Remembering Mrs. Norma Sligh

By Missionary Chuck Sligh

On June 2, 2003 Norma L. Sligh, my mom and a precious, godly lady, helpmeet, and servant of the Lord, went to be with her Savior. As I preached my own mother’s funeral on June 6, I could not help but thank God for such a mother!

Mom’s life was unique from day one. Growing up on a farm outside San Antonio, Texas, she rode a horse to school every day, and from the age of 11 routinely flew her father’s airplanes in the early days of flying. However, Mom carried an ache in her heart. Rejected by a stern, unloving father, she was unloved and unhappy. In 1949 she met Allen Sligh, and within five months, they were married on Halloween Day! Dad brought a ray of sunshine in Mom’s heart with his winsome personality, but the hole in Mom’s heart was God-sized, and only God could fill it. Their lifestyle was the party scene, and nothing of that life brought peace and satisfaction.

In the midst of it all, God gave them two children. Al, the older of the two, was a precocious, charming boy—and the idol in Mom and Dad’s life. While stationed in Okinawa, God took their idol away: In a tragic accident, Al was electrocuted to death. It was only then that Dad and Mom ever entertained serious thoughts of God and eternity. During this time of hurting deeply, and coming to the end of their hopeless efforts of “reformation”, my grandmother shared the Gospel with my parents and they were gloriously saved.

True salvation brings radical change in a person’s life, and that is what Mom and Dad experienced. Their life from that day forward was a whirlwind of service for God and others. Mom and Dad helped to start the first Independent Baptist church in Smyrna, Tennessee, in our own home, and after Dad’s retirement from the Air Force, they served as missionary school teachers in Okinawa—the very place their son had died! It was in Okinawa, at the Maranatha Baptist Church, that Mom and Dad began serving in U.S. military missions. They served there for 6 years, established a church to the military in Puerto Rico, and established another church to the military in Balboa, Panama, where they served for 19 fruitful years. They spent their last years of ministry together as fill-in missionaries for BIMI military churches in the Far East.

It has oft been repeated that behind every good man is a good woman. It is oft repeated because it is true. Dad served God with all his heart, but beside him stood one of God’s most selfless servants. God has used Dad to bring countless hundreds of servicemen to Christ, but what brought many of them to church in the first place was Mom’s “open house.” Most any time you visited the Sligh home, you would see a houseful of GI’s and their family members. Mom would feed them physically and then feed them spiritually.

And Mom was every bit the soul winner Dad was. Almost every conversation with Mom would end up with a discussion of the Lord and your relation to Him! She won many men, women, and children to Christ.

God used Dad to bring many men to spiritual maturity and service for God, but Mom ministered to their wives and many single female soldiers who needed a mentor and an example of what a virtuous, faithful Christian woman is like.

Mom was also a diligent student of the Word. Almost every page of her Bible is underlined or highlighted with her unique color-code system, with copious notes on difficult passages, personal applications of verses to her life, and notes on Bible words and doctrines. Her notes alone are priceless, and would put many a preacher’s Bible study notes to shame.

Mom had eternal values. One former member of their church in Panama remembers pitying them for their threadbare couch. He writes, “She looked at me with a smile and a genuine gleam in her eye and said, ‘Jacob, I decided some time ago that I was going to minister to people, and not to furniture.’” Because of her (and Dad’s) emphasis on eternal values and love for God, three of their children serve the Lord in full-time Christian service.

Mom’s one desire in life was to be used by God, and her great love was military personnel and their families. She was looking forward with anticipation to going with Dad to Guam to start a new work to U.S. military personnel, which Dad has decided to follow through with, knowing that would be Mom’s desire. BIMI has honored my mother with a memorial fund in her name to advance the cause of missions to military, immediately in Guam, and further ahead, military missions in general. Nothing would please her more than for Christians to contribute to the cause of military missions.

Memorial Fund

The Sligh family asked me to establish a memorial in her honor. This we have done. You can make donations to this by sending the contribution to Baptist International Missions Inc. PO Box 9215 Chattanooga, TN. 37412. It should be designated for the Norma Sligh memorial, BIMI Memorial fund #842. This will be used to help start the church in Guam as Brother Sligh plans on going ahead and start the church.

Dr. James Kennard
Military Director