F. Faye Pearson departed this life on February 20th, 2019 for her heavenly life after a long battle with cancer. She was a native of Jones County, born May 14, 1940. She was a 1958 graduate of Myrick High School.
She received the Bachelor of Arts in education from McNeese State University, Lake Charles, LA, and the Master of Religious Education degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, TX, graduated in Mandarin Chinese from the Taipei Language Institute, Taipei, Taiwan, completed advanced studies in missiology from Fuller Seminary in California, and she received an Honorary Doctor of Divinity from the Asia Baptist Graduate Theological Seminary headquartered in Baguio City, Philippines. Faye had a life filled with rich experiences. She held secretarial positions at McNeese State University while a student there.
She taught one year in the Lake Charles School system. She was on the staff of University Baptist Church, Fayetteville, AR as Director of Education before joining the staff of the Oklahoma Baptist Convention, serving as State Young Women’s Auxiliary Director for Oklahoma Women’s Missionary Union, Oklahoma City. She served as a summer missionary under the Southern Baptist Home Mission Board in Arkansas, Florida and California.
Faye was appointed a missionary by the Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board (now International Mission Board) in 1968 to Taiwan to work with students on university campuses. After she completed language and cultural studies, she worked with university students in south Taiwan for 10 years before joining the faculty of the Taiwan Baptist Theological Seminary to direct the Religious Education Department. She held various positions in the Taiwan Baptist Mission and Chinese Baptist Convention.
She was invited in 1988 to serve as the first woman as the Associate to the Area Director for East Asia, pastoring and counseling Southern Baptist missionaries in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao. In 1993, she was the first woman ever elected to serve as the Area Director (now Regional Leader) for Southern Baptist mission work. She supervised the work of approximately 600 missionaries in East Asia: Hong Kong, Japan, Macao, South Korea, Taiwan, China and two closed countries.
Faye selected to take early retirement from the International Mission Board in 1997. For the next 12 years she was supported by the churches and individuals from the Taiwan Chinese Baptist Convention. She was invited by the China Christian Council in 1997 to teach at the Nanjing Theological Seminary, Nanjing, China.
She was the first foreigner to teach full-time in any China seminary in 52 years. She ended a very meaningful missionary career by returning to the Taiwan Baptist Seminary to assist the seminary in developing a curriculum for the newly established Missions Department and to teach in the Missions Department and to direct the newly established World Missions Center. Faye worked with the Chinese Baptist Convention Missions Department in Bangladesh and Nepal and supervised the Taiwan Baptist Seminary mission majors serving in Thailand, Myanmar, Indonesia, South Korea, Philippines, India and North Africa.
She retired in 2009 and returned to the Laurel area. Faye loved the Lord Jesus, life, teaching, her family, her friends, and the Chinese world. Her world was always filled with people and projects.
Her hobbies included: traveling and making new friends in various cultures, decorating her home for every season, entertaining friends around the table, cooking, reading, discussing world events, theology, missiology and speaking about God’s faithfulness in her life and the needs of loving and sharing one’s faith in a broken world. Those who knew Faye knew her as honest, hard-working, humorous and fun-loving. She was sensitive to the needs of others, kind and compassionate, an encourager and sometimes known to be stubborn.
She set goals for herself and others but she never expected more of others than she demanded of herself. She was passionate about her missionary calling and treating all people as equals. She was an active member of Freedom Baptist Church as a child growing up in the Myrick community and joined the church when she returned to Laurel.
However, when the Chinese Christian Church was organized in Hattiesburg, she immediately became an active member of this fellowship of believers, where she found a place to serve. She is preceded in death by her parents Jim and Flossie Harrison Pearson, siblings Howard Pearson and Harold “Boe” Pearson and sister-in-law Mae Cotham Pearson. She is survived by one nephew James W. Pearson of Ellisville, step-brother Mack Tucker (Ann) of Laurel, several cousins, step-nieces and a wonderful missionary and Chinese family.
Family and friends would like to thank the local caregivers: Janice Holyfield, Lora Huddleston and Lynn Porter; the wonderful, caring friends who came from Taiwan, China and across the United States to care for Faye; and the medical team: Dr. Laura Douglas and her chemo team, Dr. Kevin Ivey and Dr. David Sullivan who walked with her with great compassion and professionalism through the cancer journey and for scores of friends from around the world who prayed for her and sent messages of encouragements. The pallbearers are: Isaac Chang, Timothy Yang, Jakeb Hosey, Yang Jinhai, Danny Li & Fan Hongbo. The honorary pallbearers are: Dr. Kevin Ivey, Kelly Lawson, Vernell Watkins, Joe Johnson, Randy Laird, Dr. Ned Hinton & Dr. Laurie Douglas.
Visitation: 5 – 8 p.m. on March 1st 2019 at Memory Chapel 3100 Audubon Dr., Laurel, MS 39440 Funeral services: 10 a.m. on March 2nd 2019 at First Baptist Church 607 W 5th St., Laurel, MS 39440 The interment will follow at the Myrick Cemetery. To sign the guest book login to www. memorychapellaurel.com In Lieu of flowers, the family request that donations be made to the Hattiesburg Chinese Christian Church Building Fund, 1508 Hardy St, Hattiesburg MS 39401 To send flowers or a memorial gift to the family of F. Faye Pearson please visit our Sympathy Store.
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