Lillie Otera Rogers

Lillie Otera Rogers was born in Malone, Texas, on September 30, 1923. Her parents were Hubert Clayton Rogers and Mary Isabell Allen. She was the youngest of five children: Charles Hubert, Tommie Ruth, Emy Lee, and Travis Earl. She graduated from Mary Hardin-Baylor College in 1945 with a B.S., from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1948 with an M.R.E. degree, and from the University of Texas in 1969 with an M.A. degree.

Lillie served as church secretary at First Baptist Church in Garland, Texas (1946–47), as education and youth director at Southland Baptist Church in Houston, Texas (1948–49), and at Heights First Church in Houston (1949–1953).

The Foreign (now International) Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention appointed Lillie in 1953 to serve in Singapore. She was the first Southern Baptist missionary to be appointed for service in Singapore and was the only Southern Baptist missionary to learn and to work in the Swatow (Teochew) dialect of Chinese. She served from 1953 until 1986. During this time she served in many capacities, including evangelism and church development, kindergarten teacher, English teacher, student worker, theological education teacher, and church planter. For a while she was even bookstore manager in Penang, Malaysia. Lillie also served for a while as the chair of the prayer department for the Singapore Baptist Convention, during which time she led in several workshops and other gatherings for prayer. She initiated the Singapore Handbell Choir, which became well-known among the Baptist churches of Singapore.

In 1972, a pivotal change occurred in her ministry when she appropriated Christ as her life from Romans 6 and Galatians 2:20. Her life and ministry changed when she allowed Christ to live His life through her. After that she always said her most important work was in prayer.

Lillie has written or edited the following books:

The History of Baptists in Malaysia and Singapore (edited with two others)

Pray-Reading the Bible (co-authored with Nan Dickson)

After returning to Texas for retirement in 1986, she called herself “retreaded.” In 1998 she founded LORD Ministries with her assistant Nan Dickson. They continued in leading prayer seminars and speaking on the subject of prayer and personal discipleship. She has recently been living in Temple, Texas.