Barbara Hurd

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Landscape of a Life

Barbara Ann Breneman started life in Lancaster, Pennsylvania on July 30, 1935, the fourth child of Clyde and Mary Ann. She grew up on a dairy farm, became a baptized member of a thriving Mennonite community, and graduated from Lancaster Mennonite High School and Eastern Mennonite College. Later, she continued her studies in Christian Education at Columbia Bible College in Virginia where she experienced strong spiritual growth and was gripped by a calling to teach overseas.

In 1966, Barbara moved to San Jose, Costa Rica where she studied Spanish and taught Bible and English in Colegio Monterrey. In San Jose she met James Hurd, a mission bush pilot. They got engaged in Venezuela and married in Souderton, Pennsylvania in 1970. She and James lived in Venezuela and in Colombia where James flew for Mission Aviation Fellowship while Barbara monitored his progress by short-wave radio. The Hurds adopted Kimberly in Costa Rica and then Tim and Jeny in Colombia. Barbara loved her grandchildren: Brandon, Isaiah, Destiny, Faith, Maria, Ava, Benjamin, Renner, Levi and Rubyella. Her brother Mervin Breneman resides in Florida.

In 1977 the family moved to State College, Pennsylvania where James pursued graduate studies in anthropology while Barbara worked as a home health aide, taught Sunday School in the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church and directed their "Golden Go-getters" senior program.

In 1982 the family moved to Blaine, Minnesota where Barbara initiated several neighborhood Bible study groups. While James taught anthropology at Bethel University, she taught homebound ill and disabled students. She served as a youth director at Good Shepherd Church and as Sunday school superintendent. Later at North Heights Lutheran Church she organized a discussion and prayer group for parents praying for their adult children, taught seminars on grandparenting and for 28 years, counseled in the North Heights Counseling Clinic.

Barbara passed away at home on December 13, 2024, surrounded by her grieving family.

She was the beating heart of our home. A sacrificial, faithful wife and mother, she fiercely fostered our social, emotional and spiritual development. She cultivated a host of friends. In the larger community, her charity was natural and unselfconscious.

Her life motto was "To know Christ and to make him known." She forgave people who hurt her, including her husband, and poured her life into her kids and grandkids. She fully trusted in Christ and in his death on her behalf and confidently looked forward to a glorious resurrection and a day when she would dwell in the house of her Lord forever. May eternal light shine on her.

James Hurd, her husband

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We are meeting for the memorial service in the North Heights Chapel (Door B), Arden Hills Campus, 1700 West Highway 96, Arden Hills, Saint Paul, MN 55112 on Saturday, December 28, 2024 at 2 p.m. CST. Visitation at 1 p.m.

The memorial service will be livestreamed by NHLC church. Please go to their website https://northheights.church/ and search for the livestream link.

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In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be made to the North Heights Counseling Clinic, in care of North Heights Lutheran Church, Arden Hills, MN. You can also donate online: https://northheights.church/give/   Be certain to select the "other" option and in the "notes" section write these words: "Counseling Clinic. In memory of Barbara A. Hurd."