Sara Elizabeth Fast

Sara was born on March 23, 1931, in Thomson, Georgia to Benjamin Franklin and Mary Jane (Story) Rabun. The fifth of seven children, Sara was raised on a traditional Georgia cotton farm and graduated from Thomson High School after completing the eleventh grade. She later received her B.S. in elementary education from Bob Jones University, Greenville, South Carolina, and, later, an M.S. in education from Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan. On June 2, 1954, Sara married her faithful bridegroom, Marion Everett Fast of Homer, Michigan. Sara and Marion enjoyed fifty-seven years of married life.

Sara always considered her primary calling to be a helper to her husband’s ministry in the church. Their first ministry took place at the Bible Baptist Church in New Buffalo, Michigan, where they established their family home from 1956 to 1978. During their time in New Buffalo, Sara helped to launch the Heritage Christian Academy, a ministry of Bible Baptist, where she taught kindergarten through second grade and became known as an extraordinary teacher of reading.

Her outstanding reputation as a well-loved kindergarten teacher followed her to Longmont, Colorado, when her husband accepted a pastorate at Faith Baptist Church in 1978. It was clear that Sara always had a special affinity for babies and young children and was fulfilled in her role as a teacher of beginning readers until her retirement in 1996.

Sara was preceded in death by her parents; four brothers, Benjamin, Calvin, J.T, and Robert; one sister, Sadie Rabun Cockrell; and a beloved infant daughter, Susan Lois. Sara is survived by her younger sister, Dell Rabun of Senoia, Georgia; five daughters, Rebecca (Bill) Conway of New Buffalo, Michigan; Sharon (David) Gustafson of Arlington, Virginia; Martha (Fred) Smith of Longmont, Colorado; Linda (Glen Snider) Fast of Longmont, Colorado; and Joanna (Darrell) Conn of Oviedo, Florida. Also surviving are twenty-one grandchildren and twenty great-children--Adam, Story, Ansel, Melinda, Lydia, Soki, Michaela, Elizabeth, Riley, Melody, Madeline, Gray, Garrett, Katherine, Meredith, Branden, Nicholas, Breeze, Sara, Sonnet, Sigrid, Abel, Copper, Gwendolyn, Stella, Benjamin, Mercy, Libby, Jensen, Verity, Eden, Ingrid, Eli, Sparrow, Ezekiel, John, David, Archer, Cassidy, J.J., and Lincoln.