Patricia “Pat” Frost 1947-2022. IMB Photo

Patricia “Pat” Jane Frost, an International Mission Board missionary emeritus who shared the gospel in Jordan, died Sept. 19, 2022. She was 75.  

Pat was born Aug. 27, 1947, in Waldron, Arkansas, to the late Charles and Juanita Frost. She graduated from Waldron High School in 1965 and received the Bachelor of Arts degree from Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, the Master of Religious Education from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, and the Master of Arts from Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.  

Pat wrote in her letter seeking missionary appointment that in high school, the Lord crystallized in her the desire to serve overseas as a missionary. She began undertaking steps that would prepare her for missionary service. 

“I was born to be a teacher,” Pat wrote in an online devotional.  

In high school, Pat attended a youth camp where she heard a missionary who served as a teacher speak.  

“Each night she talked about her work and showed slides. And every evening I heard God say, ‘Pat, this is how I want to use your life,’” Pat wrote. 

For four summers, Pat served with the Home Mission Board (now the North American Mission Board) as a summer missionary in Oregon, New York City, California and Ohio. For three years, Pat worked as a secretary at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. She taught at Waldron High School before moving to Zambia to work as a teacher for the Ministry of Education in Zambia. 

The Foreign Mission Board (now the International Mission Board) told Pat to wait, but she wrote the door to missions was open. She moved to Zambia to teach in a secondary school in Zambia for two years.  

After returning, she was a substitute teacher in Waldron until her appointment to serve as a missionary.  

The Foreign Mission Board appointed Pat to serve in Jordan in December 1978. She taught English as a Second Language in Amman, Jordan. 

“The greatest blessing of my career was leading a Bible study for eight to twelve Muslim students and friends,” Pat wrote in a devotional.  

Several of the students continued through a study of all four gospels. One of her students immigrated to Australia and wrote to tell her he missed the Bible study and was looking for a similar group in Australia. 

“I didn’t want to go overseas as a single missionary, but it happened,” Pat wrote in a devotional. “I had prayed for a husband but wanted not my will but the Lord’s will to be done. By the time I was in my fifties, I was content and fulfilled as a single missionary teacher.”  

God had other plans.  

After retiring from missionary service and moving into a retirement community, she met her husband, Ted Luford, in an exercise class.  

“God revealed to me how He has created the seasons of our lives and has a purpose for each of those seasons,” she wrote. 

Patricia is survived by her husband, Ted, of nearly seven years.  

A celebration of life service was held Oct. 22, 2022, in Parks, Arkansas. 

Read an obituary here.