Helen Mcneely

Helen McNeely June 23, 1937 - June 10, 2016 Helen McNeely passed away Friday, June 10, 2016 in Waco after a long illness. Services will be 10:00 a.m. Wednesday, June 15, at First Baptist Church with Rev. Matt Snowden officiating. Burial will follow at 2:00 p.m. at Salado Cemetery. Visitation will be 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Tuesday, June 14, at Wilkirson-Hatch-Bailey. Helen was born June 23, 1937 in San Antonio, grew up in Jarrell, and was a graduate of Bartlett High School. She attended Mary Hardin-Baylor and Southwestern Seminary where she met her husband, Don McNeely. Helen worked at First Baptist Church in Garland and Birchman Avenue Baptist Church in Fort Worth as an educational secretary and youth worker. She became Youth Director of Central Baptist Church in Bryan in 1960. Helen and Don married December 23, 1960 at the Godley Baptist Church. She joined Don in his ministry of education in Washington, D.C., Birmingham, Alabama, and Houston. She taught kindergarten in Birmingham and Houston. She served as Children’s Director at Second Baptist Church in Houston in 1976 before the McNeelys went to the mission field. Helen and Don have three sons, Rob, Wes, and Bart. In 1976 Helen and Don were led to apply for foreign missionary service and served fifteen years in Zambia. While there, Helen served in the communications ministry, first as a producer and leader of a weekly children’s TV program, “Clubhouse.” Later she became Director of the Baptist Communications Ministry, which produced as many as 500 radio programs a year and several television specials. One TV drama was on AIDS and was broadcast several times and was taken by the president of Zambia to an international AIDS conference in Canada. The McNeelys were led to go to an unreached people and transferred to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia where they helped begin Christian work and did home Bible studies. Helen once again produced and hosted a local television program featuring women in Mongolia. The couple changed to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and went to Berlin, Germany to coordinate volunteers in Europe and the former Soviet Union. They traveled extensively surveying and setting up projects. Their largest project was a three-year residential training school for pastors and church leaders in Irkutsk, Siberia. In 1997 Dr. Keith Parks, Global Missions Coordinator, asked the McNeelys to become global volunteer coordinators, living in Texas. One project was sending a team of volunteers from First Baptist Church, Waco to rebuild homes in Kosovo. Helen was a wonderful wife, mother, friend to all, and a compassionate Christian. She had a way with people, endearing herself to all. She never met a stranger and had the ability to make everyone feel special. She simply loved people and they knew it. She had a special way with children, speaking to them in ways they could understand. Helen is survived by her husband of fifty-five years, Don McNeely; son, Rob McNeely and wife Pam of Burleson; son, Wes McNeely of Houston; son, Bart McNeely and wife, Lisa of Fort Worth; and one sister, Barbara Wills of Abilene. She is also survived by six grandchildren, Ryan McNeely and wife, Kristyn of Kyle, Brittany McNeely of Fort Worth, Drew and Nathan McNeely of Houston, Laura McNeely of Denton, and Hunter McNeely of Fort Worth. In lieu of flowers, donations may be given to CBF Global Missions through First Baptist Church of Waco. The family invites you to leave a message or memory in our “Memorial Guestbook” at www.WHBfamily.com.