Remembering Dorothy Bennett: A Gentle Voice of Truth
[Estimated reading time: 4 minutes]
“Hello, this is Dorothy. I want us to listen to the Word of God.”
The calm, gentle voice with a trace of Welsh in it ushers another five-minute pause from the stresses of daily life for the listener to Dorothy’s Daily Devotionals.
That reassuring voice was silenced from this life on Feb. 5 in Lynden, Washington, U.S.A, when Dorothy Bennett followed her beloved husband, Richard, to glory. The impact of her simple five-day-a-week program, whether in her voice or translated into other languages, will continue into eternity.
“This program, ‘Dorothy,’ it’s like you are reading the Bible every day,” said Esther Chege during a 2023 interview. The Kenyan woman said she was saved in 2008 through listening to Dorothy’s Daily Devotionals via TWR Kenya in her native Kikuyu language. She was so enthused she started one “Dorothy Fellowship” in her church, and then a second.
Born of Welsh parents on Sept. 28, 1929, in Oxford, England, Dorothy felt called to be a missionary while in elementary school, according to her biography from Cross Currents International Ministries, which she and Richard founded. She studied nursing, believing that to be the best career path toward missionary service. But she testified that she didn’t truly come to faith in Christ until hearing an evangelist make the “ungentlemanly allegation” that she was a sinner needing to be saved. Later that night, she surrendered her will to God, sought forgiveness and was born again, the peace of God flooding her life.
Dorothy continued in her studies, earning postgraduate nursing degrees and attending the European Bible Institute in Paris. Then, while holding a senior nursing position in a school for epileptics, Dorothy suffered a severe spinal injury. Doctors told her she would neither work nor walk again.
Meeting Richard
By God’s grace, Dorothy gradually recovered, and less than a year later she met Richard Bennett at the large London church where he was on the pastoral staff. They would become partners in marriage and in ministry for 61 years until Richard’s death on Jan. 17, 2019.
The Bennetts chose a path of itinerant ministry, bringing the Word of God to places such as the Middle East, in the parts of Europe that were then behind the Iron Curtain and in Uganda just after Idi Amin’s reign.
In 1967, Richard was asked to preach a couple of messages on a radio program in England. Among those who heard him preach over the radio was Paul Freed, TWR’s founder. On a Sunday morning in 1969, Freed arrived home to New Jersey from a European trip, reaching the family’s church just in time to hear a guest speaker. He recognized the voice, and soon he was introducing himself to Richard Bennett.
That was the beginning of a partnership that has continued to this day. Richard’s program, The Way of Truth, is still heard in English in nine African countries. Dorothy, meanwhile, led many women to Christ through evangelistic “home meetings” and developed a biblical counseling ministry. Her Dorothy’s Daily Devotionals program has been heard in 14 languages and online via TWR360.
Friends of TWR
Both are remembered fondly at TWR.
“Together, Richard and Dorothy served the Lord in ministry for more than five decades,” said Ralf Stores, Media Services director. “I had the privilege of walking alongside them for over 20 years, not only due to our partnership between CCIM and Trans World Radio, but also through a deeply cherished personal friendship. They were true mentors to me. When they prayed, it felt as though they were before the Father’s throne, interceding with great love and faith."
The Bennetts’ radio ministry, originally titled Missionary Radio Inc., took on the name Cross Currents International Ministries in 1980, acknowledging an expansion of their work beyond radio.
Dorothy’s teaching influenced men as well as women. In a 2023 interview, George Olima told of first hearing the gospel over the radio while growing up in the Kibera slum of Nairobi, Kenya. After he was led to Christ, he started growing spiritually through TWR programs, including Dorothy’s Daily Devotionals. He went on to preach in a short-term Kenyan prison, saying “Dorothy” and other TWR programs were his “Bible college.”
The impact continues.
“I did benefit so much from this program,” a Nigerian “Dorothy” listener posted on social media in October 2025. “My eyes have been opened to see great truths that help [me] to live life well.”
