Sherwood Park missionary family killed in South Africa crash
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A family of four from Sherwood Park were killed in a head-on car crash in South Africa Sunday, according to a GoFundMe campaign for the family.
Brendan and Melissa Perrott, along with their children Evelyn, 5, and Colton, 3, were missionaries living in Eswatini, formerly Swaziland. The crash killed the four family members, as well as Sabelo Sibeko, a fifth person in the vehicle, and all four people in a second vehicle.
The family had been volunteering with Bulembu Ministries, a Christian missionary group that works in the Swazi town of Bulembu, since the start of 2018.
The organization shared a message remembering the Perrott family on their Facebook page.
“Brendan, Melissa and their two children came to serve the people of eSwatini but especially the children of Bulembu,” read the post. “They followed the call of God and loved whole-heartedly and impacted so many people’s lives. We mourn with their families back home in Canada and with their Swazi friends who have become family.”
According to a family friend, a member of the Heartland Alliance Church in Sherwood Park created a GoFundMe page to raise money for the costs of the family travelling to Africa, transporting their bodies and personal items and the funeral.
As of noon on Wednesday, the page had received more than $43,500 in donations, well exceeding the original $5,000 goal. Remaining money will be donated to Bulembu Ministries.
Staff at Camp Nakamun, a faith-based summer camp about 85 kilometres northwest of Edmonton, fondly remembered Brendan Perrott, who attended as a camper and a counsellor.
“He had a passion for kids and for other people,” said camp staffer Daylene Penner. “He would take time out of his summer to come here and serve in many different areas.”
Brendan was remembered as easy-going and selfless, with a love for music.
“The biggest thing I remember was his really big smile,” Luke Henkelman, also a staff member at Camp Nakamun, said. “He had a servant’s heart.”
Before leaving Sherwood Park in late December 2017, the family wrote a letter to friends and families outlining their excitement about the next chapter of their lives in Africa. They were happy that all of their arrangements were falling into place and they were letting go of material items, which they said people form their identity around, as well as more complicated things like jobs, their home, their church and their community. But that independence made them closer with their faith, as they stated God will provide all that they need.
“This gives me an entire new perspective on His power that is in His people,” the family wrote in 2017. “We have now experienced and witnessed the power of His people gathering together to equip us to serve those children in Africa. And the picture gets even bigger when we think about the thousands of people all over the world who have gathered together to make the vision of Bulembu a reality. How great is His Love that our father would literally gather up armies of people because He loves those children in Swaziland and He loves us.”
jherring@postmedia.com
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