With the Lord

Mona Kemery - Promoted to Glory - February 22, 1912 - January 3, 1998

Mona Kemery was born to a coal miner and his wife near LaSalle, Illinois. The oldest of six children, Mona was reared in an ethnic community that was 75% Roman Catholic. Saved as a young girl, she became the sole wage earner for her family during the Depression.

While attending Moody Bible Institute Mona told God she would go wherever He wanted her. The answer came back clearly, "Go to New Guinea." At that time, ABWE was conducting a survey of the island nation, so when Mona applied to the mission it was with the expectation of becoming a missionary to New Guinea. However, ABWE was never able to enter New Guinea and Mona was asked to fill in for a furloughing missionary from the Philippines.

Within two weeks of her appointment, Mona's entire financial support needs were met by her home church, First Baptist of LaSalle, and she was on her way. She arrived in the Philippines in 1939. Mona's first assignment in a village on the island of Palawan found her walking down the street saying to herself, "I am responsible for the souls of all these people." Today three Baptist churches stand testimony to the faithful witness of Mona and her colleagues.

Mona accepted "the assignment no one else wanted" to become dean of a girls' hostel in Manila in 1940. The 50 female students attended a nearby university, and Mona kept busy providing both spiritual and practical guidance to her charges.

When the Japanese invaded the Philippines during World War 11, Mona and other Americans were placed under house arrest. Cut off from the rest of the world without money, the missionaries were fed each week by Filipino Christians until foreigners were rounded up and placed in internment camps.

Mona was in the Los Banõs camp where meager food supplies dwindled until the daily rations for each person amounted to two spoonfuls of rice mush. While two people died each day from starvation, Mona survived although she weighed only 80 pounds. At 7 a.m. on February 23, 1945 the 2,100 prisoners (most of whom were missionaries) were lined up to be counted-and then executed. At 7:20 the 11th Airborne Division arrived dropping paratroopers just outside the camp. They arrived just in time to liberate the prisoners.

Mona was evacuated to the USA where she told the story of her deliverance. She returned to the Philippines in June 1947. For the rest of her career, she taught and served on the board of Doane Baptist Seminary, and continually witnessed to the Filipinos who still refer to her as "Mom."

After failing health forced her to retire in 1984, Mona worked for 12 years in the mail room at ABWE headquarters in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. As her health deteriorated, Mona lost her eyesight and for the last year and a half of her life she lived in a nursing home.

Mona will long be remembered for her legacy of cheerful service to God and to ABWE.

Read the vivid account of Mona Kemery's internment and the dramatic rescue in the books:

No Greater Joy by Ruth Woodworth
Beyond Prison Walls by Marian Bomm

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