Portrait of Berdie Hope. IMB Photo
Berdie Hope, an International Mission Board missionary emeritus who shared the gospel in Brazil, died July 9, 2026, in Huntsville, Alabama. She was 91.
Berdie was born July 26, 1934, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. She graduated from Capitol Hill High School in Oklahoma City and received the Bachelor of Science from Oklahoma Baptist University, Shawnee, and the Master of Religious Education from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas.
She married Ben Hope on June 9, 1956. For the next two years, Berdie taught high school English and speech and was school librarian and drama coach in a small community near Oklahoma City while Ben completed his college work. In April of 1959, they moved to Fort Worth and entered seminary. Berdie worked as a secretary for a wholesale hardware firm and went to night school. After Ben’s graduation, they moved to a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, where they worked to plant churches.
While seeking missionary appointment Berdie wrote of her call to missions as a child, “One Sunday evening, during a Training Union (discipleship) program on missions, the thought came to my mind as suddenly and as vividly as though someone had spoken the words aloud, ‘That’s what God wants you to do!’ … From that day, I have felt that God wanted me in foreign missions.”
In 1967, the International Mission Board appointed Ben and Berdie missionaries to Brazil, where they served for 33 years. Berdie organized libraries for seminaries and Bible institutes, directed choirs, mastered the pump organ, and faithfully supported her family. In the 1980s, she expanded her skills into computer programming, writing a program to automatically print out library cards.
Berdie was preceded in death by her husband of 59 years, Ben Hope.
She is survived by her daughter Lori Kingston (Karl), her son Joel Hope (Heather), and her foster daughter Janeth Cruz (Josenil); four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
No services are scheduled at this time.
Donations in her memory may be made to the Lottie Moon Offering, IMB, 3806 Monument Avenue, Richmond, VA 23230, or online at Generosity Resource Center – IMB Generosity.
Read an obituary here.
The post In memoriam: Missionary emeritus Berdie Hope, 1934-2026 appeared first on IMB.
| Written by IMB Staff | IMB | Read full story at Read More
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