Euel Reece has some interesting and inspirational real-life stories to tell. Whether the outcomes are good or bad, Reece is quick to point out that God has been with him the whole way.
The 88-year-old Ellijay resident puts several of those stories to print in his first book, which covers his decades as a traveling pastor and missionary. The book’s title, “The Life and Ministry of a Country Boy God Chose to Use,” lets the reader know exactly what lies in store.
“From literally following the plow, God took this country boy from Gilmer County and gave me the opportunity to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ in two countries in Africa, several countries in Europe and many states in the USA,” Reece said.
Answering the call
A Gilmer County native, Reece was raised near the Stegall and Ebenezer areas off what’s now Highway 52 East. His parents, Angus and Gertrude Reece, farmed their land.
“They didn’t have names on these roads back then. I can remember when Highway 52 was just a big road with a lot of rocks thrown in the mud holes so you could get over it,” Reece remembered.
Like many young people of that era, farm work was a staple of Reece’s early life, which is recounted in the book’s early chapters.
“I was born in 1933, during the deep depression. We went from that to World War II, so I grew up in a very difficult time in the USA, especially for my dad, a sharecropper,” he said. “He grew corn for cattle and bread and planted cabbage and various kinds of vegetables. He also had an apple orchard and a route down in Nelson and Tate selling apples.”
Reece said the calling to preach dates back to his birth.
“My grandfather, Emory Farist, was a Baptist preacher. The night I was born, he dedicated me to the Lord,” Reece said. “He prayed two prayers for my future life. He prayed that God would save me by his grace, and that, if it was God’s will for my life, he would call me to preach the Gospel.”
Reece answered that call in 1961 when he started preaching at a Baptist church in Winder.
“God began to open doors for me. I had no training whatsoever, but God can use whoever totally surrenders to him,” he said.
That decision would set the course for the rest of Reece’s life as he soon went full time in service of the Lord. His second full-time pastoring was done at East Ellijay Baptist Church.
“I was working for the Chevrolet and Oldsmobile dealership (in Winder) as a parts manager, but the Lord called me to preach. I’d been running from him for years,” Reece said. “There were two things that Satan would whisper in my ear. He’d say, ‘So, you’re going to be your grandpa’s little preacher boy?’ I didn’t want to be that. Then he would suggest the young lady you want to marry may not want to be a preacher’s wife.”
Reece said that definitely was not true as his wife, Virgie, fully supported his work and partnered with him in spreading Christianity around the world.
“I’m convinced God gave me the best woman in the whole wide world who was delighted to be a preacher’s wife,” he said. “I don’t think there’s a preacher or missionary who’s ever had a more loving, caring and supportive wife.”
Twenty-one years of pastoral ministry in Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee preceded the Reeces’ international missionary work. In 1983, they relocated to the Netherlands where Euel pastored at a church for Dutch military.
That eventually led to missionary work in Moldova, Africa, Lithuania and Romania, all of which are discussed in the book.
“I had a ministry and could help those poor pastors in many ways with just a little bit of money,” Reece said.
Reece remembers when a sudden end came to his mission work in Communist Romania.
“I learned what it was like to live under Communism. I had no problem in that country from 1985 to 1989,” he said. “(In 1989), I had gone in with a Dutchman who was going to stay two weeks, and I was going to come back on the international train. I was coming back to Budapest, Hungary, where I was going to have some meetings.”
At the border, Communist guards seized Reece’s belongings, confiscating what they considered contraband.
“They took my film and my sermon notes. They stamped my passport Persona Non Grata. I was never to be welcomed back into Romania again,” he said.
Reece was eventually able to return to Romania, where he’d been condemned as an American spy. That return followed the Romanian overthrow of Communist rule.
Today, he hopes those confiscated note cards somehow changed the life of a stranger.
“I expect that, when I get to Heaven, I’m going to meet someone there who says ‘Thank God they took your sermon notes in Romania.’ Now we meet in Heaven because they forced me to read all that material trying to find out what I said bad about Communism. But it was really the good I was saying about Christ,” he said.
‘Committed to do whatever he led me to do’
More mission trips followed until 1999, when health issues and the lack of healthcare abroad caused the Reeces to return to the states.
“It was a lifetime commitment, and I didn’t know when it was going to end. I stayed as long as God left me there,” Reece said.
After returning home to Gilmer County, Reece pastored at Bible Baptist Church until 2006. He then preached for several years at Grace Baptist Church.
When health issues started preventing him from preaching in person, Reece started an “e-ministry” with which he sent out devotionals and mini-sermons through text and email.
The e-ministry took some computer know-how, but Reece soon found it was easier on his hands to type using a cellphone. He actually wrote his book using a Samsung smartphone, a skill learned from his granddaughter, Whitney.
“I had a little old flip phone, and we were on a trip as a family. Whitney was in the car behind me, and I was just riding, so I called back to her and said, ‘Teach me how to do text messages on my phone.’ From one car to another, she taught me,” he said.
Reece said he’d long been encouraged by friends and family to put some of his experiences and travels in a book. When the pandemic hit, he finally started doing just that. It took about a year-and- a-half to write and revise the 195-page memoir.
The past two years have been difficult ones for Reece. Virgie passed away in 2020 shortly before the couple’s 66th wedding anniversary.
Several members of the family had COVID during the pandemic, and Reece broke his arm in an accident. Soon after having surgery to repair the arm, Reece suffered a massive heart attack, from which he’s now trying to recover.
“When I got back emotionally to where I could, I began (writing again),” he said.
Reece said the book’s front cover art, which depicts his early life on the farm and his subsequent ministry work, was done by Gilmer resident Lucy Teague. It was edited by another local friend, Regina Mathis, he noted.
“She was the one who really got it to the publisher because she’s so meticulous. She made this thing come alive,” Reece said.
Reece considers the book an extension of his pastoring and missionary work. He hopes it will provide inspiration to others.
“When I committed to the Lord, I committed to do whatever he led me to do. When I could no longer pastor, I committed to the e-ministry. When I couldn’t do that any more, I committed to writing this book. Once I make a commitment, it’s not finished till I finish the job,” he said.
“The Life and Ministry of a Country Boy God Chose to Use” is available from such sites as Amazon and Barnes and Noble.