Published May 15, 2008 08:45 pm - For the past 17 years, the Rev. Paul Heller has served the First Presbyterian Church in Plattsburgh. He and his wife, Darlene, will soon leave to operate and expand the Mzuzu Ministry of Hope of Crisis Nursery in Malawi, Africa.
Into Africa: The Rev. Paul and Darlene Heller embark on missionary adventure
Deck
By ROBIN CAUDELL
Staff Writer
PLATTSBURGH -- Darlene Heller is a woman of great faith.
When she met her future husband, she was a Cornell-nurse-in-training who swore not to marry a doctor or a minister. Technically, Paul was not yet a member of the clergy. Taking a break from the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, he worked as a rat inspector for the New York City Health Department.
Wielding a two-foot-long flashlight as a weapon, he navigated dark, dank tenement basements hunting for rats, dead or alive, and their droppings. If found, he cited absentee-in-Paris landlords.
For some human contact, he attended his sister-in-law's Bible study to check out the nurses and discovered Darlene, a born-again Baptist, who hailed from Passaic, N.J.
"I had all these questions about God and life," Paul said. "As a born-again Baptist, she had all the answers. Now, I have a few more answers, and she has more questions."
ASSIGNMENT MALAWI
For the past 17 years, he has served as pastor for the First Presbyterian Church of Plattsburgh. His congregation will hold a farewell celebration in his honor this Sunday following the 9:30 a.m. service; June 1 marks his last day in the pulpit. He has resigned his position so he and Darlene can serve as international mission co-workers for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Their assignment: Malawi, Africa. They will care for orphaned children from birth to age 2 at the Ministry of Hope Crisis Nursery in Mzuzu.
"This is Darlene's fault," Paul said. "Our presbytery started a partnership with Malawi in 1998. They needed a team of pastors and members to go over and make an agreement with the Church of Central Africa Presbytery."
Darlene, a RN, was called to travel to the Synod of Livingstonia.
"I went first by myself," she said. "I said, Never again.' It's too big of a trip -- 17 hours and 40 minutes from New York to Johannesburg, which is how you go. It's really far. It's the other side of the world."
She felt it was God's hand that directed her to an important discovery.
"This would be perfect for Paul. God really wanted to get my husband there."
AFRICA'S HOLD
A mission to Alaska or Labrador was more to Paul's liking.
"I never had any interest in Africa."
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