Portrait of Suzanne Groce. IMB Photo
Suzanne Groce, an International Mission Board missionary emeritus who shared the gospel in Northern Africa and the Middle East, died Aug. 28, 2024, in Louisville, Kentucky. She was 75.
Suzanne was born July 23, 1949, in Tampa, Florida, to Douglas M. Knapp and the late Evelyn Knapp. She graduated from Rift Valley Academy in Kijabe, Kenya, and attended the University of South Florida and Midwestern Theological Baptist Seminary, Kansas City, Missouri.
When she was just four years old, Suzanne knew she wanted to become a missionary. At the age of 10, she came to saving faith in Christ. In 1964, her father answered God’s call to foreign missions and their family moved to East Africa. Suzanne attended boarding school 900 miles from where her family served and visited them on her school breaks.
During her junior year of high school, Suzanne began to feel God’s call on her life. While seeking missionary appointment Suzanne wrote, “After much prayer and no satisfaction I finally realized that I had actually been afraid to yield myself for fear God might call me to some place other than Africa. Again I prayed, but this time knowing that God loved me and wanted the best for me, I yielded to his plan for my life.”
In 1966, while visiting her family during Christmas break, Suzanne met IMB Journeyman Lynn Groce. They felt a shared calling to international missions and became engaged. Lynn and Suzanne married on Aug. 3, 1968. They attended seminary in preparation for overseas service.
In 1969, the International Mission Board appointed Lynn and Suzanne missionaries to Ethiopia, where she served as an evangelist and homemaker. Suzanne served with the International Mission Board for 28 years.
She was preceded in death by a daughter, Joylene Groce.
She is survived by Lynn, her husband of 56 years; sons, Leslie Groce (Alison), Douglas Groce, Simon Groce (Mandy) and Luke Groce (Katherine); daughter, Crystal Sridhar (Paul); her father, Douglas Knapp; and 16 grandchildren.
A funeral service was held Sep. 4, at Antioch Church, with burial in Calvary Cemetery.
Read an obituary here.