GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Wayne Benson spoke to 13 ON YOUR SIDE about his friend Dean Elliott, a Grand Rapids area Missionary killed in a wrong way accident on Palm Sunday.
"I started getting texts from around the country, people that knew that I would want to know, because I've been close to the family all these years. And I just have to say, I was I was heartbroken," said Benson, a former pastor at Grand Rapids First Assembly of God in Grand Rapids and Brightmoor Tabernacle Church in Novi.
Elliott was the first pastor at Living Hope Assembly of God in Caledonia, even spending some time at Fennville Assembly of God.
Elliott was 13 years old when Benson met him at the Novi church.
Once his music Pastor, Benson said Elliott later turned into a lifelong friend.
"I had the privilege of seeing him grow and develop and in his spiritual walk, and then even had the honor of doing his father's funeral when he was only 16 years old," said Benson.
Friends like Russell DeBord, a pastor at Sunset Chapel in Miami, also called Elliott a "great man, faithful minister of the gospel, and an amazing talented servant in the church."
Other than pastoring, Elliott focused on ministry, often speaking at churches and raising money for ministry projects.
"He was noted for coming alongside some of the great missionaries that have served there, or some of the pastors who started churches in India and today, these churches are we're talking like churches of 20,000, 30,000, 40,000 people," said Benson. "But he helped them and came alongside them help raise money, help promote those ministries."
Benson added that Elliott's passing is a loss not only to the ministry, but to everyone who loved him.
"He had very big, long arms of love. And he touched many thousands of people," said Benson.
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