Barbara Anita Chance, 1944-2022
IMB Photo

Barbara Anita Chance, an International Mission Board missionary emeritus who shared the gospel in East Asia, died Feb. 26, 2022, at the Texas Masonic Retirement Center in Arlington, Texas. She was 78.

Chance was born Feb. 22, 1944, in Houston, Texas, to the late Thomas Edward Chance and Josie Inez Moore Chance. She received the Bachelor of Science in elementary education from the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, Belton, Texas, and taught fifth grade at Pine Shadows Elementary, Houston, for many years before receiving her Master of Education in reading from Houston Baptist University.

Chance wrote when seeking missionary employment that God had called her as a missionary when she was 12 years old, on the Sunday Long Point Baptist Mission became Long Point Baptist Church. She wrote, “As I grew older, I tried to convince myself this was just a child trying to please God, but after God renewed his call to missions to me, I realized that my call went all the way back to that little chapel, to a young girl sitting on a wooden bench who accepted the call from God to be a foreign missionary. “

In 1983, the Foreign Mission Board (now International Mission Board) named Chance a missionary to East Asia, where she taught the children of missionaries. According to her family, teaching children was a life-long passion for Chance.

When she retired after serving 25 years, Chance returned to Houston and Houston’s First Baptist Church, where she had been a member before becoming a missionary.

Anita is survived by her brother, Darryl “Skip” Chance; her sister, Paula McCain (Jim); nephew, Daniel McCain; and niece, Amy Truong (Hao).

A graveside service was held March 7, 2022, at Memorial Oaks Cemetery, Houston, and a memorial service was held March 8 at First Baptist Church Houston.

Read an obituary here.