HOLLAND, Mich. — Dave and Joy Mueller were leading Kenya Hope as the executive directors for 13 years working to build freshwater wells and provide education, food relief and skills training to widows.
On Wednesday, Oct. 25 the Muellers died in a truck crash while on a mission trip in Kenya, along with the daughter of the U.S. Director, Julie Holman, who had just passed her nurse-practitioner exam.
"They would say it was worth it. They still...they still deeply believe that," said Ian Mueller, as Ian and his two brothers, Cameron and Forrest, remember their parents' commitment to their faith and their work.
"Whether it was drilling a well 800 feet deep for a remote part of Kenya, going into remote South Sudan to help build a hospital, or going to a remote tribe with an unwritten language to learn and create an alphabet, they seem to always be willing to say yes, and to bring aid in whatever form it looked," Forrest said.
The brothers say their parents' faith was genuine, and was the basis for everything the two of them did. They said they wouldn't be the men they are today if it wasn't for their parents.
"There was a time where on a spur of the moment, she had to entertain over 26 people and feed them. She didn't bat an eye and she fed them," recalled Cameron. "Our father as well, teaching us ingenuity, work ethic and all that was connected deeply, and in their faith. Even to the point where my father would listen to the Bible every single morning, faithfully without fail."
Ian said he always found consistency with his parents, even through difficult and dangerous situations.
"We were with them through thick and thin I'm they almost never faltered in their in their boat, and their integrity and their beliefs and their stick-to-it-iveness," Ian said. "I mean, some of the scenarios that they'd been through were incredibly stressful and incredibly harrowing. I don't know a lot of people that could endure to the degree and competency that they did."
Even though they will miss their parents, they said they feel a sense of peace knowing they lived full lives with them.
"This is not the final have all and all. So, we've gone through our whole lives, both with our parents and ourselves, very open-handed and not clinging too tightly to this, and whatever the Lord may have for us, so be it," Forrest said.
"We're aware of death, we're aware that this life is finite, and that did cause us to have even deeper relationships with our parents. So, we are at immense peace," Cameron said.
The brothers are thankful for the support they have been receiving from community members, and the support for Kenya Hope.
"For the people who have supported my parents, for the churches who have supported my parents for decades now, thank you from the bottom of our hearts. I mean, you empowered a pair of exceptional people," Ian said.
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