Brady honored for filling life with worldwide work

Skilled at the serving spoon, a pro at piddling with pipes — Henry Brady has been for years an unsung hero in a hard hat for people from Alabama to Iran.
   
But this year Alabama Baptists sang the 76-year-old volunteer’s praises publicly at the state convention annual meeting. He was presented the award for Missions Volunteer of the Year for what Jim Lambert, who nominated him for the award, calls a relentless motivation to help “anyone who needs something.” And Lambert knows him as well as anyone, because Brady is his stepfather.
   
Brady, whose recognition was the highlight of the Volunteer in Missions Banquet at Dalraida Baptist Church Nov. 16, said he accepted the award reluctantly. “I know there are a lot of people who deserve it more than me, but I accept it on one condition — that I’m accepting it for them, too.”
Lambert, a member of First Baptist Church, Monroeville, said Brady is a good expression of what a Christian ought to be — always thinking of others before himself and treating his success with lighthearted humility.
   
“He’s on mission for Jesus,” said Jeffrey Copeland, pastor of First Baptist Church of Robertsdale, where Brady is a member. “His love for the Lord sends him throughout this state and throughout this nation and has taken him to the uttermost parts of the world.”
   
Brady has been to serve food to 9/11 victims at Ground Zero in New York City and to earthquake victims in Bam, Iran. He’s fixed the plumbing for friends nearby and served faithfully in Alabama disaster relief efforts as a self-proclaimed limb-dragger.
   
Electrical work, AIDS awareness, Vacation Bible School — none of them are strangers to Brady. “He humbly tackles any task, no matter how menial,” said Grant Barber, pastor of Eastern Shore Baptist, Brady’s former church. “When he sees a need, he seeks to meet that need.”
   
And though Brady’s passport is stamped several times with Nicaragua, South Korea and several other countries, he’s not big on tooting his own horn, friends and family members say.
   
“There’s nothing he can’t do,” said Brady’s wife, Pat, with a grin, “He’s really missions minded — really.”
   
She should know.
   
The top layer of their wedding cake was barely frozen in October 1999 when Brady and his wife boarded a plane bound for Barcelona, Spain, for a missions trip to share Christ door-to-door — and share their honeymoon. “I was already going on the trip, and she wanted to go with me, so we planned our wedding date around it,” Brady said.
   
That’s no surprise, since Brady plans his life around missions anyway. “If you want to fill your life, get to work for the Lord,” Brady said. “And by the way — He pays well.”