Helen Patricia Klassen

Pat was predeceased by her husband (Rev. Henry C. Klassen) and her eldest son (Darrel Bruce Klassen), and is survived by three families, daughter Beverley Jean Zarillo de Klassen, husband Rocky, and 3 grandchildren, 6 great grandchildren. Daughter-in-law Mandy Klassen, 3 grandchildren, and 4 great grandchildren and son Cecil Henry Klassen, wife Lorraine Klassen and 1 grandson.

Pat grew up as the third child in a 7 child family, first in depression era rural Alberta, and later in the orchard and logging communities around Kelowna. She met her husband at Briercrest Bible Institute following him into the challenging life of evangelical rural ministry for the next 40 years working alongside other evangelical missionaries to serve the Chimborazo Quichua community of rural highland Ecuador. As a missionary wife, she quietly managed the household for a very busy missionary husband while contributing to the women’s and children’s ministries with other missionary women. Without women like Pat Klassen, the mission work of planting churches, training leaders, operating schools, clinics, and radio stations would have been without the same warmth, humor, hospitality, and conversation.

Pat learned Spanish and Quichua and (along with a handful of other missionaries and national workers) helped run a school for Quicha children, ministered to Quichua women, and regularly provided hospitality, from the regular knock on the door by local Quichua people to visiting mission people, dignitaries, and travelers who showed up on the doorstep.

Although she loved the Quichua people and was strongly committed to her life alongside her husband, a recurring theme in her life was being away for long intervals from her family—her own deeply loyal family left behind in Canada, but especially her own 3 children who were often away at boarding school or in North America.

After retirement from Ecuador, her final 30 years were spent in the Okanagan where, with her husband, she found a caring and supportive community which included several sisters and brothers (and their families) and the Peachland Baptist Church family. The Peachland Baptist Church family supported her through widowhood and provided her with further opportunities for ministry.

Pat will be missed by her family, her church community, and the missionary and Ecuadorian Quichua evangelical community that was so much part of her life.

A memorial service will be held on Thursday, December 28, 11:00 a.m. at the Peachland Baptist Church, with reception to follow.

Condolences may be sent to the family by visiting www.firstmemorialfuneralkelowna.com