Elaine Dorothy (Owings) Mitchell died at the age of 91 on May 16th, 2024 at the Good Samaritan Society in Pipestone, MN.
A visitation will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, June 3, 2024, followed by a funeral service honoring Elaine’s memory at 11:00 a.m. at the Rescue Church in Flandreau, SD. Following the service, a lunch will be served. A graveside service will be held after the lunch, at the Greenwood Cemetery in Brookings, SD.
Elaine Owings was born on July 31st, 1932 in Early, IA to Cecil and Christine Owings. She spent her early years in the Sioux City area, graduating from Leeds High School and then becoming a secretary to an attorney. In her late teens, Elaine was led to believe in Jesus by a close family friend and became a member of a Christian & Missionary Alliance church. Sensing God’s leading to full-time Christian ministry, and having an interest in the Japanese people since childhood, she enrolled in St. Paul Bible College in St. Paul, MN to prepare for mission work in Japan. Hearing of the need for missionaries in the northern island of Hokkaido and learning that the China Inland Mission (C.I.M) had work there, Elaine chose this mission (later named Overseas Missionary Fellowship, now OMF International).
In 1957, Elaine traveled to London, England to join a group of newly appointed C.I.M. missionaries heading to Singapore, the mission’s headquarters in Asia. While in London, she met Alan Mitchell, another missionary headed for Singapore. Alan’s sister commented to him that she wouldn’t mind if he married Elaine! Alan and Elaine became acquainted on the one-month ocean voyage from England to Singapore and while in Singapore for the mission orientation. During their stay there, they were both appointed to Japan and began learning Japanese. The last evening before embarking on the journey to Japan, Alan proposed to Elaine in Japanese and they announced their engagement in a skit.
Alan and Elaine started their missionary service in Japan apart, and after two long years of an engagement of corresponding only through letters, they were married on May 12th, 1959 in Sapporo, Hokkaido. Throughout their 40 years of missionary service, they served in churches in four cities, three of which were in Hokkaido, including Sapporo, where they ministered the longest. They also operated a Christian bookstore and headed up the language school for new missionaries, for whom Elaine cooked and served hot meals every day. Elaine worked in many capacities during her missionary service: she helped start new churches, taught English Bible classes and cooking classes, and taught Sunday school, using her acting abilities to engage the children. When Alan traveled for his administrative duties, Elaine picked up the slack and preached in Japanese in the churches where they were currently ministering. In an international church they had started, Elaine interpreted the Japanese sermons into English simultaneously for internationals to hear through headphones. Elaine often worked behind the scenes, supporting Alan in his various roles, cooking meals and opening their home to new missionaries, and doing office work in the mission’s headquarters. They always lived in the heart of Japanese communities, making friends with neighbors, and sometimes starting churches in their living room. Elaine could often be seen riding her teal-colored bicycle throughout the large city of Sapporo.
Elaine loved to serve others. One single missionary arriving for language study was dreading getting in late to a cold, dark apartment. He was happily surprised to find it heated up and with a hot meal ready—all prepared by Elaine, he later discovered. Another illustration of her servant heart was when she met a woman who had lost her will to live. Elaine invited her to their home for a meal, shared Christ’s love with her, and helped her choose life. Later, this woman believed in Jesus.
In 1997, Alan and Elaine retired and moved to Morrison, IA, where they were active in the Evangelical Free Church in Cedar Falls. They moved to Storm Lake in 2003 to be nearer to family and to participate in the First Baptist Church, which had supported them for many years. In 2016, Alan and Elaine moved to Flandreau, SD to be near family. After being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2018, Elaine moved to the Good Samaritan Society in Pipestone, MN, and Alan bought a home there to be near her.
Elaine was loved and cherished by her husband, children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren, as well as many Japanese people too numerous to mention. She wrote countless letters over her lifetime and was a woman of prayer, often stopping in the middle of an activity to lift a critical need up to God.
Elaine is survived by her loving husband Alan Mitchell now of Flandreau, SD, and five children: Christine Rupert of Lehigh Acres, FL, Alistair (Tara) Mitchell of Elgin, SC, Deborah (Steven) Pulscher of Flandreau, SD, Timothy (Kimberly) Mitchell of Bluefield, WV, and Faith (Dave) Grosz of Nicholasville, KY. She is also survived by 25 grandchildren, 26 great grandchildren, and her sister Margie Reznicek of Omaha, NE.
Elaine is preceded in death by her parents, her brothers George, Elrod, Albert, Bill, John, and Tom, and her beloved grandson, Josiah Rupert.
