One of her sisters said, “She taught me how to love.” A co-worker at Rest Haven Homes said, “She demonstrated what true faith in God really was.” But as far as I was concerned, Grace taught me, well, grace.
Grace J. Pell was co-founder of Gospel Folio Press and Rest Haven Homes in Grand Rapids. The Lord took her Home quietly on September 3.
Grace, with her brother William, helped establish the world-wide printing ministry of Gospel Folio Press, best known for its “Choice Gleanings,” a daily devotional calendar which has had a distribution in the millions. For a number of years, she served here as editor-in-chief. She was my first editor as I helped her compiling the calendar.
She also was co-owner and manager of Pell’s Bible and Book Store, a city landmark that operated for almost 40 years.
Her concern for the elderly led her to co-found Rest Haven Homes, during the hard days of the Great Depression. Some of the Lord’s people, especially the indigent, were in danger of the poor farm and Grace couldn’t let that happen, if the Lord would help her.
The Lord honored her vision and child-like trust in Him. Rest Haven Homes is a ministry that has met a real need in the lives of many hundreds of the Lord’s people. It continues to do so.
Grace served as its president and administrator for almost five decades. Known for her personal love and care for the residents, she reaped what she had sown when, for the last ten years of her life, she became a total care resident there herself.
I watched as she discovered she was in the early stages of dementia, and would likely become another victim of Alzheimer’s disease. At first she struggled with the prospect, for she knew every stage of the decline, having cared for senior citizens for most of her adult life. Then she retired to her upstairs bedroom for a long time alone with her God.
Presently she reappeared–and never mentioned the matter in my hearing again. She faced the dark tunnel with such courage that it stirs me yet as I recall it. This was grace–and grit–at work indeed!
The night Grace was saved, March 23, 1921, she wrote a letter to a preacher with a special request. In part, the letter read:
“The cause for writing this letter is: since I have found peace, the greatest desire is to return some work to Him who hath died and suffered the cruel death of the cross, the most cruel death for me. O, Mr. Hartt, can’t you show me some way in which I can at least help Him in a small way? I know I cannot do half enough for Him, but all I can do, I will do, since He has done so much for me, as to die that I might be saved and at the ressurection day live with Him.”
That letter was composed when she was 11 years of age! Grace never seemed to waver in her resolve, a resolve strengthened by a private meeting with “Sister Abigail,” Abigail Townsend Luff, who herself had been profoundly motivated in the Lord’s service by a special benediction upon her life by George Mueller.
The workers pass, one by one, to the Land where they rest from their labors. Who will rise up from the next generation to carry on the work? This is not a call for part-timers, for Christian hobbyists, for summer soldiers. What assemblies of God’s people need today are those, like Grace Pell and Sister Abigail and George Mueller who believe in a great God who is worthy of our whole lives and who can use us to do great things.