After serving for 35 years as missionaries with the Southern Baptist International Mission Board, Roy and Dirce Cooper have retired to Tennessee.
NEWPORT — When Roy and Dirce Cooper step down in March of 2025 after serving for 35 years as missionaries with the Southern Baptist international Mission Board, they will call Tennessee “home” for the first time in their life.
Cooper was reared in South Carolina, while his wife, Dirce, who is Japanese, was born in Brazil.
The Coopers are currently on stateside assignment, acclimating themselves to their future home. They recently spent several days visiting the mountains of East Tennessee while staying at Carson Springs Baptist Conference Center.
The Coopers, global catalysts formerly based in Florida, shared their thoughts with the Baptist and Reflector on retiring to Tennessee (Jackson) and expressed appreciation to Tennessee Baptists for making their ministry possible by their gifts through the Cooperative Program and the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. The Week of Prayer for the Christmas offering is currently underway (Dec. 1-8) in Tennessee and across the nation.
The theme of this year’s Week of Prayer is the “Great Pursuit” which was introduced to Southern Baptists at the SBC annual meeting in June.
“From the Great Commission to the Great Multitude, we unite in a ‘Great Pursuit’ of those who have yet to hear the good news of the gospel,” IMB president Paul Chitwood said. “We work together to address lostness as the world’s greatest problem, to make disciples in every nation, all tribes and peoples and languages.”
The national Lottie Moon Christmas Offering goal is $205 million. As always, every dollar given to this offering will go to the work of IMB missionaries.
The Coopers met at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and discovered they had a similar love and passion for missions. They were married in 1980 and began a process that lasted 10 years before they were appointed as missionaries to Costa Rica where they were involved with theological education, worship leadership development and church planting, the couple said.
After 10 years in Costa Rica, the Coopers were looking for ways to be involved with theological education on a grassroots level, instead of large institutions, Cooper said.
They learned of needs for such a ministry in Cuba and after a lot of prayers, they began serving in Cuba with the IMB Cuba team, based in South Florida. They lived in Mexico for the first four years until direct charter flights began to be available from Miami and Fort Lauderdale, so they moved to South Florida.
While Cooper was involved primarily in theological education, his wife worked with both conventions in Cuba to develop 86 worship schools.
At the schools, they trained leaders in the country and to lead a team of Cuban musicians to publish their first hymnal (translate Cuban Praise), he said, noting there has been a “great awakening” movement in Cuba for decades.
While in Cuba, the Coopers met many volunteers from Tennessee who took mission trips to Cuba.
Tennessee has played an important role in training worship leaders in Cuba, said Dirce Cooper. Her husband agreed, adding that Tennessee Baptists have impacted Cuba and other Latin American countries.
During their last six years or so in Cuba, they have worked with American Peoples Globalization, helping the two conventions in Cuba to send their missionaries to the nations, Cooper said.
One of their reasons for joining the Cuba team was to help train their leaders to send missionaries to other countries, his wife said. So far, Cuba has sent out 17 missionaries to work with IMB teams in Ecuador, Colombia, Mexico, India and Uganda, she added.
Though they are retiring next March, the board has asked them to consider future volunteer opportunities. Right now, the couple agreed, “we’re just trying to settle in Jackson and pray about what God wants us to do.”
They settled on Jackson because Dirce has a sister there and that has been the location for family reunions for several years, he said.
They are appreciative for the help given to them by Tennessee Baptist volunteers in Cuba and for the support of Tennessee Baptist churches that give through the Cooperative program and the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering.
“We’re so thankful for Tennessee Baptists for their giving and prayer support in the midst of financial crisis and the challenges of inflation and for remembering that God has called us together to fulfill the Great Commission,” Cooper said. B&R
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