Helen E Frazier

Helen Edds was born on September 25, 1934 in Fort Smith, Arkansas to Albert Edds and Cleo “Faye” Edds. She went to local schools and graduated from Senior High School in 1952. Shortly after, at 18 years of age, in April of 1953, she surrendered her heart to Jesus Christ to be her Lord and Savior, after a long struggle with God.

She quickly found ways to serve, first by teaching Sunday School in her local church, then helping with Child Evangelism Fellowship. Desiring to expand her ministry opportunities, she went to the International Child Evangelism Institute, then attended Mid-South Bible Institute in Memphis Tennessee. She went on to complete her Bachelor’s degree at Mid-South Bible College, graduating in June of 1961, with a vision to be a missionary to Dutch New Guinea.

During the summer of 1961, Helen attended The Evangelical Alliance Mission (TEAM) missionary candidate school in Wheaton, IL. During that summer, she met Bob and Doris Frazier, young missionaries fresh from the wild, primitive jungles of New Guinea, and full of exciting stories of cannibals, living on a boat, learning unwritten languages, and much more. Helen “drank in every word” and her heart burned with a desire to serve in New Guinea to help spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It would be a long journey to get there. After medical training at Bible Institute of Los Angeles (BIOLA) and language school at the University of Oklahoma through Wycliffe, Helen spent 3 years in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) (1965-1968) waiting for political situations to settle out in New Guinea. In Rhodesia, she served in the main mission headquarters as an administrator, an area for which she was especially talented and highly valued.

Helen was finally cleared medically and received her visa to go to “West Irian”, now part of the nation of Indonesia. She arrived in Sentani in March of 1970. She tells that her arrival was met with little fanfare. In fact, nobody was at the airport to meet this young single missionary, in a new country where she did not know the language! She left her suitcases at the airport and started walking down the road to places unknown, just trusting God. The local missionaries heard about a lone white woman walking down the road and rushed out to meet her!

Helen’s first assignment was the same jungle swamp she had heard stories about from Bob and Doris Frazier, who were there serving also. She worked with Dr Ken Dresser at a primitive field hospital after going through some intensive language training with Margaret Stringer. She had some “exciting” experiences in this coastal assignment, with daily tides that flooded the ground, sometimes up into the house she lived in. More than once, she would step out of bed, into splashing water coming up through the floor and having walls crawling with bugs that were escaping the flood waters!

After returning to home to the U.S. to share her burden and stories, she returned in 1976 to find the hospital had just moved much further inland to escape the coastal tides. She went back to visit Pirimapuan with 2 young girls and an Indonesian minister to see old acquaintances and check on the buildings but got Septicemia! Having no radio or medical personnel to help her, she had to “teach” the Indonesian minister how to give her shots to save her life!

After less than a year at the new field hospital, the TEAM field leaders asked her to come and serve in the mission headquarters at Manokwari as the office administrator. Shortly after arriving, she was brutally assaulted, barely escaping with her life. Amazingly, the man who assaulted her was given permission to attend church during his prison term, and Helen attended the same church! God gave Helen the grace to extend a hand of forgiveness to the man, and he accepted it. The church saw what true forgiveness meant in real life action.

By the summer of 1977, Helen had contracted a mysterious viral infection that left her weak and with a persistent fever. She first went to Australia to recover, but had to return to the U.S. by April of 1978 to fully recover. She never was able to go back to the island of West Irian (then Irian Jaya).

In the U.S. now, Helen first traveled to see friends and family, but was asked to serve in the TEAM mission headquarters in Wheaton, IL, where her great administrative skills could be put to good use. Her church supporters and friends continued to support her call to serve, until she felt the need to end full-time ministry to move back to Arkansas to assist her aging mother, Faye Easton. Her excellent office skills were quickly recognized by a local business, and she cared for her mom until her passing in February of 1988. Her Aunt Hazel also lived in Fort Smith, and from 1990-1998, Helen cared for her until she also passed away.

Meanwhile, Bob Frazier had just buried his wife Doris after 45 years of marriage in August of 1997. She had been debilitated by early-onset Alzheimer’s for 15 years. As Bob shared the news with all the mission family, He and Helen started an email correspondence that just kept going! Soon there were phone calls, flowers, and a proposal of marriage in the Spring of 1998. Helen was so uncertain about this amazing change in her life, when Bob asked her to marry him, she had to excuse herself and run to the bathroom to throw up! She blamed it on a stomach “bug”, but she came back and said “YES!”. They were married on Sept 26, 1998, one day after Helen’s 64th birthday, and a new chapter in her and Bob Frazier’s lives had begun.

Bob and Helen had 9 wonderful years together, and Helen was fully embraced by her new family as “Grandma” Frazier. In September of 2007, Bob had a heart attack and never fully recovered. Helen once again took on the role of caregiver until he passed away on November 9, 2008.

Since 2008, Helen has had a ministry of prayer and local ministry. She has been greatly loved and helped by neighbors and friends whom God called, and who fell in love with this beautiful, selfless, humble saint of a person. She was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer on January 21, 2023, and after a long, painful time of being bedridden and dependent on the love and care of many friends and family, she passed away on June 8, 2023. She was never alone in these last months of her life, and those who cared for her were blessed even as they gave.

Helen is survived by 3 sons John (Esther), Harry "Steve" (Lisa) and Timothy. Grandchildren Mindy (Owen) Reed, Aaron (Destiny) Frazier, Sarah (Andrew) Siegel, Paul Alan (Ciara) Frazier, Robert Luke Frazier, Hannah Michelle Frazier, Lauren Frazier, and Robert Rhodes Frazier. 7 great-grandchildren and many nephews and nieces. She was predeceased by her father Albert Edds, her mother Cleo Easton, her husband Robert Rhodes Frazier, Her brother Thomas Edds, her sister Dolores, her daughter Kathryn Frazier and her son Robert Rhodes Frazier Jr.

Family requests any donation to be done to Community Bible Church in Helen's memory.

A visitation for Helen will be held Saturday, June 17, 2023 at 1:00 PM at Community Bible Church, 91 Emerson Drive NW, Palm Bay, FL 32907. A funeral service will occur Saturday, June 17, 2023 at 2:00 PM, 91 Emerson Drive NW, Palm Bay, FL 32907. A committal service will occur Saturday, June 17, 2023 at 4:00 PM at Fountainhead Memorial Park, 7303 Babcock Street SE, Palm Bay, FL 32909.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.FountainheadFuneralHome.com for the Frazier family.