I was selfishly sad to read (Leader, August 7) that Owen Shelley (pictured) had passed to his rest.
My first contact with Owen began with invitations for him to give a talk at Mortdale, Peakhurst West and Penshurst West public schools at school scripture assemblies.
While Owen and his son developed technology for present-day school rooms for SRE teachers, his great gift was Chalk Talks, which he used to explain Christian Bible truths to generations of children at Beach Mission, camps and schools. His collection of talks were extensive and on a number of occasions I remember him planning to speak on one subject ut as an adult had used an expression children would not understand, so he changed his whole presentation so children could understand it.
A principal at one school said: "He can come back any time, even my staff learned something". School children were enthralled by his message and the boys often fell over themselves offering to carry his gear to his car.
My contact with Owen often was a meeting at Westfield Hurstville where he was waiting for his wife, who was shopping, and he did crosswords. Well, we started talking about children's ministry in schools and sharing stories and eventually he said, "I had better go and find the wife".
To Owen's wife and family, our prayers from the local SRE teachers. The doctors were probably right; Owen's heart failed as he had gone home to be with the Lord, whom he loved and served.
Brian Shaw, Beverly Hills
