Eugene Kelly

Those who worked with Eugene and Muriel Kelly have stories to tell of this amazing couple. I ve spoken to many of you. Hopefully I can weave bits and pieces of your story into mine. The Kellys have been heroes to me, mentors and friends. What a combination; Eugene, a man on a mission and Muriel, a living example of the kindness and mercy of God. What a team! You who did not meet them - what a loss, maybe this will help – a short story of two people who we loved and admired. When I think of C&MA missionaries, those who have gone before, I think of friends like Gene and Muriel Kelly. I met Eugene Kelly on a dark, rainy night driving him from a meeting back to his lodgings in Bogota, Colombia. The streets were wet, pot-holed, and poorly marked. The city wasn’t safe and but we were happy to be where God had placed us. Sounds like a mystery story. It s not. My wife and I served as International Workers with the Christian and Missionary Alliance from Canada in the country of Colombia. Eugene or Gene as most us called him, and Muriel were also from Canada. They too had served in Colombia, then in Peru and now were living in Ecuador. My wife and Gene both came from the small Saskatchewan community of Assiniboia. We had only heard of them in Canada. We met them in Colombia. There was an instant affinity – farm kids, far from home, each now adults but our roots were important. Just thinking of their story calls up images of the Kelly family farm, of romance, of tears, of commitment and changed lives. Stay with me as I tell you of people God used to change my life. You need to meet their family and friends, Alliance missions and the Encounter with God Program birthed in

Lima, Peru. Perhaps some sort of elasticity will allow me to pack much into these few pages.

Who is Eugene?

He wasn’t supposed to be called Eugene. That wasn’t his name. His parents were Romanians who immigrated to Canada. They first moved to Regina, Saskatchewan and from there to Assiniboia. They went south and they found farm land. I remember once being with Gene in Assiniboia. After being gone from the farm for decades he drove me there with a sense of pride and joy. The Kelly Family Farm had won numerous Provincial Awards. Gene loved his roots. But, back to his beginnings – Theodore and Rose Kelly had eight children the youngest being our friend Gene. The old country school house a one mile walk from the farm is gone. Eight grades were packed together and one teacher kept rein on all of them. One year the teacher had a dilemma on her hands. The classroom seemed to be full of many little boys all named John. One of them was the Kelly boy. For no apparent reason she picked him out for a new name – she called him Eugene. Why Eugene I don’t know. Legally, he was John, but at school, and then among his friends, and then in the community he was Eugene. Gene actually went and changed his birth certificate. He became Eugene Kelly. Muriel tells how Gene’s teenage friend shared Christ with him, and at eighteen years of age he knelt at a bench at the back of the Alliance Church in Assiniboia and gave his heart to Christ. This almost needs to

be repeated, he really gave his heart to Christ. The pastor of the church was passionate about evangelism and Gene became passionate to win souls to Christ as well. Movies and Saturday night dances seemed to have lost their appeal. Rev. Ted McCarthy preached an evangelistic message. As a family they lived on little and shared Christ with everyone. He and his wife Ruth were completely sold out to Christ, and Eugene was sold out too. I’ve heard the story from several people. If you can believe how paths cross Ruth McCarthy was my mom’s oldest sister. Uncle Ted helped me into full-time ministry as well.

Meeting the Future

The Alliance training school was about two hours away in Regina. Gene enrolled at

the Western Canadian Bible Institute (later called Canadian Bible College and today Am

brose University) and there he met the missionary kid from Japan – Muriel Green. Muriel had been born in Kobe, Japan on December 28, 1926 – two weeks older than Gene. At five years of age she became so extremely ill her parent’s were forced back to Canada. Doctors told her parents she may not survive the trip but they all arrived in Toronto. The little girl lived and later finished high school in Toronto. Between the danger of World War II and Muriel’s poor health the Greens did not return to Japan. Muriel says that from an early age she felt called to be a missionary. When time came to go to college it was either Nyack College near New York or the Western Canadian Bible Institute in Regina. It cost $5.00 to register at Nyack and $2.00 at WCBI in Regina. Muriel had no money so she prayed about it. One evening she found $2.00 under her pillow. He sister, knowing nothing of Muriel s need, had hid the gift there. Muriel went to Regina! Regina made all the difference. Muriel fell in love with the dashing young man from Assiniboia with dark hair. Eugene was captured by the pretty missionary girl from Toronto. At one chapel service they met Rev. George Constance of Colombia, the invited Alliance missionary, passion ate to call others to serve Christ in South America. He spoke of the stamina required to be a missionary. Young people, how would you like to spend your honeymoon floating down the Magdalena River in a dugout canoe, under the light of a full moon? Gene and Muriel began to dream and their hearts were stirred. A strange thing happened after the chapel service, Mr. Constance walked up to Gene & Muriel and said, Eugene and Muriel, I’ll see you in Colombia some day! And, he did!

New Ventures Just married the Kellys pastored the Alliance Church in Trail, BC from May, 1950 to August of 1953 before heading to Colombia with a new baby, Ruth, in tow. Time in British Columbia must have been God’s introduction to the mountains for they would live in the shadow of the Andes for the next 30 years. Three terms of service in Colombia could be momentous in and of them selves without the story stretching to Peru and Quito. In 1954 the Grace Line ship called Santa Cecilia would drop off the Kellys in Buenaventura the Pacific port city to Colombia. They and their belongings made their way inland. Language classes were ahead of them and then teaching and ministry to the Guambiano and Paez people living in the rural area around the city of Silvia in the Department of Cauca. Here is where George Constance’s advice was so needed. It was hard work traveling by foot, horseback and vehicle over 3 the rugged Colombian Andes. It may have been tropical at the lower elevations but it can often be cold and wet high in the Andes. Eugene could be seen on his big horse Retinto, looking back to wave good- bye, leaving often to visit mountain people and churches. Two more children joined the family, Rebecca fondly called Becky and Charles known to the family as Char. Colombia Te casaste con una gringa? – Si como no! You married an American? Of course! Gene chuckles when he tells the story. The second term in Colombia was busy with leadership training. The Kellys were assigned to teach at the Alliance Bible School in Armenia in the heart of Colombia. Gene’s Spanish was impeccable. His dark appearance, his Romanian ancestry and grasp of the Spanish language easily mistook him for a Latin American. That night, after a pastors conference one of his Colombian colleagues whispered the question to him. Foreigners were still a big thing in the late 50s in Colombia and the good fortune to marry a pretty American was quite a feather in any mans cap. Muriel wasn’t American, Gene wasn’t Colombian but he loved to tell the story. Gene was full of stories. Some were of near death experiences. While living in Armenia Gene’s appendix ruptured. Gene and Muriel told me this story together, each interrupting the other, each living the ordeal over in their minds. Gene awoke with excruciating pain. The hospital in Armenia could do little for him. In truth , the nurses refused to help him! He was an evangelico, an evangelical – a Christian pastor. Colombia was nearing the end of a ten year civil war known as la Violencia. In April of 1946 the Liberal presidential candidate had been murdered. Ten hours of violence erupted in the capital city known as the Bogotazo. Five thousand people were killed. The violence spread to the rural areas and continued until 1956. Evangelicals were not popular in the eyes of the predominantly Catholic conservative power brokers. No one offered help to the Canadian writhing in pain. Muriel somehow hailed a taxi and wrestled Gene into the back seat. Off they went 180 kilometers to the principle city of Cali hopeful to find a hospital before Gene expired. More than once Muriel would stop the driver. The horrendous, rough road was unbearable. When Gene could bear it, he would signal and off they d go again. They arrived five hours later. Gene survived. Everyone who knew Muriel repeats the same thing of her when I asked – she’s is a woman of prayer. The mission sent word to Ruth and Becky who were students in Quito, Ecuador at the Alliance Academy. Ruth told me later she never understood as a child how critical the situation was. Bit by bit the pieces were coming together. The farm boy from Saskatchewan s flat prairies would be trained in missions in the high Andes. The two would learn as their son Charles says everything flows from prayer. Muriel impressed upon her family that prayer is not everything, it s the only thing. As a child I heard and saw my parents pray – especially my mom. If you hope to live a life of influence you

must pray. That is what we do here on the mission field – we pray – and everything flows from that.

Leadership Lessons

When the Kellys returned to Colombia for a third term of service Gene was ushered into the office of Field Director. The politics of leadership had to have a greater purpose! Staunch old missionaries on one side and bright new comers on the others side – Gene in the middle. The names of some of the new 4 comers are still familiar to many of the readers: Arnold and Francis Reimer, Arno ld and Mary Lou Cook and then the Garlands from the States. They were excited and full of ideas, ideas not too welcomed by the old crowd. Looking back at the moment Arnold and Mary Lou laugh as they explain how Gene and Muriel served as a buffer between the new and the old. Gene mastered the art of doing it first and asking forgiveness later! Cooks will tell you if it were not for the encouragement, the hospitality and the mentorship of this dear couple the newcomers may have had a very short missionary experience. It was Gene who years later would prod the Encounter with God Team in Lima, Peru to bring Arnold onside to help them with Theological Education by Extension (TEE). Gene and Muriel opened the way for many. One more story will suffice. Beverly Boon joined the missionaries in Colombia. She was the most energetic, engaging and joyful person anyone could know. Gene tells of her love for Colombia and her early naiveté in a foreign country. Now, to Bev’s defense few people love and know the country today as she does. That night the Field Director got a phone call. The new missionary somehow was in the back of a big truck with an enthusiastic bunch of young people. In the excitement and in the dark her purse was lost under that straw thrown in to make the ride bearable. All of her documents as a foreigner we’re in that purse. Field Director to the rescue! All was found and the story seemed to get bigger with each telling. Leadership lessons are painful and personal. Again, it is their son Charles who captures this well. What is essential to coping in matters that are closest to our hearts is what is later essential for all of life and ministry. Their daughter Becky saw her mom and dad in action, Mom and dad were servants of the Lord who followed in obedience . All three of Gene and Muriel s children are following Christ. The lasting impact of seeing parents like theirs was inescapable. Some of this story I’ve not told you . We shouldn’t speak of three children but rather five. Between the time in Armenia and Cali they went home for what we now call home assignment. Gene took classes at Nyack Bible College and they expected the arrival of a baby. Marilyn was born and died after four months. Back in Cali a little boy Danny was born but only lived two days. The conflict between the babies RH factor and Muriel’s was insurmountable. Several years later Becky was married to Bobby Carter. They served in Dalat in Malasia. A student fell into a rushing river and Bobby jumped in to save her. Bobby lost his life. Each of the kids can speak of the trauma they felt separated from parents for nine months of the year as students at the Alliance Academy. Becky’s will never forget her dad reading to the three of them from Mark 10:29-30 with tears running down his cheeks before the three left again for Quito, Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s, who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time – houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions – and in the age to come, eternal life. Gene’s leadership was developed in the crucible of personal experience. Muriel once wrote, Eugene s gift of leadership, and his sense of what needed to be done and when, were factors which helped to further the evangelical work, not only with the Alliance, but in other missions as well . It was during this time, Muriel says, that he acquired his first nick-name No problem Kelly. He is not only unflappable, but seems to find a 5 solution to every problem. They had served 18 years in Colombia. The work was advancing, the girls were college age and a change was coming. They knew in their hearts they had finished in Colombia what God wanted them to do. Care for those in Prison. Moving from Colombia was an end to a ministry Muriel held dear as well. During their time in Cali she worked with the Alliance radio ministry called Alliance on the March. Hundreds of people wrote in asking for help. Every letter had to be answered. any of the letters were from prisoners in Gorgona Prison on an island off the west coast of Colombia. On one occasion Kellys even visited the prison to minister to those who had written. She loved to visit and pray with people. One time I was visiting she told me of nights she would drive through the city to minister to women. She told me of the people he had trained to do visitation ministry. At the end of the story she gave me her teaching notes on visitation. I still have them.

Preachers!

Ruth, Kelly’s oldest daughter had met John Rollins at Toccoa Falls College in Georgia. They married and were on their way to Peru as missionaries via the Rio Grande Spanish Language School in Texas. Gene and Muriel made a detour on their travels to see them. Gene decided they a round of golf regardless the weather. With a big Canadian toque pulled high over his head he marched out to conquer the Texas fairway. One of the foursome was a budding missionary Stephen Irvin. Steve’s wife Claudia was a M.K. from Ecuador and had grown up attending the Alliance Academy - best friends with Becky. Kellys were like uncle and aunt to Claudia. Kellys were now years into the work in Peru. Gene was waxing eloquent to John and Steve of the church growth born out of Lima toward an Encounter with God. This was 1982 and the work was almost 10 years old. Much had happened. To enjoy the next moment you need to see Gene through my eyes. Steve, studying Spanish, the consummate preacher, grabbed the moment to see if his life had a future. He asked Eugene, Is there a need for preachers there? Gene erupted throwing his hands in the air, Preachers! I preach every week in one of the largest evangelical churches in Latin America! That would be a yes, there is a place for preachers. Little did Steve know how much Eugene’s work would involve him, and for that matter me. Steve would become one of the evangelists on Gene’s list. Gene failed to mention he was called upon quite abruptly to be interim pastor for three years of that large Pueblo Libre Alliance Church because of another’s failure. Pueblo Libre was the second amazing church plant in Lima. Lince Alliance was the first. This is where our next story really begins. Always a Team Player As the curtain was being pulled on Colombia another chapter of their lives was about to begin. Gene was invited to serve as the first Missionary in Residence at Canadian Bible College in Regina his alamater. At the same time an Alliance Church in Lima had invited the Rev. Alfredo Smith to leave his teaching and preaching ministry in Buenos Aires, Argentina to come past or the congregation of 180 people meeting in a renovated house on Arequipa Avenue in Lima – a city at that time of some 4 million people. Two other significant people to our story were also meeting. They had a holy discontent for the incipient church growth in Latin America. They were determined that God would use them to begin 6 something that would impact the city with the gospel. Ken Opperman, a Canadian Alliance missionary was a visionary and an evangelist. He had been serving in the jungles and now in the city. His bombastic friend was a business man and a gifted evangelist Roy LeTourneau, son of the industrialist R.G. LeTourneau. Roy had been sent by his father under contract by the Peruvian government to build roads through the Peruvian jungles to open new territory for a growing country. The LeTourneaus could build earth moving equipment and Roy could build roads anywhere. What they could not do so well was to find ways to take the money they were earning out of the country. The government seemed to block every obvious means. That money was about to bring blessing to a lot of people. Opperman and LeTourneau met with the Alliance Field Director of Peru Rev. Fred Kowalchuk. They challenged him with a burning question, Can a church grow from 180 to 1000 in one year? Kowalchuk after a moment said, Yes . The irsecond question changed everything. The first required an opinion the second had to do with commitment. How will we do it? Together they mapped out the road: it would take continual evangelism, follow-up and retention of new believers. On top of that it required the development of leaders and adequate facilities to house explosive growth. They needed a lead team who could make all this happen. They needed experienced leaders with unique gifts. They needed resources and a special dispensation of grace from the powers that be to allow them to step away from the status quo missionary work. They would do something new and demanding on a scale that only men of courage and holy discontent would venture. LeTourneau went to Canada to find a coordinator, someone who had a heart for evangelism and was a proven leader. He went to find someone who had learned to pray and endure hardship. He found a person by George Constance’s word of unusual stamina ready to win Latin America to Christ. God had taken 18 years in Colombia to form the kind of leader who would spend the next 12 years in Lima, Peru. Eugene and Muriel moved to Peru. His time as Missionary in Residence would end and work in Peru would begin. Lima Towards an Encounter With God (Lima al Encuentro Con Dios, LED) is an evangelistic movement to plant churches characterized by a program of continuous preaching, evangelization and edification. It is combined with a program of effective discipleship.

Eugene Kelly

In 1972 the leadership team of LED was formed: Eugene Kelly the Canadian would be coordinator, Alfred Smith the Argentinian joined as the preacher, orator and teacher. Richard Abrams, the American Alliance missionary would be called out of rural ministry to oversee details as only he could. Roy LeTourneau carried the burden of resources. Peruvians Humberto Lay and Juan Gutiérez brought pastor and teacher skills. Arnold Cook would come later and develop the first step of leadership training in 1976. A trip was made to Nyack, New York the headquarters of the C&MA to request permission to

begin a work separate from the rest of the Peruvian Alliance Field. Permission was granted. As the organizational ground work was being done so was spiritual preparation underway. They prayed and trained workers. 70 counselors were prepared even before the first evangelistic campaign began. The Kellys ministry was always an extension of their own walk with God. From Spanish to English Amos 4:12 prepárate para venir al encuentro de tu Dios translates prepare yourself to come to an encounter with God - repare to meet God. The ministry Gene led was a plan designed to introduce a capital city,

then a country and then a continent to God. Fifteen months of continuous evangelism and discipleship 7 were planned. The work required excellent preaching, excellent music, excellent communication, fervent prayer, team work and facilities. Studying through documents Gene generated over the years I found a list of 53 excellent evangelists that he had partnered with and in vited to preach in Lima and then beyond. For fifteen months they worked; two weeks of campaign evangelism followed with two weeks of serious discipleship follow up of new believers. By the end of fifteen months the church had grown to more than 1,000. What should they do? They believed God had given them a means and a vision to reach the city. They believed they were to continue. Try to imagine a people committed to a lifestyle of continual evangelist preaching with continual care for new believers. Imagine the leaders trained and consider the cost of continual multiplication. This is the work Eugene Kelly led. Fifteen months has now grown to over 40 years. After the first year the Lince Alliance Church no longer fit in the renovated house. An education wing was built on the site and then the sanctuary to seat 1,000 people. A group of about 35 people were identified in Lince who were from another highly populated part of the city called Pueblo Libre. A pastor was appointed and work there began in earnest. It took five years before Gene successfully negotiated the purchase of an entire city block for the new church in Pueblo Libre. Soon after the purchase a sanctuary was constructed to seat 2,000 people. It was to this church that Gene was called to pastor for three years while still carrying the load of LED Coordinator. The work of continual evangelism and follow-up became normative for all the churches . They grew and they multiplied. Shall I go on? By the 40th Anniversary of Lima Toward an encounter with God (LED) 68 Alliance churches dot the city thoroughfares of Lima. My goal is to tell the story of Eugene and Muriel but they run the danger of getting lost in the details of a 1000 new stories. Tens of thousands have now heard the gospel. One statistic says there have been over 125,000 decisions for Christ in the hundreds of weeks of evangelism in these exceptional churches . If I continue I’ll no longer be telling their story but reflecting on the hundreds of leaders raised up and mobilized to take the gospel throughout Latin America and around the world.

Train Leaders

One Sunday night, in the early years of the LED program, while closing a special time of preaching the team felt they should extend an invitation to young men and women, Is God calling you into full-time ministry? So many young people responded to that altar call that they had to start a Bible training program to care for those who felt God calling them to serve! Muriel writes of the joy that spread across Eugene’s face on the occasion the first 12 students graduated from the school and joined the team. Hundred more have graduated since then. As the number of people coming to Christ grew and the need to provide personal follow-up became a logistical nightmare they came up with the idea of the weekly radio discipleship class. Small groups met with relatively new leaders in homes across the city . Pastor Alfredo Smith would give one discipleship class by radio to thousands of listeners tuned in to the radio broadcast. The group leaders would follow up with discussion, prayer and pastor care. The churches grew. They didn’t have all the answers. Humberto Lay wrote, I believe that one of the positive factors of the work was the absence of experts. I remember the comment by Eugene, by Richard Abrams and by Alfredo Smith, we re learning . We all felt the same. Perhaps this is a key take away, Gene and Muriel can only be understood by seeing two people committed to learning as fast as they could while they obeyed and served. People love to tell the story of Eugene once leaving a meeting on route to the next commitment. As he rushed out someone asked, Where are you going ? Gene answered, I’ll tell you when I get to my car! He was always on the go and he always had a moment for people. Perhaps scenes like this earned him another one of his endeared nick-names, Don Vamos – Mr. Let’s Go! When pastors began to feel the strain of the work Eugene and those around him realized that they needed to offer special care for the leaders. The annual deeper life conference called Leaders Encounter became a fixture. Every year pastors and key leaders are still invited to hear the very best deeper-life speakers for a week. In these meetings the movement truly multiplies. Hearts are stirred and leaders emerge filled with Christ and with a burning love for those who have never heard the gospel. The vision is multiplied. Today if I could take you to one of the daughter churches Los Olivos Alliance Church in Lima. You would see the vision before you. You would see a facility to seat 700 people accommodating sometimes up to 4000 people in five or six services each Sunday. Here is a church with a pastoral team of 15 supporting some 25 missionaries sent out from their church spreading out through the country and around the world. The vision that captured the hearts of the original group is now gripping the hearts of the next generation. The story goes on.

Conclusions

Gene and Muriel came to understand that we must reach those who will be able to reach others. As pragmatic as it seems we must make disciples who can make disciples. We must reach those who can impact cities and nations. Anywhere in Latin America you can find hundreds of small churches that are dear to God yet making almost no visible contribution to the transformation of society. Gene never grew tired of challenging young leaders to reach those who can make a difference – the middle class. Those moments of challenge left me changed forever. One night in Lima I joined twenty young leaders gathered in a class room to listen to Eugene. I stood in amazement. They felt his love and they loved him in return. They sensed his commitment to the gospel and they respond ed. They believed him and they responded in prayer and fresh commitment. I saw how God uses a man fully yielded to Him and it was amazing. Permit me a couple more stories. CONALED refers to Conferencia de America Latin a al Encuentro con Dios. It translates to a confraternity of leaders across all of Latin America who consider themselves partners in this Encounter with God strategy. I was part of it. Many others were and are. I mentioned Steve Irvin earlier. Steve continues to serve for over three decades in evangelism, training, pastoral work and vision casting. He was mentored by Eugene Kelly. Twenty years ago Steve attended one of the large conference meetings held in Lima that brought together Alliance leaders from all over Latin America. Gene and Muriel were now living in Quito, Ecuador and assigned the position of Coordinator of Encounter Ministries for Latin America. So, as we made our way to Lima, Gene made his way to Lima as well. We were all put up in hotels or hospices of some sort. Steve was to share a room with Gene Kelly. The day had been long, Steve was not feeling well but he enjoyed time that evening in the room with his mentor and friend. At the end of the conversation Gene Kelly, now into his 60 s says to Steve, Let‘s have a time of prayer. Steve agreed. Gene quietly got down on his knees beside his bed and began to pray. Steve says, I got down on my knees beside him, and we prayed. I felt like we were two little boys talking to our Father in Heaven. And, that’s what we were. Steve concluded,

At this stage in my life I can look back at a small group of men who influenced me. Gene's passion for urban centers and his undying faith in the power of preaching the gospel have marked my path. He has been my friend and mentor. Eugene and Muriel were far from perfect. Eugene brought many of the evangelists home to care for them during the evangelist campaigns. Their home became some sort of bed and breakfast! One night Muriel had enough, Gene unless you start helping wash dishes dont bring home anymore evangelists to our house! Gene started washing dishes. During the tumultuous days of Colombia and Peru it took no small measure of grace for Muriel to stay married to a man on a mission. Someone mentioned they could have benefited from some marital counselling. Somehow they survived and thrived. Those of us who saw the finished product are amazed at the tenderness and love they showed to each other. During the latter part of their ministry Gene served as Coordinator of Latin America Encounter Program. They were in Quito, Ecuador. Muriel was 62 when she contracted tuberculous meningitis. She was so terribly ill some of us feared for her life. She received excellent care at the hospital but her recovery was expected to be long. They made the decision to return to Canada. With that their ministry to Latin America came to an end. Their love for Latin Americans continued in Canada where they made their home in Regina, Sskatchewan. Gene served as a Missions Consultant in their home district, spoke into the lives of students and pastors, and made himself constantly available to preach and promote missions. Muriel continued to be the gracious hostess making every effort to be involved in prayer ministries. Muriel passed away on February 4, 2015. Gene Kelly has moved from Regina. As his strength diminishes his mind continues to strategize. He is now closer to the family farm and closer to where his son Charles and wife Karen live. I recently spent two days with him. Names are hard to remember. He still sees the nations and longs to be useful. In the midst of our conversation he would pause and say, I think we should pray about that . When he prays he seems to be at his best. Gene Kelly’s life has impacted me as he has many others in leadership. I think of the earliest influences on Gene s life. Rev. Ted McCarthy, Eugene’s pastor in Assiniboia, had a passion to preach the Word of God, he was given to prayer and he built new churches everywhere he went. Someone had captured the heart and imagination of Eugene Kelly. Eugene has captured the hearts and minds of thousands in turn. Is it possible that the life of that one relatively unknown pastor in Assiniboia, Saskatchewan became the pattern repeated over and over in the lives of thousands? As Ted McCarthy ploughed through snow drifts to preach in school houses Eugene plough through rain in the Andes up above Silvia, Cauca to preach in little Guambiano Churches? Somewhere, someone had lit a passion of possibility in Gene Kelly that was not to be extinguished. God has used him to light a thousand fires in a thousand hearts. Those fires are still burning. Muriel believed God was calling her as a young person into a life of mission s. If God gave her $5.00 she would go one way, if He provided $2.00 then she would go another but everything depended upon prayer and God's provision. It was illness that brought her family from Japan to Canada yet God s hand was in it all. It was illness that brought them home from Quito to Regina. My strength is made perfect in weakness Jesus said. Muriel has erased from our minds the idea that the secret to ministry is strength. Muriel s would tell us that prayer is not everything, it’s the only thing. Eugene and Muriel Kelly – full of weaknesses, overwhelmed with the love of Christ, hospitable, kind, sacrificial, sincere, given to prayer, amazingly used of God. World Christians. Unforgettable.

John Healey, Whitby, Ontario December 3, 2015