| Notes |
- Obit:
Nellie was born in Garden City, Mo., to Cotna (Kauffman) and John D. Zook. She graduated from Goshen College in 1927 with a degree in education and married Samuel M. King, also a Goshen College graduate, on June 12, 1929, in Garden City, Mo. He died Jan. 1, 1997.
The Kings spent three years teaching in the Philippines, after which they served from 1937 to 1951 as Mennonite Board of Missions missionaries in India at the Dhamtari Christian Academy. After returning to the United States,
King taught second grade at Waterford Elementary School in Goshen, retiring in 1966.
While in India the Kings participated in three distinct areas of ministry: the local Indian church, the Dhamtari Academy and a relief program targeting hunger and poverty. They helped to start congregations of various sizes, ranging from 400 members to only 15 or 20. One of the main values the Kings attempted to instill in the members of the young churches was that of the importance of tithing and giving to church work.
"We are indeed glad for this spirit of giving. It is always encouraging to see Christian virtues manifested and especially in the young churches and among the new members of His fold," wrote Samuel King in a 1944 MBM report.
While Samuel King served as pastor of the churches, Nellie King visited church members and worked closely with the women.
The couple arrived in August 1937 in Dhamtari, India, and quickly plunged into the work waiting for them there. The Dhamtari Christian Academy provided Christian education as well as more practical skills to nearly 500 young Indian women and men through three separate departments: the high
school, the normal (or teaching) school and the Bible school. Both Samuel and Nellie King taught Bible classes as well as other subjects. Nellie King saw the school and Christian education in general as an important factor
in the creation of a national Indian church.
"Just as we expect the preaching of the word to bring results, so we can expect results to come from the teaching of the word," she wrote in a 1939 MBM report.
In 1943, the Mennonite Relief Committee of India initiated a relief program in Bengal. The program worked to counteract the devastation brought about by famine by distributing food, clothing and medicine as well as personal care at a relief center. The program was staffed by Indian Christians and Mennonite missionaries, such as the Kings, who took a month or more off from their respective duties elsewhere in the country. The Kings saw this form of ministry as a valuable tool of witness. "We believe that the efforts of the M.R.C.I. were blessed of God and that those who received help in their dire need during that famine must have been impressed by this witness for Christ," they wrote.
The Kings are survived by two sons, John D. of Aiken, S.C., and Stanley B., of Goshen, Ind.; four grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; and two sisters, Trusie M. Zook and Louise Yoder, both of Goshen, Ind. [1]
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1901 - 1998 (97 years)
