IMB missionaries Walter and Mary Norvell serve in Lesotho as part of the Masters program, a 2-3 year, fully funded missions opportunity for those who are 55 and older. “We realized maybe God’s not finished with us,” Walter said. (IMB Photo)
By Kristen Sosebee, IMB
Walter and Mary Norvell, who celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in August, never imagined retirement would see them embarking on a new adventure in Africa to reach university students with the Gospel. In fact, until a few years ago, they had never been on a mission trip outside the United States.
Even so, the International Mission Board missionary couple brings decades of experience to their new endeavor. Walter, a retired professor from Williams Baptist University in Arkansas, and Mary, a former college advisor at the same school, have spent almost 50 years working with students.
“I always thought of myself as being on mission because I was crossing a generational barrier,” Walter said.
International missions, though, came later.
In 2017, Walter invited a former student serving as an IMB missionary in Lesotho to come speak to his students. He had no idea how that invitation would shape the next season of his life.
When the class ended, the missionary and his wife approached Walter and Mary.
“As soon as the students left the room, they started putting the screws on us to come,” Walter chuckled. “And so, we decided we would go.”
Their first mission trip to Lesotho was for two weeks in 2018, and they were hooked. Although Walter’s former student was no longer there, they served alongside missionary partners sent out from a church in Texas and became fast friends.
Walter recalled a defining moment during that first trip. In one of the villages they visited, no one showed up for Bible study. Instead, they spent time prayer walking. Walter made his way alone up a hill where he stood looking out across a vast lake.
“There were six or eight villages I could see,” he remembered. “I could turn away in the other direction and look up at the mountains and there were still more villages. And I just began to weep. I was overwhelmed by the amount of lostness there.”
“I knew then that God was going to keep us connected to Lesotho. I just didn’t know how.”
COVID postponed plans to return in 2020, but they went for six weeks in 2022 and another two weeks in 2023. In 2024, they celebrated their 49th wedding anniversary on their fourth trip to Africa.
As their involvement deepened, they prayed continuously for the Lord to call someone to go and work full time among the university students in Lesotho.
Then last year, the Norvells’ missionary friends from Texas asked them an unexpected question.
“You’ve been praying for years for someone to go, but have you considered you might be the ones that need to go?”
Within a couple weeks, the Norvells knew. God was leading them to continue their life’s work with college students, this time across the world. They would be the answer to many years of their own prayers.
But, as they began the process of serving overseas with the IMB, they were met with discouragement. Walter discovered he was in the early stages of cancer. Their journey was delayed by several months while they worked out plans for treatment.
Around the same time he was diagnosed with cancer, Walter came across a book title that resonated deeply with him.
“The title was something about a gun lap, or a bell lap,” Walter explained. “On the final lap of a race, they ring the bell so everybody knows when to kick it up and finish as strong as they can.
“That really began to speak to me,” he continued. “I don’t know if I’m in my bell lap yet or not, but I want to kick it up. What am I saving my energy and my resources for if I can’t use them for the Kingdom?”
In October, the Norvells moved to Lesotho to begin their work reaching university students with the Gospel.
Find more information about the Masters program, a two- or three-year fully funded missions opportunity for those 55 and older, here.