Tribute: Harold E. Reed

June 10, 1934 — December 13, 2017

By: Barbara K. Reed

— Ed: this tribute originally appeared in the Somali Bible Society Journal, Volume II | Issue 1, June 2021, www.somalibiblesociety.org.

Harold Elias Reed was born on June 10, 1934, in Petoskey, Michigan, USA, the eldest of seven children, to Christian parents. Economic survival was difficult in northern Michigan, where they had to clear-cut the land (from virgin forest) to start farming. The winters were long and severe, that when Harold was five the family moved to eastern Lancaster County, in southeast Pennsylvania - the area of his mother’s birthplace and her early years. 

At the age of 11 Harold chose to receive Jesus as Savior and Lord, was baptized and sought to follow Jesus throughout life. In pursuit of this, Proverbs 3:5-6 became a life motto: “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” When he was 15 his mother became ill and died, even though hospitalized. Understandably, this was a very difficult loss. His father’s later second marriage was a great blessing to the family, and Harold showed great love and respect for the one he now called mother. 

While studying at Eastern Mennonite College* in Harrisonburg, Virginia, Harold was convicted of past wrong attitudes and “having his way” in opposition to siblings, so he wrote home and asked for forgiveness – an example of the humility which characterized him in adult life.

In 1955, at the early age of 21, Harold was called by the church and was ordained as a pastor to give leadership to mission efforts in Chester, Pennsylvania. He had already participated there in distributing Gospel literature and by teaching a summer Bible School class where he had the great privilege of leading one of his students to receive Jesus as Savior and Lord. It was this evidence of the Holy Spirit at work which had influenced leaders of the sending church to look for a pastor. Harold’s ordination delayed completion of his academic studies for several years, but he graduated in 1961 with a Bachelor’s degree in Bible and Philosophy. 

While still young, Harold had sensed a calling to share God’s good news of love and redemption through Jesus Christ beyond national borders, and his future wife had the same conviction. Several years into their marriage, he and Barbara Keener Reed were asked to serve with Somalia Mennonite Mission; having much to learn and with their preschool son and daughter, they arrived in Mogadishu, Somalia in October, 1961.** 

Harold’s work was initially in education: first as a teacher in the Mogadishu adult school, then as the first headmaster at Shebelle Intermediate School, and then for a year at the mission school at Jamama. Following a year’s furlough and study at Princeton Theological Seminary (1965-1966), he again taught English language for adult evening students in Mogadishu. His studies at Princeton included work in Islamics and in 1970, during the next home leave in the United States, he graduated with a Master of Arts degree in Christian Education. 

Over the years, he taught Bible lessons to a number of persons who requested them - how many received the Lord because of this ministry only God knows, but changed lives have definitely resulted, including one person who years earlier had seriously threatened Harold’s life. What a particular joy to see the change in this former student, influenced as he was by “the missionaries’ joy and compassion” and that “Harold didn’t get angry” when threatened. 

In his 14 years in Somalia, Harold followed in the example of other men and women of God, older colleagues such as Wilbert Lind, Fae Miller, Merlin Grove, Mary Gehman, Carl Wesselhoeft, Victor Dorsch and Bertha Beachy.*** Following Merlin’s martyrdom, others needed to assume additional responsibilities, and Harold rose to the challenge, depending on the Lord and giving his best to the demands at hand. With many others not already named, as a team in a Muslim setting the missionaries adhered to what came to be known as a “theology of presence.” 

While typical means of evangelism utilized in less restrictive societies were not allowed in Somalia, one could always bear and display the grace and fruit of the Holy Spirit. A key Scripture for such a ministry of presence was 1 Peter 3:15: “In your hearts reverence Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who calls you to account for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and reverence.” Argument or criticism of Islam was not in the least condoned. The modus operandi was to live so much like Jesus that one would be asked, “What makes you ‘tick’?” or “What is your secret?” Then the door would open to give more direct, verbal testimony.****

By 1967 Harold was appointed to be the Director of Somalia Mennonite Mission, a responsibility he carried until his departure on November 14, 1974. Monday noon of that last week he was called to appear at the Immigration Office, where he was told all non-teaching mission staff were ordered to leave the country by Thursday on the 08:00am flight, and without any reason being given (all health and other staff were already gone, that this only affected the Reed family and a secretary/bookkeeper). This was indeed difficult news, but he complied and helped an already busy teacher assume the administrative responsibilities he had carried, all the while praying earnestly for those soon to be left behind. 

Returning to the United States when Somalia closed to his presence, Harold primarily served in various capacities at the home office of Eastern Mennonite Mission (EMM) in Pennsylvania, including administering the programs and personnel in the countries of the Horn of Africa: Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somalia, then also Kenya, Tanzania, Swaziland and South Africa. In that capacity, he returned to Africa annually, eventually including Somalia where, for a short while, a few missionaries were again on site. 

In the early years of Somalia’s civil war, the mission briefly seconded two nurses to serve in Mogadishu with World Concern. For one year, beginning in March, 1992, Harold and Barbara were briefly resident in Nairobi, and they had the opportunity to visit Mogadishu to encourage both the nurses and any Somali believers they might be privileged to see. Barbara especially remembers two brothers who had come to faith some time before, and who so eagerly plied them with questions about Scripture. Within a few years, both these Christians had paid the ultimate price for their Christian profession – they had been martyred, but not without leaving a strong testimony for Jesus Christ.^

During the years back in the US, in addition to other responsibilities Harold also pastored two congregations in Pennsylvania, and later had administrative and spiritual oversight for ten Lancaster city churches there. 

Colleague David Shenk remembers Harold as an extraordinary expository preacher and a wise man endowed with the gift of patience. Calling him a pioneer leader, David says Harold set the tone for Muslim ministries in ways that were reassuring for teams in Somalia and East Africa.^^ 

Ken and Elizabeth Nissley, missionary colleagues of Harold, knew him as a detailed and careful administrator, a church man, and a friend who helped them navigate cross-cultural questions and differences while providing a safe, wise ear and counsel. They say his leadership in the church’s mission serves as a model of faithfulness to God’s call on his life and has been a challenge and support to many.^^^ 

In retirement, Harold was a much-loved pastor/chaplain for senior citizens in a local retirement community until Alzheimer’s Disease curtailed his active ministry. Even then, his godly character shined brightly. 

This last decade of his life held an unwanted, personal challenge due to the onset of Alzheimer’s Disease, robbing him of memory, comprehension and physical abilities. In a moment of great personal distress due to the illness, he prayed, not for himself but for Barbara, that God would help her to do what she needed to do (i.e. since she would no longer have his assistance, because of his decline), and that God would give her joy.^^^^ His distress notwithstanding, in his closing years until he was no longer able, he would often sing, “Praise to God, immortal praise, for the love that crowns our days; bounteous source of every joy, let thy praise our tongues employ.”*^

As Harold had lived, he died peacefully on December 13, 2017, at the age of 83 years, with loving family by his side. Harold, devoted servant of God, loving father and dedicated missionary-churchman, was a calm, steadying presence during uncertain times, an excellent listener and always a man of integrity. But for any good accomplished while on earth, he would surely say “Alhamdulilah!”*^*

— Ed: more of my dad’s story (much more) will be forthcoming this fall with the publication of my mother’s autobiography: Standing on Holy Ground – and Some Not So Holy: A Memoir. A very interesting read, it will be announced here and is highly recommended!

 _______________

* Now Eastern Mennonite University. 

** In 1963 and 1968 two more daughters joined the family; and Harold delighted in each of his children. 

*** Except for Merlin Grove, Wilbert Lind and Fae Miller, all those named are still living, several nearing 100 years of age. 

**** Following Merlin Grove’s death, it was legally clarified that Christians could respond to individual, personal inquiries, but it had to be at their initiative, and they had to be adults. 

^ One was Liibaan Ibrahim Hassan, and the other, as best the author remembers, was “Xaaji” Mohammed Hussein Ahmed. Their stories, respectively, are at: https://www.gkreed.com/somalisliibaan and https://www.gkreed.com/somalis-xaaji-moxammed, or in Somali at: https://www.noloshacusub.net/Literature/History/LIX.aspx and https://www.noloshacusub.net/Literature/History/XMX.aspx. 

^ As reported in the May/June, 2018, issue of Missionary Messenger, the official bimonthly publication of Eastern Mennonite Missions, Lancaster, PA, USA (formerly Eastern Mennonite Board of Missions and Charities of Salunga, PA). Pg. 14. 

^^^ Ibid. 

^^^^ Barbara gives testimony that Harold’s prayer was answered. Though supporting Harold and grieving his physical decline and suffering, she experienced the joy of the Lord and a settled peace. 

*^ For full text, see: https://hymnary.org/hymn/CP1998/263.

*^* Somali/Arabic, for “Give God all glory!”

My son, do not forget my teaching, 
     but let your heart keep my commandments; 
for length of days and years of life 
     and abundant welfare will they give you. 

Let not loyalty and faithfulness forsake you; 
     bind them about your neck, 
    write them on the tablet of your heart. 
So you will find favor and good repute 
     in the sight of God and man. 

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, 
     and do not rely on your own insight. 
In all your ways acknowledge him, 
     and he will make straight your paths.  Prov. 3:1–6

A hymn: Precious Lord, Take My