The Ultimate King's Kids Camp: Cindy Kelly's Funeral Message

On July 28, my friend and sister in Christ, Cindy Kelly, left her earthly body and moved to her mansion in heaven. As God would have it, she died during King's Kids Camp. She had vowed earlier this year, "I AM going to camp." As you will find out, in reading this sermon, she did go to camp--the Ultimate King's Kids Camp. What follows is Cindy's funeral sermon. I was privileged to preach this, in honor of Cindy, her family, and her Lord, on July 31, 2010. Over 300 people attended her funeral. The service ended with King's Kids of all generations coming to the front, singing, Lean on Me,followed by a bagpiper playing Amazing Grace. Here is Cindy's sermon: The Ultimate King's Kids Camp... 

King’s Kids Fun. It always happened the same way every year. The directors and counselors would arrive at Camp Wartburg, early Saturday afternoon, on some sweltering hot day in July or August. My mind was on programming. Camp schedules finished. Check. Morning watch booklets done. Check. Theme presentations prepared. Check. And then, I would watch Cindy Kelly arrive at camp. I always noticed that Cindy arrived a little early, and that she always brought Jack with her. You see, Cindy also had her check list, and she needed Jack for the heavy lifting. Enough Christmas lights to trip the circuit breakers in all the Wartburg Cabins. Check. Frilly decoration thingies to hang from the ceiling. Check. Hawaiian theme decorations, or whatever theme she chose for that year. Check. Special gifts for each girl in the cabin. Check. Cindy always had plans for camp. They were always good plans. They were plans to bring each child there a hope, and a future, and a party or two along the way.

Today, it is my honor and privilege to share God’s word with you, at the funeral service of my friend and sister in Christ, Cindy Kelly. I believe Cindy’s favorite scripture of all time is to be found in Jeremiah 29:11-14. The setting of this scripture is the Babylonian Captivity. Most of the nation of Israel had been captured and taken away as prisoners of war. They were sad. Psalm 137 says, "On the willows there, we hung up our lyres." There was no singing or joy. "For how can we sing, sing the Lord’s song, in a foreign land?" They were in a place where things definitely were far from the way they wanted them to be: far away from home, far from their temple, far from the freedoms they had come to enjoy. They had every reason to be mad about life, and mad at God.

But along comes the Prophet Jeremiah, and this is what he says. This is Cindy’s favorite scripture:

(Jer 29:11-14 NLT) "For I know the plans I have for you," says the LORD. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. . ." And then, in verse 14, he says, "I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes. I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and bring you home again to your own land."

What God is saying is, "I have good plans for you. Right now, you have some tribulations, but the future is bright." Yea for the future! But what about the present?

This is very interesting. Just a few verses earlier, Jeremiah gives them instructions for living with their tribulations. He says, in 29:5: "Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters . . . seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper." What God is saying is, "Don’t focus on your troubles and tribulations. Do positive things for yourselves and for others." Or, in Cindy Kelly language, loosely interpreted, we could say, "Let’s get out the decorations, and party!"

Eulogy: Cindy Sue (Coleman) Kelly was born into the home of Clarence and Dorothy Coleman on June 2, 1954. She went home to be with Jesus this past Wednesday morning, July 28, surrounded by the love of her family. Cindy was 56 years old.

Cindy was the beloved wife for 35 years of John A. "Jack" Kelly. She was the loving mother of five: John C. Kelly and his wife, Angela; Ryan A. Kelly and his wife, Melissa; Thomas P. Kelly; Michael C. Kelly; and Kathryn R. Kelly. Even at her young age, Cindy had the privilege of being a grandmother of three: Cameron, Ryleigh, and Kieran. She was the dear sister of Walter B. Coleman and the late Susan Rolf. She was a dear sister-in-law, aunt, cousin and friend.

After talking with Cindy’s brother, Walter, there are several things I notice about her early years. First of all, Cindy has always been attracted to parties, fun, and holidays. This is not a late development in her life. One day, when she was about 4 or 5 years old, her father set out all the presents on Christmas Eve, but because he knew of Cindy’s obsession, he set up a trip wire with an alarm to catch any children who might sneak down in the middle of the night to get a preview of their presents before Christmas Day. Cindy set off the alarm. She just couldn’t wait for Christmas! Later on in her life, this got translated into Saturday pizza and movie nights, Easter dinners where she would usually invite anyone who needed a place to celebrate, and elaborate birthday celebrations, including silly songs.

Cindy loved people and activity from an early age. As a child, she took dance lessons. She was one of the "dancing poodles" on the Admiral. I think you’ll see a picture of that later on in the service. She played field hockey, she was in Brownies, Girl Scouts, and Job’s Daughters. She attended Old Bonhomme Grade School, and later West Ladue Jr. High, where she was in the color guard.

We all remember Cindy as someone with the gift of mercy. When she was a child, her parents used to raise dachshunds, those little dogs with long bodies and short legs. They used to raise the puppies to sell them to other dog owners. Cindy would become so attached to the puppies that she would hide them throughout the house, so that her parents couldn’t find them. She held on to a couple of dogs that way.

She is also someone with a sensitive conscience. One day, as a girl, she took a ride on a motorcycle with a friend, without permission. When she got off the motorcycle, she got a burn mark on her leg from the exhaust, but she told her parents that she had burned her leg on a radiator in the band room. The next day, she called from school, in tears. She felt so guilt about lying that she had to call her parents, from school, to let them know the truth.

What you may not know, and what I did not know, is that Cindy also experienced suffering from an early age. Her collar bone was broken at birth, and throughout her entire life, she was never able to raise her left arm above her head. Most of us don’t know it, but Cindy was disabled. She got a free college education out of it, but she refused to get the handicapped sticker for her car.Cindy came to a personal relationship with Christ in her high school years.

During those days, the church camp being offered at St. Paul’s was at Camp Aurora in Windyville, Missouri. One year, while Cindy was at camp, she was deeply troubled by some problems in her life, and went off to a quiet place by herself to pray. She had heard the message that Jesus was "the way, the truth and the life," and it was at Camp Aurora that she turned her life, and her problems, over to Jesus, and received him as her Lord and Savior. One of the reasons Cindy was so committed to Church Camp was because of the impact of this experience on her life. She met God in the out-of-doors. That is also the reason that all of her children were baptized outside. Cindy agreed with the psalm, "The heavens are telling the glory of God."

But as much as she loved the out of doors, it was indoors that she met the man she would come to love and marry. In 1972, Cindy Kelly worked at the Candy Counter at Sears, at Northwest Plaza. Jack worked in the next department over, in Sporting Goods. In July of 1972, Jack began to notice this woman at the candy counter, and as only Jack can, he engaged her in conversation. He told her he was from New Jersey, but she wouldn’t believe him. So he sent her two postcards from New Jersey. He kept inviting Cindy for coffee, but she would never join him. Finally, one day, there was a woman make a ruckus at the candy counter. "What does a person have to do to get service around here?" It turned out to be Cindy’s mother, Dorothy. So Jack goes up to Dorothy, introduces himself, and invites HER to coffee. That is how he got Cindy to come on their first date. He invited her mother out first.

Jack and Cindy had three official dates, and by November of that year, he asked Cindy to marry him. He made this decision on a golf course, at the third hole, while he was putting. You will have to ask Jack about that story. And he made the proposition one night, when he and Cindy were at the watch spot on Lindbergh, watching planes land at Lambert Airport. Cindy was 19, Jack was 28. That was a closely held secret for many years. Cindy immediately agreed, but then later, she said, "Are you serious?" Jack said he was, and they were later married on August 3, 1974.

Cindy graduated from college after they were married with a degree in education, and began her career working in the Normandy Special School District, with troubled children. Even though some days she would come home bruised or bleeding from a child that got out of control, the administrators recognized her talent for dealing with these children. But after John was born in 1978, Cindy decided to use her talents in raising her own children.

Things started to get busy around the Kelly home. In 1981, Ryan was born. In 1982, they moved to St. Charles. Then, Tommy came along in 1983, Michael in 1986, and Katie in 1989. Jack had a variety of jobs during those years, but then, he says there was divine intervention in 1984, when he started to work for NANCO, a toy and novelty company. After working for the company for 10 years, he began to work out of his home in 1994. That meant that he was able to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner each day with his wife, Cindy. When Cindy began her struggle with cancer in 2005, he was able to be at home to help her along the way, through the mastectomy, through the 3 brain surgeries, through the lung surgery. Even though Cindy’s time here on earth was short, Jack knows that because he was working from home, he was able to get the most out of the 36 years that he had with Cindy.

There are many other things we could say about Cindy. She was always so concerned about other people. When she finally got to rehab after her third brain surgery, she called me up with two questions. "Pastor Mark. I was just wondering how Caleb is doing in his new job. Also, I was wondering if there is anyone here from church at the rehab center that Jack and I could visit." It was amazing to me that she was thinking of others at this time. Ryan says, "The last words that anyone could understand, which came from her mouth, were her words, asking Heidi Aslin how Merrill Hinzpeter was doing?" She died thinking of others, first. What a tremendous lesson.She was very creative.

As a child, she was interested in photography, and wanted to put a dark room in her house. At camp, we always put her in charge of the video skits, because it seemed almost effortless to her to put together a good camp movie. This is something she has passed on to her children, who are all creative, and successful in drama, arts, and video.

Conclusion. But most of all, I want to go back to her favorite verse. There is a graphic of it in your bulletin for the service. "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Cindy believed, with all of her heart, that even her cancer was not meant to harm her, but to prosper her. She was concerned that her children might turn away from God, because of their mother being taken at an early age. But if she would be here today, her message for each of us would be this: "Keep looking for ways that God will use my death for good, and not for evil."

As for the future, and the hope! Let me tell you! You know how it says in the Bible, Jesus says, "In my father’s house, there are many mansions–I am going ahead to prepare one just for you?" Well, I want to tell you something. There is definitely a big mansion for Cindy in heaven. There would have to be, just so that she could hold all the parties and celebrations that she would want to host. Like the song says, "There’s a big, big table, with lots and lots of food. There’s a big back yard, where we can play football." It’s a marvelous place.

But I see that God has also prepared something else for Cindy–something beyond the ordinary mansion in heaven. He’s also prepared a campground for her! It’s the Ultimate King’s Kids Camp, with lots and lots of cabins, with lots and lots of worship workshops, and dance studios, and a huge dining hall. There’s a room where people read scripture all day long. There’s a room where people sing praise songs, and worship God all day long. There’s a room where people do arts and crafts, and a room where people write skits and dramas all day long, and practice them until they are perfect. And yes, there is the video studio. It is here that Cindy creates the greatest camp videos ever. And, of course, there are also the decorated cabins, where at night time, one single candle is lit, and campers talk about why they were afraid to come to camp, and tell each other about how wonderful camp has been, and speak of the wonderful love of Jesus, who died, so that they live; who rose, so that they could prosper for eternity.

AMEN.