Maud Kells funeral: Devoted her life to following Jesus and aid work in Africa

The Cookstown woman died peacefully at the age of 84 at Antrim Area Hospital on Thursday following a short illness.

The former midwife received an OBE for her work which included overseeing the building of a maternity hospital, an operating theatre and a school.

Philip Crooks, a former missionary in Senegal and former director of WEC International, is a close friend of Ms Kells and paid tribute to her at the funeral in Molesworth Presbyterian Church in Cookstown.

Mr Crooks said: "Only eternity will be able to fully reveal all that Maud became and accomplished for the Kingdom of God.

“Maud’s call was for the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo, but we would do her a great injustice if we were to limit it to that.

“She had a vision for people without Jesus wherever she went, for whoever she met regardless – her family members; her hometown of Cookstown, people she met wherever she went, such as her fellow patients in hospital.”

Mr Crooks told the congregation “Maud laboured in the DRC with and under a rich diversity of people. African church leadership, Congolese medical colleagues, valued WEC co-workers, mission partners such as Missionary Aviation Fellowship pilots and their families. She had partners abroad and at home here in Northern Ireland.

“Think about the incredible amount of meetings that Maud took when on home leave across the denominations and beyond. Her desire was to honour the Body of Christ worldwide and to demonstrate that in practical ways. Her desire was to communicate that we all have a part to play in the work of the Kingdom.”

He said that meal times were always “an open door” at Maud’s house in Africa. “And, do you know what? The table was always full. Whoever arrived sat down for a meal. This was a great fellowship builder with the local people. Maud ate the same food as they did, and this helped build fellowship, he said.

The Minister of Molesworth Church, Rev Tom Greer, who conducted the service, said she cared for the Cookstown congregation.

“I only got to know Maud in 2001 and by then she was no longer spending long spells away in Africa but was beginning to spend half a year in Congo and the other half in Cookstown,” he said. “What always struck me was just how adaptable she was switching between those two very different cultures.

"I might get a phone call from her on a Tuesday telling me she was home from Congo, and then I’d hear that on the Thursday she had got together the Bible study group in her home and on Sunday she was right into the life of Molesworth church as if she’d never been away.”

Rev Greer said Ms Kells “gained a kind of celebrity status” following her shooting in 2015.

He added: “But she never sat easy with the fame, much preferring to do what she did so well – caring for people who were her family and friends and who mattered so much to her.”