A Tribute to Rick Keenan

Rick, me, and Lee in 2014

Except for believers who are alive when the Lord raptures His church, every person will experience death. It’s sad when it happens to someone we know. Fortunately, there is comfort knowing we will see them again in heaven if they were saved. Last Sunday, a fellow evangelist who I worked with passed away.

Back in 1998, I met Rick Keenan through Living Word Christian Center’s evangelism ministry. Around that time, I started witnessing more on my own in addition to planned outreaches through the church. That included meeting Rick and others at the Mall of America. He advised us not to close our eyes while we prayed as a group to avoid attracting attention from security guards.

During 1999, I made six trips to the Brownsville Revival in Pensacola, Florida. A couple of times, Rick invited me to live in his house while I made brief returns to Minnesota. Differences developed during my second stay there. Partially due to my missionary travels, we became estranged for almost fifteen years.

Then in 2014, I went with a friend to the Sonshine Music Festival in Willmar, Minnesota. There I was approached by Rick, and we chatted briefly. He was with another soul winner I knew named Lee Gerhardson (who died the following year). They had been evangelizing at the festival and already prayed with 33 people to receive salvation. Most of them were Lutherans. 

A year later, I ran into Rick again at a church in Maplewood, Minnesota. He insisted on hugging me when I offered to shake his hand. Rick wanted to make amends by giving me a large box of gospel tracts. By this time, he had set up a print shop making copies of “Have You Heard the Good News”, a tract written by our colleague and mentor Nick Kinn.

During the next few years, I got together with Rick many times at his shop. Originally, it was located in a room above a Harley-Davidson dealership. Later, Rick erected a separate building near his house. He continued to supply me and other ministers with boxes of English and Spanish tracts (he would go on to print over 33 million of them). In exchange for helping him, Rick bought me meals and often blessed me with money. Last year, he gave me temporary use of a car.

Rick and I also shared the gospel at various fairs during the summer. Over the years, Rick had developed relationships with law enforcement officers and carnival owners. As a result, there was freedom to hand out tracts and minister to fairgoers as long as we didn’t harass them.

Last month after returning to Minnesota, I used my roommate’s car to drive to Rick’s shop to get more tracts. I noticed Rick had lost weight and looked a bit frail. Due to his weakened condition, he asked for my help with personal tasks. Over the next few weeks, we talked on the phone and exchanged texts, but never got to minister together at another fair. I grew concerned about Rick repeatedly saying his health was getting worse. One night, I tried texting him a confession sheet hoping he would use that to regain his strength. Strangely, those texts wouldn’t go through.

The next morning, my roommate dropped me off at a church in St. Paul for a Bible study. Later, I perceived the Lord told me to leave instead of staying for the Sunday service. As I stepped outside, I received a text informing me Rick had been placed in intensive care because of multi-organ failure. The hospital happened to be three miles from the church. Immediately, I hopped on a bus to see Rick. 

When I arrived at the hospital, another man I hadn’t met before was in Rick’s room. Then three women showed up who repeatedly laid hands on Rick. One of them was his close friend Lori. Although he was under sedation, Rick moved his toe when I declared his beautiful feet would be used to win more souls. After being there for an hour, I felt a release to leave. Shortly after I returned home, Rick’s friend Lynn texted me saying, “He died two minutes after they took the tube out…he died peacefully.”

Friends have questioned why God allowed Rick to pass away at 69 years old. Sometimes our prayers go unanswered because of other people’s wills. It’s possible Rick received a glimpse of heaven and desired to go home to be with the Lord. I recall Kathryn Kuhlman was also in her late sixties when she resisted offers of prayer before dying in a hospital bed. Regardless, I keep thinking of Deuteronomy 29:29, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God…” 

Instead of spending hours trying to figure out the reason for a believer’s unexpected death, we can rejoice that they are now with the Lord. Rick accomplished a lot for the kingdom of God during his time on Earth. He made many trips to Latin American countries as well as doing outreaches here in the United States. I can picture him looking from the grandstands of heaven exhorting us to get out there and lead more people to Jesus.

“13 more days until I come home. I have worn out one pair of shoes and the soles are coming loose on the second pair. I have used over 50,000 Gospel tracts personally. I have been attacked by the enemy relentlessly almost every minute of every day and night. I am tired, sore, and lonesome for English speaking people. Yet, I am very excited to see God change the lives of thousands of people right before my eyes. I have never felt such a sense of accomplishment even though I haven't done anything. God is doing it all. It is such a pleasure to serve the Lord of Lords, and King of Kings. How did He pick me for the gifts He has given me and the ministry that He has called me to? I don't know; but I will be forever grateful for the privilege that I have daily of being used by God to bring others to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, and to see the captives free. Praise God!” - Rick Keenan (from a 2011 Facebook post)