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Roger Haun Cites C-N as Major Influence in both Career and Family
by Mark Brown
Photos courtesy of William Haun ’01Roger Haun credits Carson-Newman with helping him fulfill his heart’s desire to be a missionary. He also credits it with filling out his family.
The first inkling of the call happened when he was 16 as he listened to a missionary/teacher at his home church, First Baptist, Sweetwater.
“That was the first time that I thought you didn’t have to be a preacher, or a doctor or a single woman like Lottie Moon to be a missionary,” he recalled from his IMB office in Richmond. “That’s why I chose Carson-Newman over some other schools; I figured that would help prepare me.”
A history major, Roger took a Mayterm study trip to France with legendary C-N prof Louise Dickinson and he wound up adding French and becoming a double-major.
He became president of the French honor society and in that capacity was charged with co-leading a Christmas function with Sarah Pate, who was president of the Spanish honor society. The pair began dating shortly after that and married in December of 1976, following their graduation the previous May.
The couple taught for eight years in Winder, Georgia before they sought appointment with what was then the SBC’s Foreign Mission Board. Sarah worked as an elementary school teacher while Roger taught high school French; because, he says, “It was easier to find a job teaching French than teaching history.”
Appointed as missionaries in 1984, they moved to France for language school with their first child, William, in tow. Sarah studied French while Roger moved to university after three months at language school. He completed further studies in the language, adding linguistics and advanced grammar to his dossier. There, they added a second son, David, to their family. Their youngest, Phillip, was born a few years later.
From France, they were assigned to Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) where Roger led literacy classes, teaching adults to read and write French. Ultimately he oversaw seven classes in three languages, French, Jula (Dyula) and Mòoré, and taught in the largest prison in that country. Sarah, a church and home missionary, taught classes in the women’s prison. They lived and worked in both Abidjan and Bouake, the nation’s two largest cities.
They also served with another missionary couple to plant churches; 15 congregations were established in just eight years.
Roger then joined the regional leadership team as an associate director, doing administrative work, training pastors and missionaries, and working as a liaison between the IMB and African Baptist Conventions. He also served as a bilingual translator for conferences. “I can thank Louise Dickinson for preparing me with all that French stuff,” he chuckled.
While William and David grew up and came to C-N, the nineteen-year-old Phillip lives at home where his parents attend to his developmental needs. Roger says the attentive care Phillip received from highly qualified professionals in Abidjan was just one of many affirmations of their mission career.
Since 2000 Roger has led training for all IMB missionaries assigned to West Africa and in 2004 was asked to serve in Richmond. He and Sarah will retire with 25 years of IMB service on October 31, yet Roger is already transitioning to directing the Board’s Personnel Service Center. “It’s rather like one-stop shopping for the needs of those who serve overseas,” he said.
Even as he concludes the West Africa-specific portion of his IMB career, Roger continues to champion the region’s spiritual needs. “We have an ongoing partnership with Tennessee Baptists and there is such a huge need for churches that can help witness and minister there,” he stated. “There are several hundred very small people groups who will never have the services of an IMB missionary. I would love to see if there’s even a way to get Carson-Newman students involved in the effort.”
With 23 countries, from the Cape Verde islands to the Central African Republic and from Mauritania south to Congo, West Africa holds 287 million people, making it almost the size of the US in both area and population. With some 1600 people groups and 1100 different languages, the region presents a host of needs for churches and volunteers.
Through Go West Africa, churches are mobilizing to serve with missionaries and are ultimately working toward serving people groups independently. Short-term volunteers are able to serve terms as short as two weeks. The IMB supports the efforts by coordinating translators and providing insurance. (For more information, visit www.gowestafrica.org.)
The family’s bonds to C-N are strong and replete. Beyond a host of cousins, aunts and uncles who are alumni, several legal knots have been tied as well. Sarah’s parents, John Pate and Lucille White Pate, both 1948 grads, met on campus, as did Roger and Sarah a quarter-century later. William ‘01 and his wife Heidi (Jensen) ’02 have a son, Trey. And David and his wife Brittany (Hall) earned degrees last year. Brittany’s parents, Brent ’70 and Nora (Raines) ’72, also met at Mossy Creek.
“So,” laughs Roger, “C-N has been very good for us not only educationally but matrimonially!”
Beyond providing “a great education,” Roger says, “I can’t think of Carson-Newman without thinking of several professors who made a positive impact on my life. Getting to know professors, some of whom I never even had in class. I sang in First Baptist’s choir with John Burton and through the church I got to know David Young, Dr. (William) Bass and Joe Chapman. They all meant a lot to me.”
