3 missionaries remembered for service

Kathryn Willems, 1963

Kathryn L. Willems had dreamed of becoming a missionary nurse to China. Then she heard the song “I’ll go where you want me to go,” and promised God to do just that. When fellow student and missionary Martha Hiebert urged Willems to join her in the Belgian Congo, she agreed.

Willems, who died May 9 at age 98, spent a total of 42 years as a missionary with MBMS International, serving seven terms in the Congo beginning in 1936 and completing her last assignments from the U.S. in 1983.

The hallmark of her career was a commitment to providing printed materials in the Kituba language. Willems worked on the first translation of the New Testament, several Old Testament books, songs, tracts, and the North American MB Confession of Faith. She also wrote materials such as a 50-lesson course on the wisdom literature books and a Kituba Bible dictionary.

She was a member of Hillsboro (Kan.) MB Church.

Ernest Schmidt, born in Hepburn, Sask. in 1922, also served in Congo, pioneering a hospital together with coworker Katie Penner. Although his full-time work there ended because of the political instability and violence after Congo’s declaration of independence in 1960, a part of his heart remained. He practiced medicine in Saskatoon but continued to support medical and mission work. (See obituary, May 19 Herald.)

Kay (Penner) Thiessen spent many years in ministry with her pastor husband William, impacting many lives with her gifts of hospitality and encouragement. After pastorates in Linden and Lethbridge, in Alberta, they served as a management team at the Herbert, Sask. Senior Citizens Home. They then undertook a 10-year assignment with MBMS International to Nuevo Ideal in Durango, Mexico to establish an evangelical church in the Mennonite colony there.

Kay enjoyed teaching Sunday school and mentoring women in their faith. It was in Mexico that she learned to drive a pickup truck and received her first and only driver’s license.

Following their retirement back to Canada in 1983, she used the last 23 years of her life to serve her church communities, friends, and family. She died June 26.

—MBMSI Global Bridge