Patricia A. Kershaw

Patricia A. Kershaw, 90 of  Taneyville.

Patricia A. Kershaw, 90 of  Taneyville passed away peacefully, September 19th, at home.

She was born to Howard Frost and Muriel Gabriel Frost on September 24th,1934 in Chicago, Illinois.

As a young person she was called to missions and attended Moody Bible Institute. In her senior year she heard about International Students Incorporated at a chapel service. Roland Max Kershaw was one of the speakers. He was a part of this new mission organization. Pat married the love of her life, Max, on May 12th, 1956.

Pat and Max were truly a team, working in their roles of giftedness to accomplish their goals with the purpose of glorifying God. Prayer always united them. They raised two of their own children and fostered many others including Lynn, who was adopted, and Gus of whom they obtained legal guardianship. Pat was considered an exceptional Foster Mother, earning her, "Foster Mother of The Year," award of Los Angeles, CA.

Pat was a courageous person, a great manager of her household as well as taking on many tasks of the ministry. She was Max's personal secretary. She hosted many dinners and parties at their home and would oversee the kitchen duties for retreats with international students. Their home was always a place where a single girl in need of family, an older man who needed a handyman job, a foreign student needing temporary housing, and foster children could call home for a time. They had two large deep freezers and a big pantry with food for those in need (Max was a bargain hunter).

If there was an excursion for international students to Yosemite National Park, or for a backpacking trip or another camping trip somewhere else in the country Pat would be the "Harbinger" packing up the children, and supplies and going ahead of the group of internationals to save camping spots. While Max was working on his doctoral dissertation, she spent a whole summer traveling across the US and Canada in a VW bus with Beth, Gus and Lynn.

When they moved to Boulder, Colorado she started an English program at their church for international students' wives and children. It is still going. Later she and Max followed a call to serve in England with a sister organization to ISI. She and Max were married for 30 years before Max passed in England. After that she moved back to the States and continued her work with ISI. Pat’s gift for writing, which had been important during her work with Max, continued to be called upon in her work. Pat wrote many manuals used to train new staff, and there are many people across the United States and in other countries who have received her writing in the form of encouraging letters, building them up in their service to the Lord. Pat worked for over 60 years at ISI, only retiring at the age of 80. Even in her retirement she was involved with ISI in mentoring staff. She absolutely loved her work.

Pat’s move, in 1996, from Colorado to Missouri, was made with the intention of being close to her children and grandchildren who all lived in the area at that time. She took an active role in the instruction of several of her grandchildren’s writing exercises, and when her great grandchildren got old enough, she helped some of them too. Pat loved spending time with her grandchildren and great grandchildren. She enjoyed playing mischief with them. Her grandchildren have fond memories of her teaching them how to short-sheet beds, toilet paper doorways, and get up in the middle of the night for snacks of frozen blueberries and cream. Even better was when she instructed them in the making of “black cows” a colloquial name for a root beer float. She was spunky, and humorous, and could take a joke at her expense, which her grandchildren were adept at dishing out. And she could give it as well as she took it!

As she grew older and being active physically became more difficult for her, she maintained an active spiritual life, being the kind of person, you knew you could always write to with a prayer request, and she would faithfully pray for you. She also became dear to her great grandchildren as she was always an open lap to sit on for reading and chatting. As some of the great grandchildren have gotten older, they maintained a very special relationship with her, as she made an effort to understand the things they were into, and of course kept a very good pantry full of animal crackers and cheeseballs.

The things that have been most important to Pat were her relationship to Jesus Christ her LORD, a passionate love for family, friends, and neighbors, and fulfilling the great commission of Christ found in Matthew 28:19-20: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

She is predeceased by her parents Howard Frost and Muriel Gabriel Frost Blair; sister Donna Frost Kurz; husband Roland Max Kershaw and grandson Brandon Warren.

Patricia is survived by her sister: Phyllis Frost VanderNaald; son Peter Kershaw: daughter-in-law Cindy Kershaw; daughter: Elizabeth Kershaw Stefan (David Stefan) son Gus Kershaw; daughter Lynn Kershaw Hargrove (Mark Hargrove) fourteen grandchildren and fourteen great grandchildren.

Memorial service to be held October 11^th, 2024, 3:00 pm at Woodland Hills Family Church, 3953 Green Mountain Dr., Branson, MO 65616, interment will be in Blair Cemetery in Taney County.

Memorial gifts should be sent to International Students Inc .https://internationalstudents.org/.

Live streaming will be available.

Arrangements were under the direction of Snapp-Bearden Forsyth Chapel, Forsyth, Mo.