RICHMOND, Va. (BP) — When Gayle Stanley began working for the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) on Jan. 4, 1982, the international missions entity was called the Foreign Mission Board. Personal computers were a thing of the future, as were cell phones.

Rolodexes, facsimile machines, landlines and electric typewriters were state-of-the art necessities.

“It was a different time,” Stanley tells Baptist Press 43 years later. “We came to work in dresses and skirts. And the men wore suits.

“When they brought computers in, we were all kind of kicking and screaming, saying, what in the world? We don’t know how to use these. And we learned on the job. You relied on others to help you, and you made it through.”

But Stanley did more than make it through.

“She did it with grace,” is how retired missionaries Randy and Janice Hicks put it.

“She had the patience of Job. She had the encouragement powers of Barnabas. And she had the work ethic of Paul,” Janice Hicks told Baptist Press with no exaggeration intended. “And oh my goodness, she wrapped it all up in an openness and a love, a humility, all of that, and a sense of humor. I mean, you couldn’t find anyone better to work with through rough times, because there were rough times that we were like, whoa, the changes are coming too fast.”

Stanley retired Oct. 15. In her tenure, she witnessed numerous changes at the entity that became known as the International Mission Board (IMB) 15 years into her service.

The Hickses met Stanley in 1985 during commissioning week when the couple was assigned to Japan. At that time, as secretary of the East Asia office, Stanley was the point of contact for field personnel. She helped them through their appointment, orientation and various concerns they encountered in the field.

One of the earliest issues the Hickses encountered was trying to get a driver’s license for Randy in Japan. His Alabama license had expired while in Richmond, putting him in the unique position of his new license only being a few weeks old, when Japan required international applicants to have had a license at least three months.

“We didn’t know the rules. So we went to the office to get the license,” said the Hickses, finishing one another’s sentences as couples married 52 years are prone to do. “So I contacted the area office in Richmond and explained my plight. And Gayle, she got on it. She contacted Virginia DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) and told them and then at the same time my older brother contacted Alabama to get, you know, saying that I’d had a license since I was 16 years old. And with those two letters, then I was able to get my license.”

Stanley describes her first post as “one of the best jobs at IMB,” cherishing opportunities she had to directly support field personnel, to build relationships with them, and to pray for them.

“It was truly an amazing front row seat,” Stanley said.

She was hired as an unmarried Gayle Haden after responding to a newspaper ad, the key method of employment advertising in 1982, when she was just 25 years old. Two years into her previous job in the secular arena, she realized there was no opportunity for upward mobility nor any support for Christian discipleship. Her pastor’s wife at the historic Goochland Baptist Church in Manakin-Sabot, Va., suggested she apply to the Foreign Mission Board.

“And I can remember that we had one fax machine for the building,” she said, “and we’d all line up about 4 o ‘clock in the afternoon to send our faxes for the day.”

Stanley found upward mobility at the SBC entity. In 1997, she became secretary of the Western Pacific regional office and switched to administrative assistant to the Pacific Rim office in 2005. In 2009, she was administrative assistant to the vice president for personnel. From there, she became executive assistant to the executive vice president in 2009, a post she held until 2018. Then she moved to the president’s office as executive assistant, her last assignment.

Five men served as IMB president during her tenure, including Keith Parks, Jerry Rankin, Tom Elliff, David Platt and today, Paul Chitwood.

“He put his trust in me from the beginning,” Stanley said of Chitwood, “and allowed me to grow and serve in ways where I’ve been able to thrive. Working with pastors and their assistants, as well as the SBC entities, has been a blessing.”

Chitwood praises Stanley, proclaiming her a blessing.

“Having been blessed in 32 years of ministry to serve with so many godly, gifted and dedicated administrative assistants, I must say that Gayle Stanley, among an absolutely incredible group, has been the most knowledgeable, conscientious, intuitive and dedicated admin I’ve known,” Chitwood told Baptist Press. “May God bless her richly for her heart for IMB’s mission, Southern Baptist missionaries, and her support of me as IMB president, for God has blessed so many through her.”

But the IMB has also been a blessing to Stanley. She notes the way the IMB stood by her through changes in her own life, including her marriage in 1984, motherhood in 1991 and her subsequent divorce in 2010.

“I had a supervisor that walked alongside of me through each one of those events. The first one saw me married and have my child,” Stanley said, referencing her former supervisor Judy Robertson, who was associate area director for East Asia. “But then when I was going through my divorce, Virgil Cooper was my supervisor.”

Cooper and his wife Amy had served in South Korea, and he was then serving in the Richmond office.

“They walked with me through that really difficult time,” Stanley said. “I can remember Virgil, and Virgil had known my husband, he had known my family, and I can remember going in and having to say, this is what’s going on in my life. And he just sat there and cried with me and prayed with me and said, ‘Lord, I don’t even know how to pray, but I know that you have Gayle, and I know that you’re going to be with her.’”

Such support likely would not have been available anywhere else, Stanley suspects.

“They were just so supportive,” she said of the Coopers. “It was just such a meaningful time to have them as my supervisors. I have thanked God for years and years that they were the ones.”

Now 69, Stanley describes her retirement as bittersweet.

“I will truly miss those day-to-day relationships I have with staff, field personnel, trustees, pastors and their assistants,” she said, “and so many more.”

Stanley has purchased a home near her daughter and son-in-law, still attends Goochland Baptist Church — where she served as an organist decades ago — and looks forward to the additional time she’ll have to volunteer and perhaps sign up for aquacise classes at the local YMCA.

The IMB recognized her in its Oct. 15th chapel service and hosted a reception in her honor.

“And then I’m going to walk out the door and let the tears fall,” she said in advance of her last day. “And we’ll get on past this and see what’s next.”

(EDITOR’S NOTE — Diana Chandler is Baptist Press’ senior writer.)