Hong Kong island boasts huge sky scrapers, interesting architecture, unique food, and numerous forms of transportation. One can travel by bus, ferry, train, or plane in a short amount of time, simply traveling throughout the city. One portion of the city skyline shows through the gray and hazy day. View from Hong Kong Island, and through the windows at the port for Star Ferry.Portrait of Ida Lusk. IMB Photo
Ida Bennett Lusk, an International Mission Board missionary emeritus who shared the gospel in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and Philippines, died April 11, 2024, in Brownsville, Tennessee. She was 97.
Ida was born April 4, 1927, in Fruitland, Tennessee, to the late R.K. Bennett and Florence Hunt Bennett. She graduated from Parsons High School in Parsons, Tennessee, received the Bachelor of Arts from Union University in Jackson, Tennessee, and studied at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.
Ida recounted while seeking missionary appointment that at Ridgecrest Conference Center, “God called me again, this time to a surrender of my life to His will and leadership. I’m so thankful that I answered God’s call then, for it was God’s leadership during those years of high school and college which helped me to avoid many pitfalls. Had I failed to heed His call my life would probably have been one of compromise.”
That call eventually led her to seminary where she met Richard Lee Lusk. She married him on June 26, 1953. The call God had on her life later led them to seek missionary appointment.
In 1962, the Foreign Mission Board (now International Mission Board) appointed Ida and Richard missionaries to Hong Kong. The couple would go on to serve in Macau, Taiwan and Philippines for 37 years.
Ida is preceded in death by her husband, Richard, in 2018.
She is survived by her five daughters: Miriam Lusk Berry, Sylvia Lusk Harwell (Mark), Florence Lavinia Lusk (Ed Brainard), Naomi Lusk Lay (David), and Nancy Lusk Tanneberg (Stephen); four grandsons; and a new great-granddaughter born during the eclipse of April 9, 2024.
A funeral service was at Stanton Baptist Church in Stanton, Tennessee, on April 16, 2024.
Donations in her memory may be made to the Lottie Moon Offering, IMB, 3806 Monument Avenue, Richmond, VA 23230, or online at Generosity Resource Center – IMB Generosity.
Read an obituary here.
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