By Darla Martin Tucker

La Sierra University graduate student and lay preacher, Mabel Duncan, will not be boxed in by anything, save the will of God.

Duncan, a 64-year-old mother of four adult children and grandmother of one delivered her first sermon at age 18, despite cultural protocol that excluded females from preaching. At age 62, when most people are gearing down, she geared up, earning a bachelor’s degree in religious studies from La Sierra. She graduated with her daughter, Renee Duncan-Lara, who received a bachelor’s in psychology.

Duncan is entering the final year of a master’s program in pastoral studies at La Sierra University and this summer completed a unit of a Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) course at Loma Linda University. Ultimately she awaits God’s calling to direct use of her education.

“People are telling me where they see me working in the future, and I appreciate their vision for me. But the One who called me will direct my path. I am sure that He called me to proclaim to the world a loving, merciful and personal Savior Whom I love with all my heart,” Duncan said.

“Right now I am sharing my personal knowledge of and love for Him by means of our Website (God’s and mine), www.standonthepromises.org. Personally, I would love to travel the world telling people everywhere, there is a Savior and He loves you. My greatest joy is watching people fall in love with Jesus,” she said.

For most of her life, Duncan has preached God’s word as a lay pastor to audiences great and small for retreats, weeks of prayer and church services throughout the United States and her native Republic of Panama.

She got her start at age 18, as the only female speaker at a youth revival meeting in the Panamanian city of Colón. It was her first sermon and Duncan brought to light Bible stories in new and unusual ways.

 “The [audience] really responded well,” she said. As a female preacher, Duncan attracted added attention. While women served as Sabbath School superintendents and youth leaders, they typically didn’t give sermons. “It was sort of a first,” she said. “It was something new.”

Speaking engagements over the years have included events in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and in Dorchester, Mass. In April she served as the main speaker for the 17th Annual Big Island Christian Women’s Retreat at the King Kamehameha’s Kona Beach Hotel. In all, Duncan delivered eight sermons April 25 through 27, four in English and four in Spanish.

For 4 ½ years she also spoke alternate Sabbaths at churches in Sunland Tujunga and Pomona. Additionally, the Burbank Seventh-day Adventist Church hired Duncan to serve one year as lay pastor for preaching, and to assist in the music department.

Duncan eventually gave up the hectic, multi-church weekend schedule so that she could worship with her husband, Herman Ricardo Duncan, in their home church, Altadena Seventh-day Adventist Church. The Duncans are ordained elders there.

Mabel Duncan always preached for the love it, believing it a calling but without consciously choosing it as a career. But after raising four children and immigrating to the United States in 1999 with her husband and daughter, Renee, Duncan decided to pursue her long-held interest in a Seventh-day Adventist higher education.

In 2001 she wanted to enroll at La Sierra and needed to choose a major. She considered psychology and other fields, “but when it came to the moment to make the decision, it was preaching the Word that overruled,” Duncan said. “I wanted additional knowledge so that when I spoke the Word, I would speak wisely and with authority.” She minored in psychology, a pursuit she considers her “second love.”

Duncan grew up in the Republic of Panama along with three siblings. Her family was Episcopalian. Through the influence of family friends, Duncan, at age 12, began studying the Bible and Seventh-day Adventist beliefs through a Voice of Prophecy course. Following evangelistic meetings, Duncan was baptized at age 15 along with her eldest sister, her future husband, Herman, and Herman’s sister and 250 or so other people in a river in Colón. The late Owen Uriah Holness conducted the baptism.

While raising a family, the Duncans worked a cumulative 40 years for various offices of the U.S. Department of Defense in Panama. Mabel Duncan held clerical and supervisory positions and raised the couple’s four children. Herman Duncan worked more than two jobs and earned a bachelor’s degree in social work from the University of Panama, and a Master’s degree in human resource management from Nova University, Ft. Lauderdale. He is currently working on a second master’s in social work at Loma Linda University.

As the U.S. government ceded control of the Panama Canal and U.S. military bases to Panama in 1999, the Duncans decided to leave their country “to try something else,” Mabel Duncan said. After immigrating to the United States, the couple and their daughter, Renee, lived briefly with Duncan’s brother in Montebello before moving to Eagle Rock.

Duncan’s brother introduced her and her daughter to the La Sierra campus. After studying one year at Pasadena City College, Duncan enrolled at La Sierra. She also landed a job in the university’s Advancement office where tasks included working as a phone-athon caller and later as a phone-athon supervisor. “It was one of the most positive experiences ever,” she said. “The people in that office became like family.”

For the love of La Sierra
Duncan believes God led her to La Sierra University. “I love its openness to meet people where they are,” she said. “I always felt like there was a place for me at La Sierra.” Duncan’s daughter, Dirma Duncan, earned a Master’s of Business Administration with a marketing emphasis in 2003 from La Sierra’s School of Business. Dirma is cited in the 2003 Who’s Who Among Students In American Universities and Colleges and wrote her first book, published this year, “Gong Somewhere? A Modern Parable.”

Bobby Brown, now La Sierra University’s associate vice president for enrollment services, and his wife, Velda Cobb-Brown were among those who initially befriended the Duncans. “[The Browns] were absolutely instrumental in us deciding for LSU,” said Mabel Duncan. “Since then God has blessed my life with some of the most extraordinary people in the entire world. I praise Him for this.”

PR Contact: Larry Becker
Executive Director of University Relations
La Sierra University
Riverside, California
951.785.2460 (voice)