It is fifty years since a modest front-page news brief appeared in Largs and Millport Weekly News. On Friday October 20 1967, in a discrete headline, it announced: “Gave Up Jobs for Missionary Training”. Whether by accident or design, the story occupied the centre of the page.

The text read: “Three members of Brisbane Hall, Largs (now Brisbane Evangelical Church) have given up their jobs to enter the Bible Training Institute, Glasgow. They intend to train for overseas mission work or church service.” It named the three, giving the ages of the two men, coyly silent on the age of the young woman who was the third person. Fifty years later, all three have returned to Largs. What happened during those 50 years?

One of the three, John Carrick, later married Margaret Laird from Northern Ireland, and began his ministry as Youth Director at the Maranatha Centre, Motherwell, moving to England in 1975, where he was minister of churches in Southampton and Ringwood for twenty-three years. During this time he made regular preaching and lecturing visits to India. He was also a Board member of MECO (Middle East Christian Outreach), and latterly becoming its Director.

During 15 years in MECO leadership John and Margaret travelled widely in the Middle East, working with key church leaders and gaining first-hand knowledge of events. He was invited to speak in Parliament about the church situation in the region. He continues to advocate the needs of persecuted Christians around the world. Now retired, John is a board member of Railway Mission responsible for the pastoral care of professional chaplains based at main-line stations.

The other two, Ronnie Sim and Margaret Brisbane married immediately after training and moved to Inverness. After several years teaching there, they went to Ethiopia in 1975 with Wycliffe Bible Translators. They worked with rural churches in communities where Christians lacked the Bible in their own language, training local men and women in translation. Along the way both completed doctoral studies in University of Edinburgh.

From 1990 they established degree programmes from BA up to PhD level in Bible and translation in Africa International University, Nairobi. These programmes gave African men and women the opportunity to achieve formal qualifications in Bible translation, which they then carried out in their own communities. While in Nairobi, Professor Ronnie was head of Translation Studies Department which he established, and Dr Margaret became Head of Biblical Studies Department. Both are international translation consultants with Wycliffe Bible Translators.

Over the years they worked on various African languages, consulting and facilitating local teams of translators in Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Mozambique and Zambia. They lived or worked in nine African countries and trained translators in as many more. “We invested in others”, says Ronnie. “A number of those trained have now translated the full Bible and a number are now translation consultants themselves.” They still make repeated trips to Africa, to consult with translators, mentoring, training, and helping them finish their task.

Was it worth it? Would they do it all again? All agree “we have enjoyed rich lives in church and missionary work beyond anything we could have dreamed in 1967.” Both couples are again resident in Largs.