Bethel Paul

BETHEL

Bethel Rosyln Carpenter was born June 8, 1922 in Wabash, Indiana to Dewey and Rena Carpenter. When 2 years old, she moved West with her parents to Oregon in a caravan of cars that included grandparents, aunts and uncles. Her parents settled in Corbett (20 miles east of Portland), high above the Columbia River Gorge, and within sight of majestic Mount Hood. She was the eldest of eight children and grew up on a rural acreage, where as a girl and young adult she worked for farmers hoeing and harvesting berries, cabbage, carrots, cucumbers and daffodils.

She was baptized into Christ at age 11 by Gene Chamberlain at the Corbett Christian Church, where she served faithfully in the Sunday School as a teenager. She excelled in school, being awarded the Good Citizenship Certificate by the National Daughters of the American Revolution and was chosen to represent Columbian High School at Girl's State in her senior year. She later served as house mother at Girl's State. Bethel was also active in school sports activities and drama productions and was selected as valedictorian of her graduating class in 1940.

After a failed marriage as a teenager, she raised her two boys, Bennie and Terry, as a single parent until marrying Bill Paul on September 27, 1947. They had a very happy marriage that spanned 62 years and produced four more children, Tim, Sheila, Billy and Danny.

Over the course of her husband's 50-year ministry Bethel was an outstanding preacher's wife, serving the Lord through music, teaching girls' and ladies' classes and ministering to the elderly. She was probably best known for her faithful and consistent prayer life and for her compassionate concern for people, as evidenced by her sending cards and gifts and by providing tender care wherever there was a need.

Throughout her active lifetime, and especially during the illnesses of her older years, she demonstrated a quiet, peaceful contentment that challenged and inspired the people who knew her everywhere.

Two weeks short of 88, she passed away in peace at her home in Franktown, Colorado on May 25, 2010, at 3:33 PM. Bethel (meaning "house of God") is survived by her loving husband Bill, six devoted children (and their spouses), seventeen grandchildren, and nineteen great-grandchildren, all of whom "rise up and call her blessed" (Proverbs 31:28).