Ellen Doran, 97

Ellen Doran died Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2007, in Minneapolis, one week shy of her 98th birthday.

Funeral services were Monday, Oct. 22, at Redeemer Residence Chapel in Minneapolis. Interment was in Crystal Lake Cemetery. Visitation was one hour prior to the service.

Ellen Christine Doran was born Oct. 23, 1909, in Minneapolis to Lydia and Martin Doran. Ellen, along with her six sisters and brothers, was raised in the Seward neighborhood of south Minneapolis, where she attended the Seward School and South High School, graduating in 1927. She grew up in the Tabernacle Baptist Church in Minneapolis. As a young girl, Ellen experienced the loss of her father when he vanished, never to return to his family (his disappearance remains a mystery to this day). Ellen attended (then) Northwestern Bible School in Minneapolis, graduating in 1930, and Moody Bible Institute in Chicago where she graduated in 1933. It was at Moody that Ellen met a young woman from Cortland, N.Y., Emmagene Coats, who also felt called of God to the mission world. A friendship and close bond was forged and as partners together, they were led to a lifetime of service in Morocco. After Moody, before leaving for Morocco, Ellen and Emmagene worked for several years at the Northern Gospel Mission Station at Silverdale on the Sturgeon River in northern Minnesota. This was a time of training and testing in preparation for what lay ahead. Together, Ellen and Emmagene sailed on the S.S. Roma from New York Jan. 4, 1939, landing on Morroco’s northern shore at Tangier Jan. 17. They would launch a work (initially under the Gospel Missionary Union) that would endure for more than 50 years. They located first at Meknes, situated in the Middle Atlas, where they began their Arabic language study. Then followed Khemisset and the war years. In the fall of 1939, World War II broke out. As time went on, many missionaries left Morocco to serve in other places. Ellen and Emmagene were two of only four single women who chose to remain on the field during the war years. During this period, a new ministry opened up to them among the military personnel when the   Allied troops landed on the shores of Morocco late in 1942. Many of them began to drop in at the mission stations. Some of the boys were Christians and while in Morocco, others received Christ as they continued their visits with the missionaries. Ellen and Emmagene felt that this   opportunity of serving, especially the American boys, was the privilege of a lifetime. Next a brief stay in Azrou and then in the summer of 1951 to Aïn Leuh and the eventual establishing of the Children’s Home. Though located in an area of the country occupied by American missionaires, Aïn Leuh had never had a resident missionary. Here they would go on to raise several Moroccan children, nurtured in the Lord, while at the same time ministering in various ways to countless others from neighboring villages or distant places.

Ellen was preceded in death by her parents Martin and Lydia C. Doran; sisters and brothers Ruth E. Doran, Dorothy L. Bergman, Chester M. Doran, John J. Doran, Paul E. Doran, William J. Doran; niece Karen L. Dowell; sister-in-law Myrtle H. Doran; ministry partner and sister-in-Christ Frances Emmagene Coats.

She is survived by nieces and nephews Carolyn R. (and Rev. Douglas) Fraley, Elizabeth E. Bergman, Renee E. Schafer, Dorothy A. Bergman, Kathleen M. Bergman, Mary Jo Nuquist, Ruth Ann (and Michael Jr.) Soltis, Robert P. (and Marlene) Doran, David E. (and Trish) Doran, and Roger J. (and Maxine) Doran; the Aïn Leuh family; and many other family, friends and supporters of the Aïn Leuh Ministry.

Memorials are preferred to Village of Hope/Aïn Leuh, Redeemer Residence, Northwestern College, or Moody Bible Institute.