John Edwin Bullock

John Edwin Bullock, age 98, of Lilburn, Georgia, was born on April 9, 1927, and graduated to Heaven on February 3, 2026, in the presence of his two daughters, Karen and Chrissa. He was preceded in death by his beloved wife, Hortense Jennings Bullock, known as "Tense," with whom he had been married for almost 78 years. He was also preceded in death by his brother, Fred Lester Bullock; his mother, Lynnie L. Chattin Bullock; and his father, Col. Edwin Fred Bullock. John is survived by his four children: Chrissa (Jonathan) Edwards, Peter (Kristina) Bullock, Karen (Stephen) Hudson, and David (Kirsten) Bullock; twelve grandchildren; nineteen great-grandchildren; and one great-great-granddaughter.

John grew up in Montana during the Great Depression. His mother taught John manners, discipline, and the value of living frugally, traits that stayed with him throughout his life. John enjoyed summer visits to his grandparents' sheep ranch high in the mountains. He loved to spend time in his grandpa's workshop, examining the hand tools he had used to build all the buildings on the ranch. John loved tools, building things, and improvising.

John's father was in the Army in World War I and remained active in the Army Reserve and the National Guard. After the December 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor, John's father was transferred to an Army base in Medford, Oregon. John began attending Medford High School, where he met Tense, a beautiful girl with dark brown hair, a cheerful smile, and deep brown, twinkling eyes. Her bubbly personality swept John off his feet. He knew he had met the girl who would become his wife, the love of his life, his best friend, and his lifelong traveling companion.

John was recruited to join the Naval Reserve and signed up. After graduating from high school, he entered the Navy and was sent to the Electronic Technician Training School. When the war ended, John moved with his parents to Bozeman, Montana, where he enrolled in a Mechanical and Chemical Engineering program at Montana State College. The next summer, Tense and John were married on June 28, 1947, in Tense's parents' front yard in Medford, surrounded by their high school friends and families.

Shortly after their wedding, Tense's father persuaded John to transfer from engineering to premed and become an osteopathic physician like him. Tense's father encouraged John to apply to the Kansas City College of Osteopathy and Surgery, where he had trained. John applied and was accepted. John graduated from the Kansas City College of Osteopathy in May of 1952 and returned to Medford to join Tense's father, Dr. Jennings, in his medical practice.

Two years later, John and Tense relocated to Scio, Oregon, a rural town with 250 people. There, he established a general family practice. He had a laboratory for limited lab work and a small operating room for minor surgeries. He used the Albany Osteopathic Hospital to admit patients, but it was eighteen miles away. Because of the distance, he had to purchase an X-ray machine to take X-rays for his patients. While working with a general surgeon at Albany Osteopathic Hospital, John learned general and spinal anesthesia. This training in primary skills prepared him for the primitive situations he would encounter years later in Bangladesh.

After eight years of general practice, John wanted to specialize, but deciding which specialty to pursue was difficult, as he was interested in everything. He was interested in orthopedics because of his mechanical skills, which are required when working with skeletal structures, and he enjoyed working with tools. Although John knew getting orthopedic training in osteopathic medicine would be difficult, he decided to pursue this specialty.

In 1962, John applied for and was granted the MD degree through the California College of Medicine. This opened the possibility of specialty training in regular allopathic (MD) hospitals. John learned that orthopedic residencies required a preliminary year of general surgery, so he applied to several hospitals in San Francisco and moved his family from Oregon to the San Francisco Bay Area. After completing the year of general surgery, John entered the San Francisco Combined Program for Orthopedic Residency Training. During John's residency, he moved the family inland to Walnut Creek because it had a better climate and was central to the five Bay Area hospitals in his program.

One Sunday, John took the family to a Baptist church near their home in Walnut Creek. That morning, he heard a challenge that marked the beginning of his turning to Christ. "You have studied thick textbooks and have even memorized great portions of them to get to where you are today. But have you given the same diligent study to the most important book of all-the Holy Bible?" John realized he had never even read the Bible. He resolved to begin reading it. He purchased a modern translation of the Bible and began reading and studying it while away from the family during his residency program.

John completed his orthopedic residency training in 1966 and moved the family to San Luis Obispo, California, where they began attending Calvary Baptist Church. He heard the gospel presented in the book of Romans and John 3:16. This was the first time John could remember hearing that the penalty for his sins had already been paid, and he could gain freedom from the guilt of those sins by repenting and believing in the One who had paid the penalty. John believed that day and received Jesus Christ as his Savior.

By 1970, John had achieved his goal of becoming a Board-Certified Orthopedic surgeon and had become a partner in a medical clinic in San Luis Obispo. The family enjoyed an affluent lifestyle, including a nice house, a swimming pool, a horse for his daughter, an ocean-going boat docked at Morro Bay, and a professional art studio for Tense. However, during a week of evangelistic meetings John attended at their church, the evangelist asked three questions that made him reflect seriously on his life. (1) What is life? (2) Why are we alive? And (3) When you are no longer alive, will it have made any eternal difference that you lived? That night, John told God, "I don't know what you want to do with my life, but here it is. Please use me according to your purpose for whatever you have for me to do."

Soon after John's decision to follow the Lord, God began to bring John and Tense in contact with missionaries who were home in the States. When John and Tense were told of the great need worldwide for medical doctors on the mission field, their hearts were stirred. While listening to the words of the hymn "Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus," John realized that "the things of earth" were growing "strangely dim," and he was willing to give them up to serve the Lord. After meeting Dr. Viggo Olsen, the doctor who established Memorial Christian Hospital (MCH) in Bangladesh, and hearing about the great need for an orthopedic surgeon there, John and Tense realized God was calling them to serve at MCH. They were appointed to Bangladesh by the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism in 1972 and began preparations to go.

When John arrived in Bangladesh in 1974, he realized how acutely the Lord had been preparing him over the years for work in this primitive setting. The eight years of family practice, one year of obstetrical training, and training in lab and X-ray proved invaluable in Bangladesh. John helped improve and upgrade the X-ray department and established an orthopedic department. He worked with the Limb and Brace Shop that provided prosthetics for amputees. He became proficient at doing C-sections and called his new specialty "Orthostetrics." John taught orthopedic surgery to several general surgeons, and he also trained national staff to serve as orthopedic technicians to assist the general surgeons when no orthopedic surgeon was at the hospital.

Among their other duties at the station, John and Tense became involved in using audiovisuals. Together, they set up the "Pillow-Speaker" program, installing individual speakers at each bed so patients could listen privately to Bible messages. They helped produce public health teaching videos and evangelistic programs for use in the villages and at the hospital. John and Tense also developed a filmstrip, later presented in video form, entitled "What Does the Holy Bible Teach about God's Plan for Man?" This film strip presented the gospel message in 30 minutes and was used in hospital evangelism.

John and Tense returned to Bangladesh eight times during their "retirement years" for short-term assignments at the hospital to continue training surgeons and technicians in orthopedics and to help with the audio-visual programs and other ministries. John wrote a series of monographs entitled "Jungle Orthopedics," offering suggestions for practicing orthopedic surgery in a primitive setting. While at home in the States, John was often able to obtain medical equipment for shipment to the hospital. He actively recruited nurses and doctors for MCH.

During retirement years in the States, John and Tense helped their daughter and son-in-law for 20 years with a church plant in Utah. John served as a deacon in the church, transported children from nearby communities to the church for Bible club, and assisted with the building program and other projects around the church. John loved doing projects with his grandchildren, teaching them how to use tools, how to fish, or build a boat. He built sandboxes and play forts and helped with remodeling projects. He always had a "how can I help you" attitude. Tense taught John to paint, and they enjoyed attending art workshops and painting together. During the last few years of John and Tense's lives, they wrote a book titled Go to a World That is Dying, which tells how God called them and equipped them to serve for over 20 years at Memorial Christian Hospital in Bangladesh. John's greatest desire was to share the gospel with everyone he met and to encourage them to let God take control of their life and live according to His plan, whatever that might be.

Only one life 'twill soon be past,

Only what's done for Christ will last. ~ C.T. Studd

The funeral service to honor and celebrate the life of John will be held at 11:00am on Saturday, February 21, 2026 at Tom M. Wages Snellville Chapel, Snellville, GA. Burial will be held at 2:00pm at Hill Haven Memorial Gardens, Monroe, GA. The family will receive friends prior to the service from 9:30am until the time of service at the funeral home.

The celebration of life service will be video recorded and posted on YouTube at a later date. Please let the family know if you would like a link to watch the service on YouTube.

In lieu of flowers the family asks that you please consider a memorial donation to the Bangladesh MCH Relief Fund, in memory of Dr. John E. Bullock.

https://give.abwe.org/projects/bangladesh-mch-relief

Condolences may be sent or viewed at www.wagesfuneralhome.com. Tom M. Wages Funeral Service, A Heritage Company, 3705 Highway 78 West, Snellville, GA 30039 (770-979-3200) has been entrusted with the arrangements.