June Brown & Snakes

When June was home on furlough from Sierra Leone she and Ruth Benner would often visit us when doing deputation for the Mission department. It was always so much fun to hear them tell about some of their adventures.

They would jokingly say that places they were going were 3 or more Cobras away.

They shared about a time they were bumping down the road, in her VW named Hamburger, and they ran over a very large snake and it started chasing them down the road.

Rozal/Mumster/Rozanne Hallman

Kerosene Cook Stoves

I thought that Missionaries needed boots and a pith helmet. Never needed them!

When I first went there, every leg of chair had a can of kerosene on it to keep the driver ants away, smell of kerosene everywhere. But then as time went on it changed, but not sure what happened. Missionary modernization happened little by little when I got there. 

Getting around wasn’t too easy. Kerosene refrigerators. Heated the back that made the ice, always a problem, cleaning the wicks. 

Kerosene cooks stoves, we, myself and maybe Nancy Hall and Rita had a little house up on a hill and had a kerosene stove. Every lunch time we would run home, go to the bathroom, get cleaned up. Everytime we were smoking up the ceiling. And one day Dewitt came up and put this great big box on our front porch. I am so tired of painting the wall in your house. You’re going to use a gas stove from now on. After that everybody wanted a gas stove. We got the first bottled gas stove! 

Collecting June Brown Stories

There are many great June Brown Stories. If you have one, or two, or more that you'd like to share, please do so! You can email your story to this blog by using this email address: timhallman.sierraleone@blogger.com and thus others can read and enjoy what you remember. Be sure to put a title to your story in the Subject line. Please pass this email address and blog so that we can collect as many great stories as possible.

June Brown's ministry in Africa spanned four decades - a time of change, a time of difficulties, a time of life transformation. It's also a long enough time to make many friends from around the world. With the unique challenges of ministering in Sierra Leone from the 1950's to the 1990's, maybe you can share parts of your story that include June Brown.

With other material that we are collecting, the goal is to publish a book that highlights many of the memorable moments of June Brown's missionary service. So many great people have been part of her life, and the more that we can connect with and share with, the better!