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Kenneth Kimball McKee
1951-1992
John McKee, Margaret McKee, Kim McKee,
Maggie McKee, Jane McKee (photo taken May
1992)
Today, on September 01, 2012 we honor the
life and ministry of
Kenneth Kimball McKee,
who passed away twenty years ago on
September 01, 1992
(in Jewish terms, his yahrzeit). In his short life of only
forty-one years, from March 05, 1951 to
September 01, 1992, Kim McKee left a profound
and demonstrable impact on the friends, business
companions, but above all his fellow evangelical Christian
Believers and family members who knew and loved
him--and who still miss
him dearly! Kim McKee was a person who was fully sold out to a dynamic
salvation relationship with the Lord Jesus
Christ, and who encouraged countless other
people, in his service unto Him, to know Him as
the Lord of their lives!
Kim left a profound
legacy to his successors, who now carry on in his
honor. They serve the Lord Yeshua the Messiah as he
would have seen fit, desiring all of their fellow human
beings to come to
a personal relationship with Him as Savior.
The need to make sure that all people are impacted with His love and
grace, in living lives of personal obedience and
continual sanctification, making a difference in
their generation--is a definite direction of
Kim's mission and impact upon them. For as Jesus Himself taught
us,
"'You shall love
the LORD your God with all your heart, and with
all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is
the great and foremost commandment" (Matthew
22:36-38).
If there were ever a
single human being who we would quantitatively seek the
approval of, in our ministry efforts as
Outreach
Israel and
TNN Online, Kim McKee--an evangelical
Christian sold out to the Messiah Yeshua, and
who only wanted all of the people whom he encountered
to be saved from their sins and to decisively know the dear
Lord Jesus--would be the only one!
As we remember Kim McKee
today and the profound memories with which he
has left us, we cannot help but be reminded of
the words of the Apostle Paul, who expressed to
his dear friends in Philippi while experiencing
hardship while imprisoned, "But
I am hard-pressed from both directions,
having the desire to depart and be with Christ,
for that is very much better"
(Philippians 1:23). In 1992 while suffering
through deadly cancer, Kim McKee
certainly wanted to remain behind with his wife
and three young children, but his ultimate desire--as
the desire of all of us should be--was to enter
into the very presence of the precious Lord Jesus Christ
Himself, who was sacrificed for our
transgressions, so that we might forever be among
the company of the redeemed from all ages!
The last Earthly words spoken by Kim McKee,
to his lovely wife Margaret, before going
into a coma, were, "I can see the Rock and
hear the music...,"
surely referring to seeing Yeshua
Himself and the great praise continually
issued to the Lord in the Heavenly realm by
the company of angels and departed
saints present (Hebrews 12:22-23). These were statements most consistent with those
of the martyr Stephen, who declared,
"Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the
Son of Man standing at the right hand of
God" (Acts 7:56). Following that moment, Kim
McKee entered into an unconscious state,
and was shortly declared legally brain
dead. Only on 01 September, 1992, after being
kept physically alive via life support
for two days, was he released from a respirator.
At the moment when his heart stopped, he then
moved his arms and upper body upward,
as if something were definitely being removed from out of him. This was a scene that even the doctors
and nurses attending him were moved by,
crying unexplainable tears, as a mortal person who was legally dead had something
within him actually move outward at the point of
death. We believe that it was at this
point that Kim's consciousness left
this Earthly dimension for the realm
where our Lord Himself reigns, "waiting
from that time onward until His enemies
be made a footstool for His feet"
(Hebrews 10:13; cf. Psalm 110:1).
It was only fitting that Margaret
had Kim's grave marker be designated with
the steadfast and most Biblical word:
Jesus Christ: The Rock
of My Salvation. On September 01,
1992, Kim McKee left our known universe, and
entered into the presence
of the Lord Yeshua the Messiah. Yet, Kim
McKee was one who would--while most
excitedly being among those to fully embrace the
Lord Jesus upon meeting Him in Heaven--most
also eagerly be among the departed to
declare, "How
long, O Lord, holy and true, wilt Thou
refrain from judging and avenging our
blood on those who dwell on the earth?"
(Revelation 6:10). Kim would be
most eager to return to the Earth among
the company of departed saints with the
Lord Yeshua at His Second Coming.
He would want Yeshua to actively
vindicate those who have perished,
fallen, suffered hardship, or endured
persecution and difficulty
in the cause of the gospel.
The survivors of the McKee family eagerly
anticipate that grand and future day when
the Lord Yeshua the Messiah Himself will
return with
"all the saints" (1 Thessalonians 3:13),
when all things will indeed be subject to
Him!
"For our citizenship is
in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait
for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who
will transform the body of our humble state
into conformity with the body of His glory,
by the exertion of the power that He has
even to subject all things to Himself"
(Philippians 3:20-21).
Maggie, John, and Jane
circa 2010
Kenneth
Kimball McKee, 41,
helped found church, served as lay chaplain
The Cincinnati Post
Wednesday, September 2, 1992
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| John McKee,
Kim McKee, Mary Ruth Franklin Jeffries,
Jane McKee, Margaret McKee (photo taken
September 1991) |
Kenneth Kimball McKee’s
mission was leading people to Jesus Christ.
When he and a pastor started a new church in
Florence, he knocked on more than a thousand
doors to invite people to join. He devoted his
life to the church, said his wife of 17 years,
Margaret Jeffries McKee.
“His main desire was to serve the Lord with all
his heart and to point other people to Jesus
Christ,” she said.
Kim McKee, 41, of Covington, died of melanoma, a
form of skin cancer, at 8:57 a.m. Tuesday at St.
Elizabeth Medical Center South.
He was a founding member of the Christ United
Methodist Church in Florence, where he had
served as lay leader, evangelism chairman,
pastor-parish relations chairman and Sunday
school teacher.
“He was the most instrumental lay person in
staring our church there,” said Rev. Bill
Hughes, the church pastor.
After his conversion to the church in 1984, Mr.
McKee studied the Bible and spoke as a lay
person for other ministers. He also was a lay
chaplain for the Boone County Jail.
“Kim’s No. 1 priority in life was to lead people
to personal relationship with Christ,” Rev.
Hughes said.
“He had an uncanny knack of doing it. His
personality was such that he was very bold, yet
he led people to God with real compassion for
their soul.”
Mr. McKee wanted to bring people to Christ in
his community and around the world.
He actively served on evangelism teams with the
Lay Witness Mission, Kairos Jail Ministry, Walk
To Emmaus and Chrysalis Movement.
 In January 1991, he led the U.S. Evangelism Lay
Team in the Walk to Emmaus in Madras, India.
“His influence there is still felt,” Hughes
said. “He had a missionary zeal.”
Before he died, Mr. McKee was preparing to start
the candidacy program to enter the ordained
ministry of the United Methodist Church.
Mr. McKee was president, founder and owner of
McComas Technologies, Inc., an Erlanger software
company.
“He was a genius, a computer genius,” Hughes
said. “He had a tremendous mind.”
Mr. McKee was a native of Cincinnati but lived
most of his life in Kenton County.
He also was a member of the Christian
Businessmen’s Committee in Cincinnati and was
involved in the mayor’s prayer breakfast there,
Mrs. McKee said.
Besides his wife, survivors include a son, John
Kimball McKee, Jane Jeffries McKee and Margaret
Macon McKee, both at home.
Services will be held at 11 a.m. Friday at
Christ United Methodist Church, Florence.
Visitation will be from 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday and
9:30 to 10:30 a.m. Friday at Linnemann Funeral
Home, Erlanger. Burial will be in Highland
Cemetery, Ft. Mitchell. Memorials are suggested
to the church, 1440 Boone Aire Road, Florence,
41042.
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