JACKSONVILLE (FBW)-Mark Box, 48, a Florida Baptist serving in missions in Africa, was killed in a propane explosion in the family home in Tamale, Ghana May 15. His family, including his wife, Kim, and sons, Sam and Chandler, are traveling to Jacksonville, where a May 24 memorial service is set for 4 p.m. at Mandarin Baptist Church where they are members.

Box was affiliated with the Christian Light Foundation, a mission-sending organization based in Jacksonville. While planning to build a school, the couple was involved in ministry and discipleship in northern Ghana. According to the Christian Light Foundation website, he and his wife taught at Ghana Baptist College, established and refurbished libraries in several sites near Tamale, and ministered in local villages and orphanages. The couple worked with the Ghana Institute of Linguistics, a member of Wycliffe International and had lived in Ghana eight months.

Matthew Box, Mark’s brother, told Florida Baptist Witness his brother studied counseling in seminary because of “his kind heart, his need to help people.”

"Mark was unselfish. He always put others in front of himself. Always. He was one of the most unselfish persons I know. I wish I could have been half the man he was," Matthew Box choked, explaining that his nine-year old son was trying to figure out why he was crying on the phone, recalling memories of his brother.

"One of the last things that Mark said," Matthew Box said haltingly, "is to tell everybody he loved them."

Tearfully retelling the story he has heard about his brother's last few minutes, when the fire was intense and Mark Box asked for two things – water, and for those present to share his message of love -- Matthew Box said "the one thing I have to believe is that he wasn't just talking about me -- or anyone else, I think he meant everyone in Ghana and everyone in the town. It was a most important message and a tribute to Mark."

Mark Box, a Tennessee native, served in the U.S. Navy and was a graduate of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He joined Westside Baptist Church in Gainesville in 1998, and previously had been a member of First Methodist Church in Starke, where he attended middle and high school. Mark and Kim Box visited Westside Baptist only a month ago to elicit support for their mission. Pastor Gary Crawford told the Witness the family “had a strong sense of calling to the mission field and in particular to Ghana.”

“I’m greatly saddened about the loss of such a man with such a strong commitment to missions,” Crawford said. “I grieve for Kim and the boys, and yet, I’ve talked with her and she is doing OK, and she remains strong in her faith and trusts in the Lord’s provision.”

The Box Family served one year in Ghana and had returned to the U.S. in 2004 to raise further support. Mandarin Baptist Church Pastor Bill Yeldell said Mark Box, on his first visit to the church five years ago, told of his meeting with a tribal chief and “his men,” during which he shared the Gospel, and 32 of the men made professions of faith. After a year’s ministry in Ghana, the family moved back to America, “but their hearts were still in Africa,” Yeldell said.

During their time in the U.S., Mark Box led a group from Mandarin Baptist Church to Ghana on a short-term mission with HabiJAx, an affiliate of Habitat for Humanity. Mandarin Baptist Minister to Senior Adults Dan Davis said the group – minus Box - was ready to go and on the bus for the trip to the airport. Davis said he found Box in the city square overlooking a hillside of homes, weeping for the lost and because he had to leave the country he loved.

Box is survived by his wife, Kim, and their two sons, Sam and Chandler; his adult children Tom and Niki, in Starke, and several grandchildren and nieces and nephews. His fellow triplets survive him: Matthew Box, Nashville; and Rebekah Jackson, Gainesville; also his brother, Robert, Galveston, Texas; sisters, Laura Barnes, Ark., and Susan McKee, Mumford, Tenn. Preceding him in death were his parents, Thomas Allen Box, a part-time Methodist minister, and Minnie; and a brother, Michael.

Yeldell told the Witness Mark Box’s favorite verse was Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

“Mark is seeing his hope and future now,” he said.