From the pen of my wife Dorothy Patterson in memory of her sister-in-love, Rhonda Harrington Kelley...
In the Lord’s providence, I was the first member of the Kelley family to meet Rhonda Harrington. Paige and I were students at New Orleans in the late 1960s. He was pastor of Bethany Baptist Church, and I had agreed to serve as associational Young Women’s Auxiliary Director. As a young pastor’s wife and theology student at New Orleans Seminary, I was full of enthusiasm and ideas on how to inspire young women to pursue discipleship and the study of missions.
Upon graduation, Rhonda headed to Baylor University just as my only brother Chuck also matriculated for his baccalaureate work. Their committed friendship culminated in their marriage upon graduation. The wedding was a joyous occasion and continued the blending of our two families. From the beginning of their marriage, they not only loved one another, but they delighted in the company of each other and found many common interests.
Rhonda and I shared an interest in the world of academics. Our husbands encouraged and insisted that we pursue post-graduate degrees. Neither they nor we envisioned our investing most of our ministry life in higher education, but God knew the path he had prepared for us. Helping our husbands with typing papers and dissertations, we quickly immersed ourselves into the protocols and disciplines of life in an academic setting. We each pursued our respective PhD programs, including our papers and dissertations. As a speech pathologist, Rhonda is still remembered at Ochsner Medical Center where she served with distinction as the only non-medical head of a department.
But Rhonda did not stop with personal academic preparation, which opened many doors for financial gain, prestigious positions, and prominence based on her own personal achievement! She believed the biblical mandate calling her to give primary energies to helping her husband. When Chuck was elected to the presidency of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, Rhonda quickly determined that he would need all her energies and creativity and most of her time to help him in the myriad of responsibilities he was assuming. She did not blink in walking away from her own professional pursuit to give full time to the responsibilities of First Lady of the seminary.
Rhonda chose to immerse herself in the local church—not just as an attendee but also as an active member/leader in the programs of the church. She served on key committees, such as the Pulpit Search Committee; she taught the Bible in different settings; she led out in evangelism and outreach; and she was the key leader in establishing the Women’s Ministries Program of FBC New Orleans—still going strong after several decades! In their retirement years, Chuck and Rhonda immediately found a church home, and once again Rhonda immersed herself in work among the women and inaugurating the first Women’s Ministries Program! Only the Lord’s heavenly scribe has any idea how many pumpkin spice cakes Rhonda baked and distributed during the fall of every year! Her hospitality was creative with attention to guests and their respective needs, overseeing all guest facilities to be sure each was well equipped with what any guest would need or want! Her smile was contagious; and her interest in every person, regardless of position or means, was always evident. Her notes and cards were prolific and needed a personal postal service—they came throughout the year as expressions of gratitude or simply seasonal greetings or mentoring encouragement.
Rhonda gave enormous effort and much time to networking, especially among colleagues in the Council of Seminary Presidents and in the work of what used to be the Seminary Women’s Network made up of representatives of SBC work among women. She brought great ideas for doing work on the campuses and amazing reports of what was happening in women’s work on the campus of NOBTS and in their outreach to the women in prisons! Rhonda was mentoring with every word she spoke and every book she wrote. Her pen was prolific with Bible studies and inspirational volumes. Every woman would do well to visit her personal web site to find wonderful resources to use in churches as well as for personal study. The academic resources—Study Bibles (translated into Spanish and Portuguese), and OT and NT Commentaries were prepared. These enormous projects would never have crossed the finish line without her detailed flow charts and organizational work in addition to the notes and articles and character sketches she personally penned!
Although I have only touched the surface of the life and work of Rhonda Kelley, I must come to a concluding word about what she has meant and still means to me. Even more clearly in the last weeks of her life I saw spiritual strength and deep faith in God’s love and providence. That faith never wavered; no question was raised concerning the goodness of our Lord; witness of the Savior and His work was steady until she drew her last breath making an impact on every medical team member and each hospice worker and on all visitors to the Kelley Cozy Cottage; with every whisper in our last visits she gave me strength even in her weakness; her loving friendship envelops me still; no one would ever question her love for the Lord Jesus.
When Rhonda became a part of the Kelley family, she certainly did not abandon her birth family. However, she stretched herself to embrace the entire Kelley clan—Chuck’s parents and four siblings and even our children. Every holiday she was a part of preparation of meals and celebration. She remembered birthdays and anniversaries and always had seasonal greetings as well. Because both of our husbands were seminary presidents, Rhonda and I had many common journeys and meetings. We amused ourselves between these events with fellowship and family reports woven into our excursions. We also did overseas travel in connection with our responsibilities and enjoyed fellowship with our colleagues and seeing firsthand the needs of the world. We were especially delighted to extend our women’s work into international settings.
Rhonda was committed to the Genesis Creation Order. She and I shared a passion to challenge women to love their husbands, nurture their children, minister to the extended families, and to guide their households. This commitment pushed us into producing biblically-based resources with woman-to-woman teaching and mentoring. We divided our working time on these projects among our respective campus homes and the publisher’s headquarters, always careful to adjust to our respective campus events. Royalties from these volumes have been used by our non-profits to help in the various ministries in which we and our husbands were involved. We used the projects to bring our students to the forefront and give them opportunities to publish! We also shared dreams and ideas for our women’s programs. Although our programs were not the same, we challenged and inspired one another.
Rhonda Kelley did much of her work behind the scenes, but she was always faithful to the task, however small. She was never side-tracked by difficulties or disappointments; she was determined to do what the Lord assigned to her. On her death bed she met and encouraged women in leadership in the Women’s Ministry Program she helped to establish in her home church; she worked tirelessly when completely bed-ridden to transfer all papers to the new historian of the SBC Pastors’ Wives Luncheon; she took time to encourage former students who came by even when she could barely whisper! An amazing sister, a genuine and forever friend, a consistent kindred spirit—I described her best and most succinctly when I was asked to write a word on the 20th anniversary of her service as First Lady of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary: “Rhonda is the benchmark for character, class, and commitment!”
Our earthly loss is heaven’s gain; our earthly pain of losing one so dear is surpassed by her heavenly joy of sitting at the feet of the blessed Jesus! Even so, come, Lord Jesus—and meantime pour out your mercies and balm on those of us who remain without the “bundle of joy” You shared with us for seven decades!