Gail Petrina Winters was born Dec. 9, 1914 in Buhl, Idaho. She grew up in Gooding, Idaho with her sister, Ardis Alma Joslin Culpepper, and her parents Fred Horace Winters and Lily Petrina (Aamodt) Winters. She was Valedictorian of her Senior Class at Gooding HS. She received degrees from: Glad Tidings Bible Institute in San Francisco, Calif.; Biola School of Missionary Medicine in Los Angeles, Calif.; and Bethany Bible College BA in Santa Cruz, Calif. Gail also studied Education at the University of California, Creative Writing at Wheaton College and Linguistics at Syracuse University. She ministered as a missionary of the Assemblies of God for 46 years from 1939 to 1985. She spent 40 of those years in Congo/Zaire, one year in Haiti and four years in Belgium. She spoke French, Bangala, Kinshasa Lingala and Upper River Lingala. She understood Swahili. Gail was a frequent guest speaker in churches and other groups in Idaho and elsewhere. Gail was coordinator of the Bible translation team of the Bangala language. The New Testament was published in 1977. She wrote and/or translated a number of books of Biblical studies for the ministers and Bible Schools in the Bangala language. She composed and published books in Bangala for teaching adults to read and books for new literates. She supervised a printing press for several years. Miss Winters was one of the few who remained in Congo when the rebellion erupted in 1964 where numbers of missionaries and other foreigners were killed during the civil war. She was one who was rescued by Belgian Paratroopers and the American Air Force. She is survived by her nephew Ron (Dorothy) Joslin of Kelso, Wash.; grand nephews, Ken Joslin of Kalama, Washington and Keith (Angela) Joslin of Renton, Wash.; cousins, Wilber Balch of Sacramento, Calif., Harry Balch of Lincoln, Calif., Jack Balch of Modesto, Calif., and Sherman Balch of Haywood, Calif. A viewing will take place on July 5, 2007 from 4 to 8 p.m. at the Cloverdale Funeral Home at 1200 N. Cloverdale, Boise, Idaho. A Memorial Service will be conducted at Central Assembly Christian Life Center, 12000 Fairview Avenue, Boise at 7 p.m. on Friday, July 6. Gail will be interred at Elmwood Cemetery in Gooding Idaho. Memorials may be made to the Bethel-Cours Avances de Theologie, the Ecole Biblique-Emmanuel, or the West Africa Advanced School of Theology. All of these can be processed by the A/G Foundation, 1445 Boonville Ave, Springfield, MO 65802. Memorials can also be made to the Charity of your choice.
Published in the Idaho Statesman on 6/29/2007.