Shelby was part of seven-member Southern Baptist team allowed to visit N. Korea in 1989. He re, he is pictured with Pastor Tommy Sohn of Dallas. (IB archives)
It was forty-five years ago this month that I met my future father-in-law for the first time. I had met other missionaries, but it would be this meeting with my future father-in-law that would set the course for the rest of my life.
I saw in my future in-laws a love for the nations and a love for the gospel that would set my heart in a similar direction. This couple had the imprint of God’s hand on their life. My father-in-law and his twin brother were the survivors of a botched abortion. They were raised for the most part of their young life by their grandmother in a small house in Harrisburg Illinois.
My father-in-law would survive an encounter with his future wife at a Basketball game at Harrisburg High School. This encounter would lead to their marriage in 1959. They discovered through their dating that God had called both to go to China as missionaries.
So, they set off to California to prepare for the mission field at Golden Gate Seminary. A few years later they would board a ship with their daughter for Hong Kong. There they would learn Cantonese so they could communicate the gospel to the Chinese in Malaysia.
Over the next thirty years, they would minister in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, India, Germany, Bulgaria, Russia, South Vietnam, Cambodia, and a few other nations I cannot recall. They would learn several languages in part so they could communicate with those they ministered to.
My father-in-law possessed many unique abilities necessary for missionaries to possess as they travel to places where modern tools and equipment are not in ready supply.
I have witnessed my father-in-law repair many things with WD40, duct tape, super glue, and a Swiss Army knife. I even heard of him repairing a broken-down automobile with material from a Kleenex box.
He was able to pack a small suitcase that would support him in almost any climate in his travels across Russia, India, and other remote places.
Shelby and his wife Avah pose with the Robert E. Dixon Lifetime Achievement Award he received in 2014 for his work in Southern Baptist Disaster Relief.
When their time was up overseas they returned to the States. Instead of retiring, my father-in-law became the director of Baptist Men and Disaster Relief for Illinois Baptists. He helped coordinate the Disaster relief at the foot of the World Trade Center in 2001
A little over five years ago my father-in-law’s health began to decline and they came to live in our home. I have watched my in-laws meet this challenge of declining health with the same grace they shared with others overseas.
I am grateful to God for the years I have had to witness the testimony of two faithful followers of Christ. I have had the pleasure of serving my in-laws along with my wife and as a result, I am a better pastor and follower of Christ.
They have been faithful to Christ since their youth, faithful to each other for sixty-four years. Faithful to love their children grandchildren and great-grandchildren. And faithful to love this odd son-in-law.
My father-in-law was a chemist, pastor, seminary professor, itinerant evangelist, mission administrator, leader of Baptist Men, and administrator of Illinois Baptist Disaster Relief, a husband, father, father-in-law, grandfather, great-grandfather, and follower of Christ.
The thing I am most grateful for to my father-in-law is that on a cold Sunday morning in December of 1979, he told me it was time to say, “Amen” when he gave me permission to marry his daughter, Melanie Rose Shelby.
If you ever met my father-in-law in an airport somewhere in the world you would have to be incredibly careful how you greeted him. His name is Jack. Jack Shelby.
Jack Shelby, the best father-in-law a son-in-law could have, is a follower of Christ. This morning at a little after 1 am Jack Shelby entered his eternal home.
As his only son-in-law let me say, “Well done Jack Shelby! Well done!”
I am a better man and pastor because of your influence.
— Philip Nelson is pastor of Lakeland Baptist Church in Carbondale