Portrait of Roberta Miller. IMB Photo
Roberta “Bobbie” Miller, an International Mission Board missionary emeritus who shared the gospel in Philippines, died April 13, 2024, in Ridgeland, Mississippi. She was 92.
Bobbie was born Oct. 31, 1931, in Endeavor, Wisconsin, to the late Melvin and Marion Ely. She graduated from Endeavor High School, and received the Bachelor of Arts from Bob Jones University, in Greenville, South Carolina, and studied at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina.
She married Charles Leland Miller in 1953.
She wrote, while seeking missionary appointment: “By the time I had entered my third year in college my calling was becoming more clear. I had fallen in love with a consecrated young man who felt that he should enter the ministry. Together we made plans to serve Christ in the work of the pastorate.”
Immediately after marriage, she became a pastor’s wife. Later, the couple would attend seminary together.
She continued, “In the fall of 1958 when our local Woman’s Missionary Society studied Dr. J. Winston Crawley’s book, Into A New World, I began to feel that perhaps God would have us to think carefully about foreign mission service.”
She added, “Step by step the Lord has guided us through circumstances which might have hindered us from serving as missionaries. Now we have come to the point where we are ready and anxious to take the message of Christ to an area where there are few to witness.”
In 1960, the Foreign Mission Board (now International Mission Board) appointed Bobbie and Charles missionaries to Philippines. After retirement, they did a six-month exploratory mission assignment in Bosnia.
The couple served with the IMB for 32 years.
Bobbie was preceded in death by her husband, Charles Miller.
She is survived by her children, Patty (Chris) Ethridge (Chris) and Bruce (Sherry) Miller both of Madison, Mississippi; six grandchildren; nine great-grandchildren; as well as numerous nieces and nephews.
A funeral service was April 17, at Parkway Funeral Home in Ridgeland, Mississippi.
Donations in her memory may be made to the Lottie Moon Offering, IMB, 3806 Monument Avenue, Richmond, VA 23230, or online at Generosity Resource Center – IMB Generosity.
Read an obituary here.