Born in 1888, Bertha Stanley did not have an easy life. As a child, she lost her mother and two siblings in three separate accidents. Later, when Bertha expressed a desire to attend college, her stepmother threatened her with banishment from the family if she continued her education. Bertha chose college anyway.
Roy Byram came from a long line of Presbyterians. His family drew strength from a promise in Isaiah that stated God would never depart from those who loved him. Roy believed that promise and held fast to it throughout his life.
Roy and Bertha met at Occidental College and married when both were in medical school. By this time, they had become courageous believers who would go on to serve the Lord in dangerous circumstances.
Written by their grandson, Stanley Armes, The Cost of True Worship details Roy and Bertha's ministry in Korea while it was occupied by the Japanese, who forced the people to practice the Shinto religion. Being a steadfast Christian in Korea was dangerous, and many believers died. Yet not even imprisonment could deter the Byrams from their devotion to Christ and their commitment to the spread of the gospel.
About the Author: Stanley Armes grew up in Kenya. While on furlough to the United States, his parents would stay with Roy and Bertha Byram, his grandparents, he heard stories of their ministry in Korea. These stories would eventually inspire the creation of this book.
Stanley has spent his life in the ministry, graduating from Covenant College with a degree in psychology and earning a master of divinity from Covenant Theological Seminary. He is presently working toward a doctorate of ministry.
Stanley and his wife served as missionaries in Kenya from 1976 to 1988. He pastored a church in Virginia until the couple was called to the mission field again, this time to the Bible Institute Eastern Cape in South Africa, where they spent thirteen years. The couple has three daughters and eleven grandchildren.
Stanley and his wife are the coauthors of Biblical Foundations of Marriage.
