Sylvia Kempas, lifelong missionary to Native Americans, passed away Easter evening at the age of 102. Sylvia was born in Chicago and raised in northern Minnesota. She attended nurse’s training and Bible school in Chicago, entering ministry in 1946 through Cloquet Gospel Tabernacle (now Journey Christian Church) by serving the Ojibway (Chippewa) people in Sawyer, Minnesota.
Sylvia was joined in ministry in 1951 by Geraldine Tornfelt and together they served as missionaries for “The American Indian Crusade” on reservations in Minnesota, South Dakota, Colorado, Arizona, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin, ministering among the Sioux, Dakota, Oneida and Ojibway. They returned to the Cloquet area in 1984 and continued to minister—visiting, praying for, and serving the many people with whom they had built relationships through the years.
Sylvia will forever be remembered as a servant of Jesus, a friend of the Indian people, a prayer warrior, and a vital part of Journey Christian Church. She will be greatly missed.
Funeral services will be held at Journey Christian Church, 1400 Washington Ave, Cloquet, Minnesota, at 11:00 Friday morning April 26, with visitation beginning at 10:00 AM.
“The Gospel that has been entrusted to us is too valuable not to share with others”
—Sylvia Kempas and Geraldine Tornfelt
Additional information can be found HERE.
