Martha Louise Worthington Purcell

Martha Purcell GOTHENBURG, Neb. #45;- Martha Louise Worthington Purcell, 51, rural Gothenburg, died of cancer Sunday, June 29, 2003, at Good Samaritan Hospital, Kearney, Neb. Services were held Monday, July 7, at the Evangelical Free Church, Gothenburg. The Revs. Rick Rehmert, Ken Gutwein, Lane Purcell and Irv Jennings officiated. Burial was at Tallin Cemetery, Arnold, Neb. Visitations were held Saturday, July 5, at Blase Memorial Chapel, Gothenburg, and Sunday, July 6, at Tallin Church, Arnold. Memorials may be made to the Tallin Church Building Fund. Mrs. Purcell was born on Nov. 14, 1951, in Creston, the daughter of Vernon Dean and Ethel Louise Dunkerson Worthington. She married Gene Purcell on Sept. 2, 1972, at Lincoln Boulevard Baptist Church, Muscatine. She began school at the age of four. She attended country schools from kindergarten through grade school and graduated from Muscatine High School at age 17. She then entered New Tribes Bible Institute, Waukesha, Wis. She and her husband finished their missionary training in February 1974. They later served as missionaries under New Tribes Mission in Mexico until 1994. In 1979 they both completed the Child E...[more]

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gelism training in Warrengton, Mo. Some of their ministries in Mexico included community development, guest housing, teaching literacy, dorm parenting and tribal church planting. When they returned to Arnold, they began pastoring at the Tallin Church. She played the piano each Sunday morning, taught Sunday school and led summer vacation Bible schools and the Good News Club. She enjoyed playing and spending time with her grandkids and working in her flower gardens. She loved reading and studying the Bible and spending time in prayer. Survivors include her husband, Gene Purcell of Gothenburg; two daughters, Heather Furne and her husband, Craig, of Arnold and Hannah Johnson and her husband, Mike, of Papua, New Guinea; a son, Eric Purcell and fiancé, Lisa Martin of Fremont, Neb.; her parents, Dean and Ethel Worthington of Muscatine; four grandchildren, Olivia and Landon Furne and Dorian and Kirra Johnson; five sisters, Cheryl Estabrook of Muscatine, Mary Long and her husband, Gene, of Thailand, Nancy Blomberg and her husband, Don, of Albin, Wyo., Twyla Thiessen and her husband, David, of Davenport and Deanna McWilliam and her husband, Stuart, of Fredrick, Wis. She was preceded in death by a brother, Allen Worthington.