Darline Kantola Royer

Darline Kantola Royer was born October 25, 1936, at home near Arling, Idaho. The spiritual hunger of her Finnish immigrant grandmother gave Darline Apostolic roots. A God-given dream, the testimony of a Spirit-filled teenager, and a grandmother’s acceptance of truth changed the Kantola family from traditional Finnish Lutherans to Pentecostals. Darline’s father, Alvin, was the first of Mathilda Kantola’s ten children to be baptized in Jesus’ name.

Raised by Pentecostal parents in a farmhouse in an Idaho mountain valley, Darline understood Pentecostal truth as a child. After being baptized in Jesus’ name at age twelve, she sincerely prayed to be Spirit-filled. However, she turned fourteen before receiving the Spirit. Her parents’ faithful devotion to God significantly impacted Darline’s life choices.

After high school graduation, Darline debated enrolling in Bible college or accepting a scholarship to an Idaho college. Sensing God’s direction, she enrolled in Conquerors Bible College (CBC). After her Bible college graduation, she earned a bachelor’s degree in education at Cascade College in Oregon. She began her teaching career in 1959 at Western Apostolic Bible College (now Christian Life College) in Stockton, California. After two years at WABC, she accepted an offer to teach at CBC, her alma mater, where she taught for twenty-two years.

Missions remained prominent in her mind throughout her teaching years. She was significantly influenced by Edwin E. Judd both at CBC and during his years with UPCI Global Missions. Darline also corresponded with Ferne Scism during the Scism’s years in India, which also kept missions on her mind.

Though often burdened for global missions, Darline reasoned that perhaps God’s plan was for her to teach others who would become missionaries. At one point, more than thirty of her former students served on missions fields, and five of the six then-active Global Missions regional directors had sat in her classroom during their college years. Finally, God directed Darline to change her classroom location.

After twenty-four years of Bible college teaching in California and Oregon as a single lady, Darline began her missionary journey in 1985 on AIM (Associate in Missions) in Kenya. When she arrived in Kenya, one of her former students, Tom O’Daniel, became her “boss” since he served as the missionary superintendent of the United Pentecostal Church of Kenya. Interestingly, on one occasion in East Africa, nine of the missionaries present were individuals who had sat in her classrooms at CBC. In 1986, she transitioned from AIM to a career missionary appointment.

Along with teaching in the Bible college in Nairobi, Darline traveled frequently to teach in village churches. Flat tires, muddy roads, outdoor toilets, and the inconveniences of country life did not dampen this single lady’s missionary enthusiasm. Having been raised in the country, she looked forward to traveling and teaching in the rural areas of Kenya.

Darline’s single years ended on June 2, 1990, when she wedded Arlon Royer, a widowed pastor from California, in a ceremony at Life Tabernacle in Nairobi, Kenya. That same year, Arlon and Darline received their appointment to Kenya and served there until 1993, when they were appointed as the first UPCI resident missionaries to Uganda. During their years in Uganda, they established a central church in Kampala, opened both a primary and secondary school in Kampala, and traveled extensively throughout the nation to conduct mobile Bible schools and evangelize. They also established campus ministries on several college campuses. They retired from missions in 2008.

After Arlon’s death in 2009, Darline resumed overseas teaching as an associated minister with Global Missions. She taught at Harvest Bible College in Glasgow, Scotland in 2011, 2013, 2014, and 2017. Along with intermittent overseas teaching, she served on the GATS (Global Association of Theological Studies) Curriculum Development Committee.

In 2015, Darline traveled to Kenya to teach at the UPCK Ladies’ Conference. From there, she flew to Uganda and traveled to teach in village ladies’ seminars. She returned to Uganda again in 2018 to participate in GATS Faculty Development training for the teachers at Apostolic Bible College. In May 2019, Darline taught at the Apostolic Ministry Training Center (AMTC) in Vienna, Austria. In the summer of 2023, Darline returned to Uganda at the invitation of the national superintendent to visit and minister in the churches.

In her first years of teaching at WABC, Darline wrote Junior Level lesson manuals for the UPCI Sunday School Division. During her teaching years at Conquerors Bible College, Darline wrote textbooks for UPCI Overseas Ministries. Her first textbook on the Book of Genesis has been reformatted and reprinted as a GATS textbook. She also co-authored other textbooks with Dorsey Burk, one of her former students at CBC. Since GATS replaced earlier training programs, Darline has written two textbooks for GATS: Israel’s Story: From Egypt to the Jordan and Bible Study Methods. At the request of Global Missions Director Bruce Howell in 2019, William Turner, Dorsey Burk, and Darline compiled a history of UPCI global missionaries. Darline wrote the third volume of this series, a history of the UPCI missionaries who served in Africa. In January 2024, Darline, along with Elizabeth Turner, completed the manuscript for a history book about single women in UPCI missions.

When home in California, Darline serves on the adult Sunday school teaching team and lives with Esther and John Thomas, her late husband’s daughter and son-in-law. John Thomas replaced Arlon Royer as the pastor of Truth Tabernacle in Marysville, California, when Arlon and Darline received their appointment to Kenya. Interestingly, John Thomas now teaches missions classes at Christian Life College, and Darline occasionally joins him in the CLC classroom to share missionary experiences with another generation of potential missionaries. Darline still enjoys teaching and directing young people’s vision toward missions, and she prays that the time and effort she has devoted to writing will benefit those God continues to call into global ministry.

Darline feels abundantly blessed by the love and care of her God-given family, with whom she lives, along with a granddaughter and two great-grandsons. In addition, she enjoys international travel and return visits to Uganda, including cruises with her longtime friend, Mary Loudermilk, and others. By 2024 she had traveled in more than thirty countries.