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January 21, 2022January 21, 2022 by Jonathan In Faith-Filled Friday 1 Comment

Lilli’s mother, Kathie, or “Neny” to her family, went home to Jesus last Friday, January 14, 2022. Lilli left Kenya on the 10th and by God’s grace was able to be with her mom in her final moments on this earth.

Jonathan, Josh, and Sophie remained in Kenya, but were able to watch the funeral service virtually on Tuesday. It was a beautiful celebration of her life, with many family members participating through sharing, singing, reading Scripture, and preaching.

Lilli will be in Minneapolis until February 7 to be a support to her father, Stan, along with her twin sister, Vicki. We would appreciate your prayers that the family would continue to experience the Lord as their refuge and strength and a very present help in this time of trouble, while also rejoicing that Neny is with Jesus.

Thankfully Pray

• Grateful Lilli made it back to Minnesota in time to say goodbye to her mom and be with her family.
• Jonathan, Josh, and Sophie are experiencing God’s kindness from the care of RVA staff and also working together to prepare meals, etc – thanks to Sophie’s organization! It has also been hard to miss out on being together with the rest of the family 😢
• Rift Valley Academy now has about 60 students (out of 400) on campus, still doing school online, and with pretty strict COVID protocols. Pray that the rest of the students are able to return on Jan. 29th, and we can resume a more normal schedule.
• Thankful for the purchase and shipment of Paul David Tripp’s, Do You Believe? for each student in Jonathan’s Moffat Bible class as well as a few others Lilli will bring back with her, Lord willing.
• This week Jonathan had a student lead class discussion on the holiness of God. It was so encouraging to hear how some have been impacted by meditating on a doctrine much ignored by the church today. The students observed how many Kenyan pastors preach prosperity rather than holiness. Some don’t want to preach on God’s holiness because it might expose their own sinfulness. And if pastors do preach on holiness, it’s only to stress behavior change – what we must do and don’t do – without grace. Pray for the church in Africa (and America), but also give thanks for the insight being given to these future church leaders and their brokenness before a holy God!
• We thank God for each of you and for the ability to carry out the call of God on our lives, in sorrow and in joy.

The Life of Neny

From her obituary: Katharine Quanbeck, age 84 of Lakeville, went Home to be with Her Lord and Savior on Friday evening, January 14, 2022. She was surrounded by the love of her husband and family. 

Katharine Doris “Kathie” “Katie” Miller Quanbeck, was born May 24, 1937, in Browns Valley, Minnesota, to Louis Phillip and Gusta Josephine (Gravdal) Miller. At the age of five, due to flooding of the town, her family moved to Worthington, where she graduated from Worthington High School in 1955. That Fall she moved to Minneapolis to study nursing at Fairview Hospital – receiving her degree in 1958. 

In July of 1962, on a blind date, she met her future husband, Stanley Quanbeck, a senior in medical school in Chicago. They married on December 22, 1962, at Hope Lutheran Church in Minneapolis. In 1964, following the completion of her husband’s internship in St. Paul accepted a call by the American Lutheran Church to go as medical missionaries to Madagascar, where they served for the next 40 years. Kathie is remembered by her co-workers as being humble, always seeking ways to promote their well-being, encouraging them to take leadership roles in teaching health, disease prevention and always witnessing for the role of the Holy Spirit to bring these changes about. Coming out of poverty, she sought to identify with the poorest of the community, including the village prostitutes, taking the seats in church where the poorest would sit. Word got around town that the prostitutes were called “Zanaka Kambeky”- children of Quanbecks. 

Kathie was very smart, a linguist, and learned two languages from scratch while living with her husband who grew up speaking these languages. She learned to identify sub-clans within the tribal grouping of the Malagasy people of Madagascar and eventually gathered twenty-five oral histories from these clans scattered throughout the island. She had an incredible memory and would usually sing Lutheran Hymns from memory, all verses as well as many Malagasy Hymns. 

In 2004, Kathie and Stanley returned to Minnesota and settled in Lakeville. They were longtime members of Central Lutheran Church in Minneapolis and recently joined Bethel Lutheran. For more than a decade, Kathie has been a diligent archivist, cataloging the history of the Quanbeck family in Madagascar. She was a key member in the founding of Global Health Ministries – a natural continuation of her life of service to others. 

She is survived by her husband of 59 years, Stanley; 4 children and 15 grandchildren, Glenn (Lisa) Quanbeck, children Katelin (Bobby) Hollowell and Jakob Quanbeck, Cynthia (Brian) Goke, children Mikelah, Logan, Quentin & Zoe Goke, Vicki (Shon) Schetnan, children Lucy, Kalli, Kip, Camille and Daisy Schetnan, Lillian (Jonathan) Leslie, children Hannah (Henrik Stevens), Tiana, Joshua and Sophia Leslie; and brother Charles (Carol) Miller and children.