Gail Leroy

Gail Leroy’s active service with One Mission Society spanned from 1979 through 2018. She is now retired in Montevideo, Uruguay, but helps alongside OMS missionaries John and Lisa Hamilton in various ministries. 

Gail is the daughter of Douglas and Julie Leroy, who served in Colombia from 1960–1964. Gail got her first glimpse and perhaps first call to missions in Colombia. Even at a young age, she knew her life would be an adventure with Jesus, and it continues!

Eventually, Gail returned to Colombia for three months on a short-term mission trip, during which she worked with her childhood teacher, OMS missionary Millie Young. Millie worked with Compassion International, which helped support the small OMS schools. Three years later, Gail returned to Medellín, Colombia, with OMS and Compassion International, where she served for nine years.

Gail returned to the U.S. and worked at the OMS World Headquarters in the Men for Missions office for two years, attending university at night and earning her business degree. OMS asked her return to Colombia to work with Every Community for Christ teams, which she did for a year, until the director of the OMS-related seminary asked her to be administrator of grounds, teams, and workers, a role she filled for three years, until her visa expired, and it couldn’t be renewed. 

While at the seminary, Gail got to know John and Lisa Hamilton and learned of their desire to start ministry in Uruguay. They asked her to join them when they went. In the meantime, for almost eight years, Gail served as an administrator at the OMS World Headquarters. This also enabled her to be close to her folks the last few years of their lives.

Gail moved to Uruguay in March 2003. She worked with the Hamiltons at Christ Church, serving as a bridge between the generations. She gained much respect from the British community and served in many areas. 

In 2011, OMS leadership asked Gail to move to the Dominican Republic to work with Colombians who planned to go as missionaries. She said yes. Plans fell through for the Colombian couple who had planned to join Gail in the work in the D.R., so Gail, already living in the DR, remained alone, feeling God sent her there for a purpose. She helped many missionaries, pastors, leaders, and organizations with translation. She also began visiting New Hope Safe House, a home for young girls, and quickly became involved in the lives of the girls and helped the director in various ways. One of Gail’s most fulfilling contributions was helping find and raise funds for a large home in a much safer neighborhood. During her last year in the D.R., Gail facilitated the Train & Multiply church planting training movement, training many of the leaders she met and worked with during her four years there.

As Gail sensed she had finished her mission in the D.R. and began to get restless, OMS asked Gail if she would return to Uruguay to help fill the gap while the Hamiltons were in the U.S. for homeland assignment. Although she would greatly miss her new friends in the DR, she knew that it was time to move on to God’s next adventures for her. She not only filled the gap that year but decided to retire in Uruguay.