The Rev. and Mrs. David K. Mason, the former Marilyn Gagne of Fairhaven, and their three children, will leave shortly for Brussels, Belgium, on the first step of a trip to the Congo as medical missionaries.

Mrs. Mason is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Gerard A. Gagne of New Bedford. Her two sisters, Mrs. George Darwell (Rosemarie) and Mrs. George Joseph (Germaine), also are residents of New Bedford.

Mrs. Mason was graduated from Fairhaven High School in the Class of 1961. She then worked as a clerk-typist for the Employers' Group of Insurance Companies in New Bedford, where she first met her husband, David.

David and Marilyn were married June 9, 1962, at the Evangelical Congregational Church of South Easton.

Mr. Mason is a native of South Easton, where he was graduated from Oliver Ames High School in 1953. He studied at the University of Massachusetts from 1953-55, served
with the U.S. Army in Alaska, worked as a tree climber for one year, was a Massachusetts state trooper at the North Dartmouth barracks for 2 1/2 years, and an insurance claims adjuster and supervisor for Employers' Group for six years.

Mr. Mason was New England weightlifting champion in the 181-pound class for six years, and in 1959, he placed third in the national championships. He worked out of George's Gym of New Bedford.

About five years ago, the Masons made the decision to become medical missionaries. David and his wife sold their home in Easton, and he enrolled at Gordon College in Wenham. He was ordained into the Christian ministry April 12, 1970, at the Evangelical Congregational Church, South Easton. He also enrolled at the Malden Hospital School of Medical Technology.

For the past 3 1/2 years, while Mr. Mason was still a student, the Masons directed the Merrimac Mission, Inc., of Boston, a Christian ministry in a predominantly black neighbor-hood, involving more than 40 families. They were responsible for a Sunday school of 110 children, a teaching staff of 17 neighborhood people, teacher training classes, tutoring classes, evangelistic services, teen-age activities, a summer camping program, plus all of the administrative work relative to the ministry.

The Masons were recently accepted as missionaries by the Africa Inland Mission, a
75-year-old interdenominational mission board with more than 650 missionaries serving in Central and East Africa. They will be serving at the Evangelical Medical Center at Nyan-kunde in the Congo.

Five Protestant mission groups work together in the center, serving a 500-square mile area. Several outlying dispensaries and small hospitals have been set up and six doctors from the center travel throughout the area to treat the natives.

The center has no organized laboratory, and Mr. Mason, as a medical technologist, will set up this facility. The center also has a school where the doctors train medical assistants, who staff the dispensaries and can assist the doctors in their work. Mr. Mason hopes to add a training course for medical technicians at the school.

Mrs. Mason will be helping with the secretarial and administrative work at the center, in addition to caring for the three lively children - Mary Ellen, 7; David Jr., 6; and Gerard, 4. The couple's children will be attending Rethy Academy, a school for missionaries' children in Northern Congo.

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