On July 18, 1936, in Alabama, Shirley Lasse, the youngest of nine children, was born to Archie and Josey Smith. The family moved to Texas when Shirley was a young child.

Encouraged by an older brother to attend Camp Peniel in Texas, Shirley committed her life to following Jesus and to serving him as a missionary in Africa.

When the time came for her to begin her college studies, she was blessed with the opportunity to complete her bachelor’s degree at Wheaton College, in Chicago, Illinois. After  graduating with a degree in English education with a French minor, she attended Moody Bible Institute. While studying there she met the man she loved, who eventually asked her to marry him. Phil and Shirley were married June 14, 1958. Four years later, they, with their first born child in tow, made their way to the East African country of Kenya, where Phil and Shirley served for more than 25 years as missionaries.  Shirley endured some heart wrenching circumstances in the first year and a half of her missionary career, including the loss of her father and mother, and of her infant daughter, Kara.  But our faithful God used these “experiences of suffering” to fashion in Shirley a remarkably resilient faith and a love for, and understanding of God’s Word, which sustained her throughout her fruitful lifetime.

After more than 25 years of service in the arena of overseas missions, God directed the Lasses’  path to Northwest Arkansas. There, with the strong support of their local church, University Baptist Church, they together launched a ministry to international students at the campus of the University of Arkansas, which had far-reaching, and eventually worldwide, impact. They led this ministry, known as International Student Christian Association (or ISCA) for more than thirteen years until Phil was taken home by His Heavenly Father.  After Phil’s death, Shirley continued her ministry involvement in discipling and teaching international students for fifteen years, often hosting groups of all sizes and nationalities in her home. Among her many extraordinary gifts and callings, Shirley was a woman of great faith and prayer, who faithfully persisted in these throughout her years of service in God’s kingdom, almost until the day of her own entrance into heaven. She made her grand entrance there on Monday, April 16 at about 3 PM, leaving this world as a result of complications from congestive heart failure and pneumonia.  She was preceded in death by her husband, Phil, and her first daughter, Kara, her parents, and eight siblings.  She is survived by three children, and their spouses–Clark and Joyce Lasse, Kim and Chris Holcomb, Kelly and Lorrie Lasse–her ten grand children and five great grand children and numerous extended family. She leaves behind a great legacy of faith, with a profoundly life transforming impact on countless lives all over the world, all of whom will remain forever grateful for her outstanding example, and for the godly and loving influence she’s had on us all.

A celebration of her life will be held at University Baptist Church in Fayetteville, Arkansas on Friday, April 20, 2018 at  9:30 AM, officiated by Pastor John Mueller.  Visitation will be Thursday, April 19, 2018 from 5-7 pm at Beard’s Funeral Chapel. Gifts in her memory can be made to Global Outfitters, PO Box 8926 Fayetteville, 72703 and designated to the Uganda Exodus Project, or to International Student Christian Association, PO Box 8055, Fayetteville, 72703.