Mark Eldon Wilson

Mark Eldon Wilson, 71, went home to be with the Lord on January 30, 2025, due to complications of lymphoma and kidney disease. He passed away at his home in Sioux City, Iowa in the company of his beloved wife of 38 years, Rae Wilson.

He is also deeply missed by his loving brother, Roger Wilson; his children, Sarah Watson, David Wilson, and Daniel Wilson; his son-in-law, Erkai Watson; his daughter-in-law, Haley Wilson; and his cherished grandchildren, Alethea, Clementine, and Ozias Watson. He was preceded in death by his parents, Darrell and Lillian Wilson; his brother, Evan Wilson; and his beloved in-laws, Wayne and Loralyn Riley.

Mark was born on March 3, 1953, in Sioux City and grew up on his parents’ farm in nearby Lawton. He graduated from Lawton-Bronson High School in 1971. He later earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of South Dakota.

During his time at USD, Mark was led to the Lord through the ministries of Campus Crusade for Christ. His faith deepened, leading him to attend Dallas Theological Seminary, where a short-term mission trip to Haiti ignited his passion for global ministry. After graduating, he joined the international missions organization SIM and completed a year-long pastoral internship in New York City.

Mark later returned to Sioux City, where he was ordained and commissioned as a missionary. During this time, he met his future wife, Rae Riley. They began corresponding and later started dating after he returned from three years of mission service in Liberia.

Mark and Rae were married on December 6, 1986. They moved to Chicago and later to France for language training. After two years in France, SIM sent them to Kankan, Guinea, in 1990. Throughout the 1990s, Mark and Rae served as church planters, building relationships among the Maninka people of Guinea.

In 2004, Mark founded Maninka Audio Media Outreach (MAMO), a recording studio dedicated to producing dramatic readings of the Bible, as well as evangelistic tracts and other Christian materials, all voiced by native Maninka speakers. He continued directing MAMO in Kankan until his lymphoma diagnosis in October 2017.

Though heartbroken to leave the mission field, Mark and Rae returned to the Midwest to seek treatment at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Thanks to God’s many blessings and the dedication of countless medical professionals, Mark experienced several periods of remission. In 2018, he and Rae relocated back to the Sioux City area where they continued to serve and minister in new ways.

A visitation will be held at Meyer Brothers Funeral Home Morningside Chapel in Sioux City, IA from 4-8 PM on Wednesday, February 5. The family will be present from 6-8 PM. At 7 PM there will be a short time for sharing memories and stories of Mark.

Funeral services will be held the following morning, Thursday, February 6 at 11:00 AM at Central Baptist Church, Sioux City, IA with a luncheon to follow. The funeral will be live streamed at: https://www.centralsc.church/live-stream

 Memorials may be directed to the Luke 10:2 project (a project that helps missionaries from countries that don’t provide much financial support) through the SIM USA website: https://simusa.org/give (search "Luke 10:2" under "Give to Missionary or Project") or to Central Baptist Church, Sioux City, Iowa.