July 21 1966 Born Cape Town South Africa. Arrived at 10th floor of the Groote Schuur Hospital at the foot of Table Mountain. It was at this hospital that one year later Dr Christian Barnard would perform the 1st heart transplant.
January 1967 Flew from Johannesburg to JFK New York in route to Andrews University, Berrien Springs MI. Here Graham Lello completed his MDiv and MA in History degrees.
Summer of 1972 - after father’s second graduation move to NJ where father enrolled at Princeton Theological Seminary.
September 1972 Enrolled in local public school at Maureas Halk for first grade.
Moved on to Dutch Neck Middle School for 4-6th grades. Took up the trumpet.
Worked faithfully in the family business – Literature evangelism – distributing advertising that blanketed the regions of Northeast Philadelphia and Bucks County PA with advertising for gospel literature.
1979-1981 Enrolled at SDA Greater Philadelphia Junior Academy for 7-8th grades. John boarding weekly at church members homes so Christian education would be possible.
1981-1985 Attended Blue Mountain Academy. Here he took up flight school from Harold Streidl and continued his trumpet training in the Band with John Edison. John was baptized by Duane Ferguson. He became close friends with Cary Simpson who introduced John to the wild adventures of camping, backpacking and canoeing. Attended 1982 Open House Banquet with Pamela Simpson – Cary’s sister– little did either know their future yet to be written.
1985 Graduated as Valedictorian, Private pilot and Pastor of his class.
1985-1991 Walla Walla College. Graduated with a BS Physics Major and Math Minor with Certification in secondary education for physics and math.
1987-1988 Between his sophomore and junior college years he worked as a task force worker with Cary Corbin the Blue Mountain Academy Chemistry teacher.
Summers of 1989-1990 worked at Camp Mivoden, Hayden Lake ID as counselor, coordinator and rock climbing instructor.
Summer of 1990 accompanied his parents for his only trip back to South Africa where he met his extended Lello and Webster families.
July 1991-June 1994 Glendale Adventist Academy math and science teacher. During this time he lived with “uncle” Robin Vandermolen – father’s cousin.
Completed a cross-country solo bike-a-thon from Canada to Mexico to raise over $14,000 to purchase new physics equipment for Glendale Adventist academy.
August 1994 – August 22, 1997 Studied at the University of Maryland – Graduated with a Master’s of Arts and Curriculum and Instruction emphasis in Physics Education.
Lived with Miles Stevenson during this time. Biked cross-country with Miles.
John and Pam reacquainted (met at BMA) shortly after she retuned from graduating from Newbold Collage with a degree in Music education.
July 1997 – July 2005 John joins Spring Valley Academy Centerville OH as a math & science teacher
June 19, 1998 John and Pam married at the Hagerstown MD SDA Church
11/26/2001 Abby born at Centerville OH
10/3/2003 Alissa born at Centerville OH
Summer of 2004 John and Pam visit Cary Simpson and family in Liberty KY
Summer of 2005 Lellos move to KY - join Kerry building homes on Three Angel’s Dr.
June 15-18 2006 baby Aubrey Marie’s brief life on this earth. Buried in the Mount Calvary Baptist Church cemetery in Yosemite KY.
Pam comes to her mother’s side and cares for her in her frail health till she passes away. Melva Jean Simpson July 15, 1934 – May 3, 2008
February 2009 John and Pam explore the call to international mission service and go on a short-term mission trip to British Guyana. Here in the remote village of Paruima the family worked along side the nationals to install a water system and visited the homes encouraging the people.
Upon returning they research different SDA mission sending opportunities and decide to apply to Adventist Frontier Missions (AFM). After their application was accepted they receive Brenda Kis for an in home visit. Orientation follows and here the decision is made to send the Lello Family to the Ama people of the Sepik River region in Papau New Guinea (PNG).
2010 Develping a support team begins in earnest. John and Pam return to KY to sell their home and dispense of all their belongings. With the miraculous sale of their home they move into an empty warehouse and set up camp – a training ground for PNG. The faithful ol’ white family truck rolls on and on miles and miles with it’s precious cargo crammed side by side in the front seat –Daddy, Abby, Alissa and Mother. Hundreds of visits and thousands of miles later their goals are reached. Support team raised!
June – September 2011 the family comes to Berrien Springs MI to attend AFM Summer Training. Daddy, Alissa, Abby, and Mother in the front of the pick up and all their worldly belongings packed in the back of the truck. Granny Lello flies in to spend the majority of the summer assisting in caring for Abby and Alissa.
Now without home and with only the most basic belongings they settle in the basement of Granny and Grandad Lello’s home in Lititz PA to complete the last push of fund raising and pack THE CRATE that would carry the mission supplies. The UPS deliverer becomes a family friend and the Martins – a Mennonite farmer’s family – up the road become close friends with the girls – inviting them to participate in a memorable reenactment of Christmas in their barn.
March 2012 after 5 months of final fund raising and preparation the “Launch” is official. Air tickets are purchased and a great crane arrives to pick up the wooden crate that John has built from scratch in Granny & Grandad’s drive way.
Flying from Dulles International airport (outside Washington D.C.) through San Francisco they meet Dale Goodson who would guide them to their new PNG home. Arrived in Port Moresby and spent time at the AFM missionary home on the beautiful campus of Pacific Adventist University.
Flew into Wewak and made acquaintance with the local SDA leadership team there. After collecting supplies for their launch they took the through the night 90 mile trip in the back of a “PTV” - to the banks of the Sepik River. This public transport vehicle is a pick up with rugged wooden planks to sit on. Here boarding a motorized dug out canoe they began the over 24-hour trip up river to the mission home site at May River.
March 2012 Arrived in May River station. Dale returned to the States and language learning and ministry begin in earnest. Every 3 months a trip "out" brought back supplies and further plans. Gardens were established and friendships were knit around the kitchen table. Many homes were visited. New friends, new food, new plants, new pets, new illnesses --- blended into a new life on the mission field.
September 2012 Pam’s father is laid to rest. Clinton Simpson Sept 8, 1931 – Sept 11, 2012. Pam stays on at PNG.
John had started preaching in Tok Pisin and had been given permission to build a school, trading station and home in Ama – 6 hrs up river from May River. They planned to move there in a few months. The relationships he had forged had opened the way to receive timber rites near this site. He was instrumental in helping to move toward reopening a number of runways for air transport. His love for the peoples of the Sepik River called him farther in as he visited extensively up and down the river and it’s tributaries.
Working with a team of local workers toward these goals on November 26, 2011 John was killed by a tree-felling accident.
Dec 15, 2012 Memorial Service at Blue Mountain Academy, Hamburg PA
Dec 18, 2012 Funeral Service Middletown Valley SDA church, Jefferson MD
Dec 20, 2012 Burial - Mount Calvary Baptist Church cemetery, Yosemite KY
Dec 20, 2012 Memorial Service Liberty United Methodist Church, Liberty KY
Dec 29, 2012 Memorial Service AFM Training Center, Berrien Springs MI
