Someone told me of a missionary who had recently come back home to our area. In my opinion, missionaries deserve much honor, as they have lived their lives serving our Lord. Mrs. Jeannine Jones Leach has her address in Stratton, but she is now regaining her strength in the hospital in Union.
Born in Hershey, Pennsylvania, May 31, 1929, her parents were Mr. William Alfred Jones, a Harvard graduate and civil engineer who helped design the atomic bomb, and Margaret Wolfram, a talented woman who would drive weekly to New York to the Metropolitan Opera to take voice lessons. Young Jeannine, a third grader at the time, was saved at a Vacation Bible School in a park then baptized at her family’s Baptist church.
Later, when her father was transferred, the family moved to San Antonio, Texas, where, at the age of twelve, a missionary came to their church. Ms. Jeannine told me, “I knew God wanted me to go to the mission field. I dedicated my life to become a missionary in San Antonio.”
Also in San Antonio, young Jeannine graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School, where she was a member of the famous marching “Lasso Girls,” playing the bugle, and also worked on the school newspaper.
After graduation, she attended William Jennings Bryan University in Tennessee, where she majored in English but also took piano, voice, drama and Bible. Returning to San Antonio for summer break, she was playing piano in church when a young soldier, Kenneth Leach, from Union, came in the door. As he “laid eyes on her,” he said, “I’m gonna marry that girl!”
They were married in June of 1949, and moved to Fort Smith, Arkansas, where their first child, Gayle, was born Sept. 23, 1953. Ms. Jeannine finished college at Ouachita Baptist College and began teaching school. There in Arkadelphia, her husband preached his first sermon, which she wrote for him on the subject of the second coming. Kenneth was ordained and began pastoring a church in Post, Texas, 235 miles away. They would drive there Friday night and clean up the dust in the house from the dust storms. Sunday he would preach both services before they would drive back to the college. Yes, he wrote his own sermons after that first one!
They moved to Post and were there about seven or eight years before moving to Fort Worth, where Kenneth finished his degree at Wesleyan College. They moved to Rome, Mississippi, and she taught in Drew, Mississippi, where Archie Manning was in her tenth-grade English class. Rev. Leach pastored in Rome from 1965-1972. They also served as associate chaplains at Parchment Prison, where he would preach to the men, and she would preach to the women.
Their son Sammy was born May 13, 1960, then Kenneth was born June 21, 1966. Sammy, who now lives in Florida, has a daughter Madison Gayle, and Kenneth has two boys, Tyler and Matthew Davis Leach. Kenneth lived and worked in Columbus, before moving to Stratton three years ago. Their daughter Gayle, who was a teacher, married M.A. “Bud” Miles. They had two children, Leah, Mrs. Ricky Walker, of Decatur, and Amanda Miles Cleveland of Union. Tragically, Gayle died of cancer at the age of 34, on May 7, 1987.
At one point, the Leaches were in Laurel, where he pastored Trinity Baptist Church, and she taught at West Jones High School. Ms. Jeannine earned her master’s at the University of Southern Mississippi, during that time. In 1978 they moved to Conehatta, where her husband pastored Conehatta Baptist Church.
Rev. Leach pastored churches in Mississippi until 1986, and would tell her, concerning her call to be a missionary, that there was enough work to be done here. She had begun going on mission trips to Honduras in 1974. In 1984, he went with other pastors on a trip to Honduras, returned, and told her as he walked back in the door, “Pack your duds!”
Though Gayle was sick, she told them to go on to begin their work in Honduras, which they did as they could until they were able go fulltime, Kenneth in 1986 and Jeannine in 1988. He retired from pastoral ministry here and went in 1986. She would go when she could, while continuing to teach until her retirement two years later, at which time she moved down there to live.
Their denomination would not back them financially because of their age, so they had to earn their own support. Every November they would return to Union, doing “deputation work” in 20 area churches here, returning to Honduras in January. She would then continue her classes, having the freedom to teach the gospel and lead the children to ask Jesus into their hearts. Bro. Kenneth preached and did dentistry work, as he had become a dentist while in the military. He even made dentures for those who could not afford other procedures.
She says that Honduras, in Central America, is the same size geographically as Mississippi, but with three times the number of inhabitants. There was always plenty to do, with kindergarten children to senior citizens, who were always grateful for Bible classes and even lessons in English, with Ms. Jeannine having the ability to speak Spanish. She had the opportunity to participate with Mississippi teams to Nicaragua, to El Salvador and Mexico, always returning to her “home-base” in El Paraiso, Honduras, where the natives always expected to receive eyeglasses, toothbrushes, medicines, etc. from Mississippi.
Ms. Jeannine returned to the States in July, leaving her missionary work, where she had ministered in Honduras for about 40 years, teaching and evangelizing children and adults in over twenty schools, some of which were in the mountains, only accessible by four-wheel-drive vehicles.
Mrs. Leach wanted me to be sure to speak of how the staff at Laird Hospital were taking such good care of her. “They are very alert to my needs, constantly.” She is also grateful to the First Baptist Church of Union that is handling funds that are still being sent in from the ministry’s donors. The church is sending the money to the national pastor there in Honduras. He continues the ministry of both Rev. and Mrs. Leach, as Rev. Leach went home to Heaven about eight years ago.
She hopes to go back, but even if she cannot, she has ideas of how to minister and share the gospel here. One idea is the possibility of starting a “Dial-A-Prayer,” when a person could call her for a verse and a prayer. She also talks of continuing to send eyeglasses and other items to the mission field in Honduras.
I asked for her favorite verse, which she thought might be Romans 8:28; however, she had written me a note, from which I quote: “This verse has been a real anchor to me: ‘God has not given you the spirit of fear, but of love, and of power, and of a sound mind. (II Timothy 1:7)…If God didn’t give the fear, then it must have come from Satan! What do we get? The love of God, the power of the Holy Spirit, and the sound mind from Jesus!!! We deserve nothing, but have it all!”
Live for Jesus! He’s coming soon!
You may contact me at lagnesrussell@gmail.com or 601-635-3282.
