A Clay Pot Named Hazel

A mission in the mountainous Congo rainforest near the end of WWII seems an unlikely place to raise five children, but Leigh Parcel and her husband Leonard served there twenty years, even living as refugees in Rwanda and Burundi during two years of political turmoil. The desire to introduce a loving God to people who feared and tried to appease bad gods and evil spirits made worthwhile the tropical diseases and insects, primitive roads, tribal tensions, scary travel mishaps, and separation from older children. Travels in Africa, Israel and Europe by land, air and sea were part of the adventure. Covering 101 years, this story tells of a life given early to Jesus Christ and the experiences that followed that decision.


Leigh Parcel, a native of Tulsa, Oklahoma, completed eight years of Bible and nurse's training during the Depression. She and her husband Leonard, a Bible college classmate, lived twenty years in Congo where she began a simple medical work with limited medicine and supplies, taught hygiene and sewing, and created a medical dictionary in three languages and books to teach reading to adults and children. After Congo and other missions in the USA, she worked as an intensive care nurse and wrote and taught Bible studies. Other works are A Tale of Two Worlds, Mary and the Good News, To Learn To Read, and Phonics, Sounds and Symbols. Now 101, she enjoys an active retirement living with her oldest daughter in Wichita, Kansas.