Helen G. Cox

Helen Grace Madeira Cox, 97, departed to be with Christ on January 8, 2019. Born in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, Helen was the daughter of Isaac Titus Madeira and Elsie Hernley Lehman Madeira and the wife of Eric James Edgar Cox, who preceded her in death in 1983. Her residence at death was Lancaster, PA.

Helen graduated from Columbia Bible College in 1942, and from Wheaton College in 1943. After teaching Bible for two years in fourteen public schools of Rockbridge County, Virginia, under the Virginia Department of Religious Education, Helen went to China in 1947 under the auspices of the China Inland Mission and served in Paoshan, Yunnan. The China Inland Mission had to evacuate China in 1951.

In October 1951 Helen married Eric Cox, a C.I.M. missionary who had served in China since 1938. After China closed, Eric and Helen went to North Thailand and ministered to the Mien people, who then had no written language. Eric devised a Roman script for the Mien language, taught literacy, and eventually translated the New Testament into Mien. Helen taught Bible with the aid of flannelgraph, taught literacy to the women, and in time prepared language lessons for new workers. Helen was a member of Calvary Church, Lancaster.
Helen is survived by six children: Miriam Moran, Stone Mountain, GA; Philip Cox, Chattanooga, TN; John Cox, Holland, MI; Elizabeth Juckett, Black Mountain, NC; David Cox, Manheim, PA; Peter Cox, Malvern, PA; ten grandchildren; and fourteen great-grandchildren.

Relatives and friends are respectfully invited to attend Helen’s memorial service at Calvary Church, 1051 Landis Valley Road, Lancaster, PA., 0n Monday, January 21, 2019 at 11:00 AM. Friends may visit with the family at the church on Monday morning from 10:00 AM until the time of the service. Interment will be private and at the convenience of the family in Mellinger Mennonite Cemetery, Lancaster. Please omit flowers. Memorial contributions may be sent in Helen’s memory to: O.M.F. International, 10 West Dry Creek Circle, Littleton, CO 80120.