mill Bible
Church.
Sometime
later, the Forbeses must have gone on a mission trip to South America, because
ship records show that on June 11, 1943, the S. S. Copiapo sailed for the US
from Valparaiso, Chile, carrying Forrest (age 36), Mary (age 29), Esther (age
10), and Stephen (age 7). On July 18, the ship arrived in New Orleans and
Forrest, Mary, Esther, and Stephen disembarked. Their address in the US at that
time was listed as 6108 Southeast 92nd Avenue, Portland, Oregon.
In 1945, the church where Forrest had been teaching was incorporated as Cedar Mill Community Church (now called Cedar Mill Bible Church).
Burma and the boat back
By 1947, the war was over and Forrest and Mary Esther were in Burma. Forrest took a 600-mile trek through the Duru area in northern Kachin State along with a local Christian guide; according to Jack Wyrtzen, the people they met were living in trees. Then, just as they were starting to see ministry results, their plans were interrupted again when Mary Esther was diagnosed with cancer. Stunned and saddened, they boarded a boat back for San Francisco. On the boat however, they met a young couple named Fred and Lurabelle Annis, who were leading a Harvard-Brown expedition in Asia. As a result of their conversations, Fred and Lurabelle became Christians. After they got back to the US, Mary Esther found that, by answer to prayer, she had been healed of her cancer.
Fred and Lurabelle's story
A
side note on Fred and Lurabelle Annis -- after arriving back home in the US,
they talked about their newfound faith to their niece, Jane MacRoberts, and she was converted the
following summer at Jack Wyrtzen's Word of Life Camp, and the following year
married the assistant camp director, Dick Reed, and the two of them later
founded a Christian radio station in Liberia. Meanwhile, Fred Annis went to MIT
for his Master's degree, and then he and Lurabelle came to Wyrtzen's camp and
did some building projects. Then in February 1952, Fred went to Rangoon, Burma
for two years as an architect supervising building projects for the US State Department.
In the evenings, Fred and Lurabelle held Bible classes for young people there
in Rangoon. Thus, as a result of Mary Esther's cancer, lives were changed both
in Burma and in the US and Africa.
In Oregon again
On
January 21, 1948, the Lowell Sun, a newspaper in Massachusetts,
mentioned Forrest as a missionary who had just returned from Burma. That same
year, Forrest published a biography of his friend, radio evangelist Jack
Wyrtzen, called God Hath Chosen: The Story of Jack Wyrtzen and the Word of
Life Hour. Both Forrest and Jack were active in Youth For Christ.
In
July 1950, Forrest became pastor of Damascus Community Church in Oregon, taking
over from Rev. V. A. Weir. He remained active in missions mobilization, and in
April 1952, he spoke at the chapel of George Fox College (now George Fox
University) in Newberg, Oregon as part of the second annual GFC mission
convention. The student newspaper The Crescent mentions it in an article
on 25 Apr 1952, and lists him as a former newspaper reporter and missionary in
Burma, China and India -- it is unclear when he was in India.
Their daughter Kathie went off to Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California, where she met Richard Neil Carpenter. Rich joined the Air Force in 1952, and on August 28, 1953, the two were married in Damascus.
The year 1954 brought several changes for the Forbeses. That was the year that Jack Wyrtzen published part of their and the Annises' story in his book Leaping Flame: Youth Witnessing for Christ. (This book is one of the main sources for my account here.) Then, on November 27, Mary Esther's father died in Riverside, California, and that same month, Forrest stepped down as pastor of Damascus Community Church, succeeded by Guilford S. Martin.
Back to California
They moved back to California, probably to be closer to Mary Esther's family, and in 1960, Forrest and Mary Esther bought a house at 295 West County Line in Calimesa, Riverside County, which had been built in 1958 by H.E. Chillcot Sr. and Martha R. Chillcot. The following year, on January 28, their son Stephen, aged 25, married Joan E. Fee, aged 23, in Riverside.
Having
started out as a journalist, Forrest never gave up writing and publishing. In
1962, he and his mother Lottie (born Lottie Maybee, later Lottie Forbes, but by
this time Lottie Morris) published a short book on the history of their old
hometown, where Lottie had first moved in 1880 at age 4. This 62-page booklet
was entitled Days and Ways of Old Damascus, Oregon. Mary Esther drew a
log cabin on the cover and other illustrations using a wash drawing process.
It's fortunate that they wrote the book when they did, because three years
later, in 1965, Lottie passed away. In 1968, Mary Esther's mother Alice also
died.
On
April 9, 1966 Forrest appeared in the Redlands Daily Facts, a local newspaper from Redlands, California, with the announcement that he would give a lecture
on "The Valley of the Black Death". The article described him as a
former missionary to Burma, China, and South America.
Forrest
continued with his historical writing, publishing a 63-page booklet in 1975
entitled Days and Ways of Early Ceres, Stanislaus County, California. Along
with his writing, Forrest opened a printing business. In 1976, he got a
building permit to erect an eight-foot tall sign for "Calimesa
Printing" at his house. His daughter, Kathie Carpenter, in her 2001
reprinting of Days and Ways of Old Damascus Oregon called him a
"journalist, poet, author & printer -- missionary & minister".
On
July 14, 1991, Mary passed away in San Bernardino County, California at age 77.
Less than two years later, on May 14, 1993, Forrest also died at age 86. You
can visit their graves at Desert Lawn Memorial Park in Calimesa, Riverside
County, California.
Their
two children have also passed away by since then. Stephen died in Yucaipa, San
Bernardino County, California, at age 63 on September 24, 1999, and Kathie died
at age 88 on October 13, 2021, having spent her last years in Bee Cave, Texas.
Why we write
The
story of Forrest and Mary Esther Forbes strikes different people for different reasons.
The children of Jennie Mitchell wrote about them because it was exciting for
their mother's Sunday school class to send out one of their own couples as
missionaries. The present-day iteration of the class, which was called the
Go-Ye Fellowship for many years, and is now known as Global Grace Fellowship,
is proud to list them as the first of many missionaries that they sent out,
although they don't give many historical details beyond a name and a photo.
Evangelist
Jack Wyrtzen wrote about them in 1954 as a dedicated young couple who
influenced others such as the Annises even when their own plans were changed by
health issues -- possibly returning the favor from when Forrest had written
Jack's biography in 1948. Wyrtzen also plays on the theme of giving up or
transforming worldly careers such as Forrest's journalism or Fred Annis's
academic and government career into avenues for Christian service in one's free
time -- this is in line with his purpose of inspiring more young people to
follow suit.
Two
different churches in Oregon mention Forrest as a founding or early pastor, and
mention his credentials as a veteran missionary. The veteran missionary theme
also comes up when newspapers announced that he was giving a lecture --
audiences would be lured in by the promise of stories from exotic places like
China, the Holy Land, India, Burma, and South America.
It
is interesting how much the Forbeses' story intertwines with young adult
ministry and new technology -- Forrest was converted by Paul Rader, a radio
evangelist and megachurch planter in the 1930s, and he and Mary Esther joined
an adult Sunday school class which propelled them into foreign missions. When
they came back during World War 2, the first ministry-related thing that
Forrest started was a children's Bible club. I have to think that experiences
with youth work in Los Angeles had something to do with this -- and also with
Fred and Lurabelle Annis's Christian camp experience and the youth Bible
classes they taught in Burma.
Another theme that comes up is writing and publishing. There would be no record at all of this fragmentary story if Forrest and Mary Esther had not written newsletters back to the Go-Ye class! Forrest carried on a newspaper career both in the US and in China with the Associated Press, in China he printed Christian literature, and in his later years he ran his own publishing business and published two books of local history. I only wish the two of them had written their own story for us beyond what I have been able to piece together here.
When my own journey took a left turn
As I said at the beginning, my personal interest in their story is because of their brief connection with the Duru. I also had the chance to study Duru while living in Thailand and Burma over the last few years, but I had to return to the US a year and a half ago because of my mother's cancer -- unlike Mary Esther's cancer, my mother's was fatal, but it did turn out for good in unexpected ways.
This year, I have been helping with a children's program called Awana at my church and got to know several families that I wouldn't have known otherwise -- and I found out recently that Awana was founded by Lance "Doc" Latham and Arthur "Art" Rorheim, two members of Paul Rader's church in Chicago back in the 1920s-50s. I also met several people related to the Duru in my hometown, including Lungmi and Jinghpaw family just down the street from my dad's house.
I will have to save my own stories for a later post or conversation, but my takeaway from the story of Forrest and Mary Esther Forbes is to not be discouraged if your journey takes a left turn. There are still many interesting things to do, people to meet, and stories to write, and you never know what will happen as a result.
Sources
Bruce,
Virginia. 2007. Featured business: Cedar Mill Bible Church. The Cedar Mill
News (November 2007). https://cedarmillnews.com/legacy/archive/1107/cedar_mill_bible_church.html
Damascus
Community Church. 2022. Damascus Community Church -- A brief historical
outline.
https://www.damascuscc.org/o/damascus-community-church/page/our-story--6
Familysearch.org
(various historical records)
Find
a Grave Memorial. n.d. Esther Kathleen "Kathie" Forbes Carpenter.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/233247218/esther-kathleen-carpenter
Find
a Grave Memorial. n.d. Stephen Adelbert Forbes.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/49375975/stephen-adelbert-forbes
Forbes,
Forrest Dale. 1948. God Hath Chosen: The Story of Jack Wyrtzen and the Word
of Life Hour. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. Reprinted in Joel A. Carpenter.
1988. The Youth for Christ movement and its pioneers. New York: Garland.
Forbes,
Forrest Dale. 1962. Days and ways of old Damascus Oregon. Calimesa, CA:
Damascus Road Press.
Forbes,
Forrest Dale. 1975. Days and ways of early Ceres, Stanislaus County,
California. Calimesa, CA: Calimesa Printing Co.
George
Fox University Archives, "The Crescent - April 25, 1952". 1952.
"The Crescent" Student Newspaper. 588. https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/the_crescent/588
Go-Ye
Fellowship. 2014. History of Go-Ye Fellowship. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZbYFB_9mjE
(source of the photo of Forrest and Mary Esther Forbes and their children.
Mitchell,
Robert Bryant and Marietta Mitchell Smith with Howard Hugh Wade. 1988. Jennie
and the song of the meadowlark. Weaverville, CA: Isaiah Sixty : One
Publishing Co.
Reed,
Jane and Jim Grant. 1968. Voice under every palm: The story of Radio Station
ELWA. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.
https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Station-Albums/ELWA-Voice-Under-Every-Palm-Reed-Grant-1968.pdf
Tang,
Bai "Tom" and Michael Hogan. 2019. Historical-period building
evaluation report: 295 W. County Line Road and 907 S. California Street.
Prepared for Albert A. Webb Associates, for submittal to the City of Calimesa,
California. https://yucaipa.org/wp-content/uploads/dev_svcs/Appendix_B1.pdfB
Tribute Archive. Richard Neil Carpenter. https://www.tributearchive.com/obituaries/12320436/Richard-Carpenter
Weddle, Linda. 2018. Celebrating Art Rorheim. https://www.awana.org/2018/01/11/celebrating-art-rorheim/
Wyrtzen,
Jack. 1954. Leaping flame: Youth witnessing for Christ. Westwood, NJ:
Fleming H. Revell.
Wyrtzen,
Jack. 1991. Interview with Bob Shuster on October 5, 1991. Tape T2 in
Collection 446, Wheaton College, Billy Graham Center archives.
https://www2.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/exhibits/cgt/rader14xtra09.html
