Pauline DeLeeuw Taber's Obituary
Pauline DeLeeuw Taber was born on January 13th, 1926 in Lakeview, South Dakota on the Yankton Reservation. When she was 9 months old, John and Hendrica DeLeeuw adopted her. (Hendrica was her biological aunt.) Pauline grew up in the farming community of Monroe, Iowa where her father owned a filling station, primarily supplying petroleum products to area farms. The DeLeeuws were members of Monroe First Baptist Church. At a young age, Pauline trusted Christ as her Savior. She learned to play the piano and loved to sing. She was an excellent student and always dreamed of becoming a teacher.
In her teen years, she became a proficient accompanist at church. It was during this time that she became more and more interested in world missions as she heard from missionaries who visited her church, and was challenged by their stories. She became confident that God was calling her to be a missionary. Following God’s call became more important than her dream of being a teacher. At the time, she didn’t think missionaries could be teachers.
Pauline graduated from Monroe High School in 1944. In the fall of that year, she began attending Wheaton College near Chicago, Illinois, majoring in anthropology. It was at Wheaton that she met a handsome gentleman from New Jersey, with a wonderfully mellow baritone voice, who held a strong leading of the Lord to serve in missions, specifically to the remote people groups in the mountains of Northern Luzon, Philippines.
Don and “Polly” were married on June 4th, 1949 in southern Wisconsin where John and Hendrica had moved while Pauline was in college. After more training at Columbia Bible College in Columbia, SC, the Tabers left New York City in 1953, sailing on a freighter via the Panama Canal, bound for the Philippines and what would become a 40-year adventure serving with ABWE in the mountains of Northern Luzon. Pauline served side-by-side with her husband, Don. They were blessed with 5 children… four daughters and a son. Together they helped plant churches, served as surrogate parents to Missionary Kids attending school away from home, helped organize and conduct evangelistic campaigns with national pastors, and trained men and women for the ministry through internships. Polly was always involved in music. She mostly played the accordion, as it could go with her to any remote village or barrio. She loved directing Christmas and Easter musicals. And she encouraged and trained those with musical talent to use their gifts.
In the late 60s, after serving almost 8 years in Baguio City, the Lord led them to the very remote province of Kalinga-Apayao to start a church in the municipality of Tabuk, the capital of the province, where no evangelical church existed. In 1972, they moved to the barrio of Bulanao, where Pauline homeschooled their four younger children. As they began planting a church in Tabuk, she also began a ministry of teaching Bible classes in the public elementary school. She realized then that God had granted her dream of being a teacher. In Tabuk, Pauline was a mentor and “mom” to countless individuals she led to Christ and discipled, many of whom went on to serve the Lord as pastors, Bible teachers, pastors’ wives, and missionaries. She was known affectionately as “Mom Polly.” In the 1980s, toward the end of their time in Tabuk, Polly established Tabuk Baptist Kindergarten. To this day, it is still a ministry of the Tabuk Baptist Church.
Pauline did not consider herself a very strong, courageous woman. She learned to depend on the Lord through many difficulties and challenging circumstances: an ectopic pregnancy during their first term that should have ended her life, typhoons on land and at sea, remote living during their first term and the early years in Tabuk, which included no running water or electricity, intruders…one who grabbed her around the neck and discharged his gun, coming face to face with demonic activity, and surviving the 1990 Luzon Earthquake as well as dealing with its traumatic aftermath. Pauline was faithful to her Lord and Savior despite being a woman who struggled at times with anxiety. She overcame the challenges of her life through her relationship with God. Even after retiring and settling in Longview, she continued to serve God by helping lead a Bible study and teaching ESL classes.
Pauline was preceded in death by her beloved husband, Don, and first-born daughter, Virginia. She is survived by daughters Cynthia Taber, Sylvia Ramaly and husband David, Patricia Griffin and husband Ken, and son Don Taber, Jr. and wife Karen. She is loved by her grandchildren: Heather, Jerry, Jacob, Joel, Raquel, Alexis, Philip, Paul, Reilly, Camryn, and Amanda (and their spouses), and 9 great-grandchildren.
Her service will be held at Fellowship Bible Church on Tuesday, November 19, 2024 at 11 am. The family will receive friends at Rader Funeral Home from 6 to 8 pm Monday. She will be buried at Rosewood Park. Pall bearers will be Jacob Ramaly, Joel DeLeeuw, Paul Taber, Phil Ramaly, Heath DeGarmo, Matt Gustafson, Robby Plymail and Caleb Ashburn.
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