Remaining Faithful to God’s Call
Ed and Rachel Erny Served OMS in Taiwan
Rachel Erny welcomed Christ into her life after graduating from business school and starting a job in her hometown. She attended a revival, where she entered into a real and personal relationship with Jesus. Following this life change, Rachel felt like she needed more education because she wanted to prepare for whatever God wanted her to do. She left work and went to Asbury College (now Asbury University). She had a former high school classmate attending Asbury, who encouraged her to go there, so she did. She was introduced to missions and One Mission Society while at Asbury. She also attended a missions prayer meeting off campus. Rachel’s late husband Ed was an OMS missionary kid, and he felt very clearly called to missions.
Rachel met Ed at the beginning of her junior year at Asbury while Ed was attending seminary there. They decided that they would get married once Rachel finished her two years of undergraduate, and Ed finished his two years at seminary.
Then OMS wanted Crusaders to serve in Asia—young men to come for two years and do evangelistic work—and Ed felt very definitely that he should go. Because Ed went to serve in Taiwan, the Ernys postponed their wedding for two years. Rachel said, “At that time, it seemed like a hard thing. Later on, it proved to be a wonderful thing … while Ed was assigned to Taiwan, the person who became the co-laborer with us in our ministry during our 20 years in Taiwan was saved. Rachel shared, “The delay seemed like an obstacle, but I have no doubt that it was the best thing that could have happened.”
Ed felt God calling him back to Taiwan after his time in the OMS Crusades, so he and Rachel served in Taiwan together where all three children were all born. Rachel and Ed encountered other challenges while following their calling, including the death of a son. When their oldest son was attending college in the U.S., they received word that he had died. Rachel described that as a very traumatic experience. Their son had been doing well, attending Asbury, and dating a lovely girl, but he chose to take his own life. That was a devastating blow for the family. They came back to the States for his funeral then returned to Taiwan. It was a heavy burden to carry, and finally, Ed and Rachel decided to take time off and spend several days at a mountain resort in Taiwan. Rachel said, “I felt like that was the beginning of our healing. We commended our son’s suicide to God. It was God’s problem—not ours—his problem to take care of. So we were able to start healing from our son’s death.”
Rachel advises new and current missionaries to “be open to anything that God wants you to do and to read missionary biographies.” She said, “I feel like reading missionary biographies is quite important. Reading these helped me to become a missionary. And, if you get a chance to go on a short-term mission trip, do it.”