Claassen, Virginia Mae (1933-2011)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 2011 Nov 7 p. 11

Birth date: 1933 Jun 20

text of obituary:

Mission worker, who served 40 years in Japan, dies at 78

BY ANDREW CLOUSE
Mennonite Mission Network

Virginia Mae Claassen, a 40-year mission worker to Japan who taught elementary school to missionary children and English to Japanese nationals, and co-pastored a Japanese church, died Oct. 22 in Newton, Kan., after living with cancer for nearly five years. She was 78.

Fellow mission workers say she will be remembered for her humility and the strong friendships she forged with Japanese people.

"Virginia was a devoted, faithful servant of the Lord, and was passionate about God's mission in Japan," said Sheldon Sawatzky, a Mennonite Mission Network worker in Taiwan who was the mission administrator for Japan during Claassen's last few years of service. "She was a very humble, gracious person and deeply loved by the Japanese."

Claassen, born to Carl and Elise Classen on June 20, 1933, grew up on her