“Amusing Grace”

In the 1950’s, if your son suddenly no longer wanted to stay home and watch Walt Disney’s Disneyland (later called Wonderful World of Disney) on Sunday nights, you knew something was going on with him. Ken Board had recently attended Vacation Bible School at a new church mission near his home in Virginia and had trusted Christ as his Savior.  When young Ken decided he would rather go to church on Sunday nights, his mom and stepdad wanted to know what had pulled him away from Disney!  Before too long, they also became Christ followers. Ken grew in his faith; however, in his senior year of high school, he did not want to move to Jacksonville, Florida, with his family and was quite angry at the Lord.  God was using this time in his life for His own glory and for Ken’s good.

Just after his family moved, Ken went to youth camp with their new church (now called University Baptist Church) and surrendered his life to the Lord.  The only problem was that he was terrified of public speaking!  Ken began praying about whether his ministry would be in the States or in a foreign country.  At the time, there was a tremendous, continual emphasis on missions at the church and the pastor often preached about missions.  One particular night, as Ken knelt by his bed for his nightly prayers, he prayed, “God, what is Your will for my life?”  Nothing “weird” happened, but he suddenly knew in his heart that God wanted him to be a foreign missionary.

Ken also met his future wife, Louise, at that church and they went to Baptist Bible College together.  They married after their second year.  Upon graduation, they still did not know where God was calling them, so they returned home to serve on staff at the church in Jacksonville.  A missionary couple, Stan and Helen Flynn, came home on furlough during that time and talked often with Ken and Louise about Japan.  After praying about Japan for a year, the Boards knew God was leading them to Japan as well. During deputation in the 1960’s, Ken would meet people, even in churches, who would still refer to the Japanese in vulgar terms.  This broke his heart, but he was also greatly encouraged by the Baptist Bible Fellowship Missions Director, Fred Donnelson. Even though the Donnelsons had been imprisoned by the Japanese (READ MORE)

-written by Janette Lange, BBFI Contributions Manager