Graeme Sheppard, 63, passed away 22 November after a three-year battle with cancer. Sheppard was a longtime lay leader on the Australia-New Zealand Field, serving as Work & Witness coordinator and a member of the Australia North & West District Advisory Board and the Missional Leadership Team.

"Our warmest and deepest condolences are extended to Graeme’s wife of 34 years, ANZ Field Nazarene Missions International Coordinator and Asia-Pacific Regional NMI Global Council representative Pauline Sheppard, and their three children, Paul Sheppard, Steph Sheppard, and Melody Ortado," said Steve Walsh, a fellow member of the Australia North & West District leadership team.

Graeme was born 12 October 1953, the third and final child of Clyde and Dorothy (Hamlyn) and the younger brother of Alan Clyde and Glenda.

As a young man, Graeme attended Coorparoo Church of the Nazarene, where he found the Lord under the ministry of John N. White. After working in Cloncurry, Queensland, Graeme returned to Brisbane in 1981, working as a marketing consultant for three years, and resumed attending the Coorparoo church. Soon after he met his future wife, Pauline, and they were married on 8 May 1982. In 1984, Graeme became lab manager at DJ Brown and Partners in Toowoomba, where the Sheppards were key members and lay leaders of a small Church of the Nazarene. Graeme enrolled part-time at the Southern Queensland Institute of TAFE in Toowoomba, graduating with a Diploma of Business Management in 1986.

In 1991, Graeme began a 25-year association with Soiltech Testing Services, a private civil and geotechnical testing authority for the building and construction industry based in Toowoomba, serving for 10 years as senior engineering technician before buying the company in July 2001 and becoming the managing director.

Inspired by the words of missionary Jim Elliot, who said “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose,” Graeme was a dedicated layman, serving as a church board member and bus driver at local churches in Coorparoo, Toowoomba, and Inala, and as a mentor for the former Australia Northern Pacific District Leadership Development Initiative.

Graeme served in numerous leadership roles at the district, field, and denominational levels, including on the Australia Northern Pacific District Advisory Board, the former Australia Northern Pacific District and new Australia North & West District missional leadership teams, the Church of the Nazarene General Board Finance Committee (2005 to 2013), and the International Church Commission (2005 to 2009). He was also a delegate numerous times to both the Church of the Nazarene General Assembly and to the Global NMI Convention, as well as to Asia-Pacific regional conferences.

Passionate about missions, Graeme served for more than 15 years as a member of the district Nazarene Missions Council of the former Australia Northern Pacific District, including 11 years under the leadership of Pauline Sheppard, and for another year on the new Australia North & West District NMI Council. Graeme was the ANPD Work & Witness team coordinator before being appointed as the Work & Witness coordinator for the Australia-New Zealand Field. At the time of his death, Graeme was organizing a W&W trip to Fiji in August 2017.

In appreciation of his service to the Lord, Living Hope Church of the Nazarene planned to present him a Distinguished Service Award on 27 November. 

“We thank God for Graeme’s amazing witness and know that the God of all Peace will be with Pauline, Paul, Melody, Steph, and the rest of the family and friends during this time of grief,” said Mark Louw, Asia-Pacific regional director.

--Church of the Nazarene Asia-Pacific Region