Brenda Irby Ashcraft

Brenda Irby Ashcraft (August 22, 1947 – April 1, 2018) was an independent Baptist missionary, pianist, music teacher, and evangelistic worker who served for nearly five decades in the Monterrey area of Mexico. She and her husband, Tommy Ashcraft, arrived in Monterrey on August 6, 1969, with their four-month-old daughter, Tammie. Her work became closely associated with Iglesia Bautista Monte Hebrón and the Instituto Bíblico Bautista Monte Hebrón. [1]

The family's prayer letters describe several overlapping parts of her ministry: accompanying church services at the piano, preparing musicians for other ministries, leading a women's evangelism group, and beginning a publishing work for Spanish-language preaching and teaching materials. They also record a home that served as a meeting place for church workers and their families.

Family background

Brenda was born on August 22, 1947, in Conway, Arkansas, according to her Spanish-language biographical sketch. It names her parents as Elmer Melton Irby and Bertsye Ozell Bilberry, and lists grandparents Bertsy Virginia Simms and Elmer Addison Bilberry. The spellings Bertsye and Bertsy are retained as written in the sketch. [20]

Brenda was a daughter of Elmer and Ozell Irby. Her siblings included Dale Irby, Peggy Dieu, and Nyla Wesner. In his account of her funeral, Tommy credited the Christian upbringing of all four siblings to their parents, whom the family called Grandmommy and Pappy Irby. [2][3]

Ozell taught the same Sunday School class at Temple Baptist Church in Lubbock, Texas, for more than forty years, according to a September 2014 letter. Elmer died in 2001. In January 2009, Ozell married Jesse Maynard, a widower, World War II veteran, and businessman. Tommy described the extended family's affection for Jesse, who became part of a large circle of children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Jesse died on June 10, 2014. [2]

The biographical sketch supplies her full birth date; the August 2013 letter independently agrees with the year by describing her sixty-sixth birthday. [4][20]

Conversion and commitment to service

According to the sketch, Brenda accepted Christ during an invitation at Temple Baptist Church in Lubbock in 1954, following a message preached by Ralph McCoy. At twelve, she committed her life to serving God during a revival meeting at her church. J. E. Whisenant was preaching a message remembered by the Spanish title “No Estacionamiento” (“No Parking”). These details preserve the account recorded in her biographical sketch; the document does not give an exact date for the revival. [20]

Marriage and preparation for ministry

Brenda married Tommy Ashcraft on August 15, 1966. Their marriage date is supported by repeated anniversary reports, including Tommy's letter of August 15, 2005, written on their thirty-ninth anniversary, and the account of their fiftieth anniversary in 2016. [1][5]

Her sketch dates their first meeting to September 1965, when both were Bible college students, and identifies Lubbock, Texas, as the place of their August 15, 1966 wedding. It states that she and Tommy graduated together from Bible Baptist Seminary in May 1969. Tommy's later account refers to his attendance at Arlington Baptist College; the sources' institutional names are retained without assuming that the difference represents separate courses of study. [6][20]

Music was already part of their shared work before they moved to Mexico. During their four college years, Tommy directed music and Brenda played the piano at Lakeland Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, under Pastor A. F. Jernigan. In a May 2015 retrospective, Tommy described those years as formative preparation and thanked Jernigan and his wife for their influence. [6]

The couple's children were Tammie, Stephen, and Jonathan. Their later family life remained closely connected with ministry in Mexico and El Salvador. Tammie married Henry González, and they served in Santa Ana, El Salvador. Stephen and his wife, Ruth, lived near Monte Hebrón and attended the church. Jonathan and Jenny Ashcraft joined the work in Mexico, and Jonathan became pastor in 2016. [5][7]

Arrival in Monterrey

On August 6, 1969, Tommy and Brenda arrived in Monterrey with Tammie, then four months old. They came to participate in the Bible institute work begun by Tommy's parents, Louie Hickman Ashcraft and Eva Oceal Lemon Ashcraft. [1][8]

The institute had begun in the family's home in 1963. By the time Tommy reflected on its history in June 2014, he and Brenda had been involved for forty-five years. Their service thus extended across the institute's development and the later establishment and growth of the Monte Hebrón congregation. [8]

Brenda's biographical sketch adds details of their first weeks on the field. They spent three weeks in a rented house in Los Cristales along the Carretera Nacional before moving to Monte Hebrón. The sketch describes them as the first missionaries to live at Monte Hebrón and says that electricity and water were initially unavailable. It also records that Brenda learned Spanish through interaction with the institute students. The account does not describe the precise water arrangements or distinguish utility service from other supplies. [20]

Their correspondence repeatedly used August anniversaries to look back on both marriage and missionary service. In 2005, Tommy described the thirty-six years since their arrival as a period in which their family, marriage, and ministry had exceeded what they could have imagined when they came. [1]

Pianist and teacher of church musicians

Brenda's piano playing was a continuing part of the church's worship and conference ministry. The February 2014 conference report places her work alongside that of Jonathan, then music director, and Jenny, who led the orchestra. Brenda accompanied the services even while experiencing substantial foot pain. The account presents the music as a family and church undertaking, with distinct responsibilities shared among them. [9]

Her teaching also carried beyond Monte Hebrón. A January 4, 2008 letter from Henry González in Santa Ana, preserved in the same archive, gives a specific example. Héctor Sánchez and his wife had joined the ministry there, and Henry identified Mrs. Sánchez as a pianist trained by Brenda at the institute in Monterrey. He had appointed her to coordinate music, accompany services and the choir, and organize singing groups. [10]

That report is evidence of Brenda's influence through a former student's subsequent work. Skills taught in Monterrey were being used to strengthen a congregation in another country. The letter does not supply Mrs. Sánchez's first name, so this biography does not attempt to identify it.

Brenda also made recorded accompaniments. One of these later became part of her own funeral service: Jenny sang “Faces” with the church choir using a soundtrack Brenda had prepared earlier. Tommy described the selection as especially appropriate to the life being remembered. [3]

Sembradoras and personal evangelism

Brenda led a women's evangelistic group called Sembradoras, the feminine form of “sowers.” In June 2014, Tommy described its Friday-morning meetings in their living room before the women went out to visit and present the gospel. The group was one of eighteen weekly evangelistic groups reported by the church at that time. Those church-wide results were not attributed to Brenda's group alone. [8]

The December 5, 2014 letter offers a small contemporary scene: while Tommy was writing, Brenda was out with the women. He reported that the previous week she had led an eighty-five-year-old woman to Christ only a few blocks from their home. The account shows how the ministry operated through regular visits in nearby neighborhoods. [11]

An August 2013 report similarly described the ladies celebrating Brenda's sixty-sixth birthday and then going out to witness. The group reported eighteen professions of faith that day. Birthday fellowship and evangelism were part of the same gathering. [4]

The letters also recount her speaking to people during periods of medical treatment. In May 2009, Tommy reported that she had witnessed from her hospital bed to two nurses and two cleaning workers, all of whom he said received Christ. These accounts preserve the family's reports of individual encounters; they are not independent assessments of the people involved. [12]

Spanish-language publications

A September 23, 2013 supplement identifies Brenda as the person who began a publishing ministry producing and distributing preaching and teaching materials. Tommy explained that Jonathan had subsequently expanded the work and trained a graduate to oversee it. The letter does not give its founding date. [13]

By July 2016, the family's publications numbered twenty-three and covered subjects including evangelism, missions, leadership, Sunday School, marriage and family, and Bible doctrine. Materials were supplied as PDFs on CDs so that church workers could print and reproduce lessons. Recorded messages were also offered. Tommy stated that income from the materials was reinvested in equipment and supplies. [14]

The later inventory describes the work's development rather than a list of titles authored by Brenda. The sources establish her part in beginning the ministry, but they do not justify crediting every publication to her personally.

Home, hospitality, and family celebrations

The Ashcraft home served as an extension of the church's life. Along with the weekly Sembradoras meetings, Tommy and Brenda hosted Christmas gatherings for the children of assistant pastors, division leaders, and other staff members. The Christmas 2012 letter describes a planned party with small gifts, candy, coloring books, and crayons, with the children gathered around the family's Christmas tree. [15]

The December 2013 report records fifty-two children attending that year's staff-family Christmas gathering. Tommy described the people working alongside them as a family, reflecting the close connection between shared ministry and their home. [16]

Their own children and grandchildren also gathered there when travel permitted. At Christmas 2016, Henry and Tammie González's family came from El Salvador, and their son Daniel joined them from college in Indiana. Stephen's and Jonathan's families were also part of the reunion. [5]

That gathering provided another opportunity to celebrate Tommy and Brenda's fiftieth wedding anniversary. Peggy and Nyla had arranged a family celebration on August 15; on December 21, their children and the church held a special anniversary service while Tammie's family was visiting. The December letter records the couple's gratitude for the care and affection shown to them. [5]

Continuing service through illness

Recurring illness increasingly limited Brenda's mobility and travel. The letters frequently requested prayer for her health, but also continued to describe her involvement in piano accompaniment, evangelism, and family life. Her husband's accounts consistently emphasize her determination to remain involved when she could. [9][11][12]

The final year brought particularly difficult circumstances. Brenda went to Lubbock in April 2017 to visit her hospitalized mother. On April 28, she fell in her mother's hospital restroom and sustained a fractured pelvis and spinal injuries. Ozell died on May 7, at ninety-one. Brenda obtained permission to leave rehabilitation to attend her mother's funeral on May 11. Peggy and Don Dieu, and Nyla and Garry Wesner, helped care for the family through this period. [17]

After returning to Mexico, Brenda suffered a fractured tibia on June 13 and underwent surgery on June 15. Her recovery remained difficult. In early 2018 she was hospitalized in Lubbock for treatment of infection associated with the injured leg. [18][19]

These medical events explain the disruption of her final months, but the letters also preserve a different kind of detail. After several weeks of serious illness, she improved enough in late March to enter a rehabilitation center. Following a therapy session, she spent about twenty minutes playing a keyboard in the activities room. Tommy recorded that her first song was “He Touched Me.” [19]

Death and funeral

Brenda died at 9:32 a.m. on Easter Sunday, April 1, 2018, in Lubbock, Texas. Tommy and several family members were with her. In his April 6 letter, he described both his grief after fifty-one years of marriage and the family's comfort in their Christian faith. [19]

He also explained that they had long intended to be buried in Mexico, near the people they had served. At the time of that letter, arrangements were being made to transport Brenda's body there. [19]

Her viewing was held on April 12, followed by the funeral at Monte Hebrón Baptist Church on the morning of April 13. This distinction is explicit in Tommy's April 13 account: the viewing had taken place the previous evening, and the funeral took place that morning. Hundreds attended the viewing. Pastor Ezekiel Salazar preached at the funeral, and Jonathan organized the arrangements. [3]

Family members contributed in personal ways. Jenny sang with the choir to Brenda's recorded piano accompaniment, while Ruth selected the floral arrangements. Tommy described being strengthened by the presence of his children, grandchildren, siblings, and extended family around him. [3]

The service brought together several threads of Brenda's life: the family she had raised, the congregation she had served, and music she had prepared that continued to accompany others after her death.

Sources

[1] Tommy and Brenda Ashcraft, August 15, 2005 prayer letter, in “Prayer letters 2004, 2005 2.doc.txt.”

[2] Tommy and Brenda Ashcraft, September 2014 prayer letter, “Prayer letter September 2014 2.docx.txt.”

[3] Tommy Ashcraft, April 13, 2018 letter, “Prayer Letter April 13 2018 for FBMI 3.docx.txt,” compared with the corresponding “2” version.

[4] Tommy and Brenda Ashcraft, August 26, 2013 prayer letter, “Prayer Letter August 2013 word 2.docx.txt.”

[5] Tommy and Brenda Ashcraft, December 28, 2016 prayer letter, “Prayer Letter December 28 2016 2.docx.txt.”

[6] Tommy and Brenda Ashcraft, May 5, 2015 prayer letter, “April 2015 Prayer Letter0.pdf.txt,” p. 1; date taken from printed letter.

[7] Tommy and Brenda Ashcraft, February 22, 2016 prayer letter, “February 2016 Prayer Letter Tommy Ashcraft (2).pdf.txt,” p. 1.

[8] Tommy Ashcraft, June 2014 prayer letter, “June 2014 Prayer Letter Tommy Ashcraft.pdf.txt,” p. 1.

[9] Tommy and Brenda Ashcraft, February 2014 prayer letter, “February 2014 Prayer Letter.pdf.txt,” p. 1.

[10] Henry González, January 4, 2008 prayer letter, “January 2008 Prayer Letter 2.doc.txt.” This is Henry's report from El Salvador, not a Tommy and Brenda letter.

[11] Tommy and Brenda Ashcraft, December 5, 2014 prayer letter, “December Prayer Letter, 2014 2.docx.txt.”

[12] Tommy and Brenda Ashcraft, May 25, 2009 prayer letter, “prayer letter may 09 2.doc.txt.”

[13] Tommy Ashcraft, September 23, 2013 supplement, “Prayer letter sept 2013 supplement 2.docx.txt.”

[14] Tommy and Brenda Ashcraft, July 18, 2016 prayer letter, “Prayer letter July 18 2016 2.docx.txt.”

[15] Tommy and Brenda Ashcraft, Christmas 2012 prayer letter, “December 2012 Christmas Prayer Letter sent with Prayer Request.pdf.txt,” p. 1. Party details were prospective when written.

[16] Tommy and Brenda Ashcraft, December 16, 2013 prayer letter, “December 2013 Prayer Letter.pdf.txt,” p. 1.

[17] Tommy and Brenda Ashcraft, May 15, 2017 prayer letter, “Prayer Letter May 8 2017 PDF.pdf.txt,” p. 1; date taken from printed letter.

[18] Tommy and Brenda Ashcraft, June 30, 2017 prayer letter, “Prayer Letter June 30 2017 PDF 2.pdf.txt,” p. 1.

[19] Tommy Ashcraft, April 6, 2018 prayer letter, “Prayer letter April 6 2018 word 2.docx.txt.”

[20] “Brenda Ashcraft Biographical Sketch.pub,” undated Spanish-language family biographical sketch, supplied by Jonathan Ashcraft. Contains birth, family, conversion, education, marriage, and early missionary-life details. Date of preparation not established.

About the sources

The letters were supplied as text conversions in the family's private Archive(1).zip collection. This biography is primarily based on her husband's accounts, with one explicitly identified report by Henry González. It does not presume to describe every part of her life. The undated biographical sketch supplies additional early-life details, including her exact birth date. Prospective plans and reported evangelistic results are distinguished from directly dated events. The original correspondence has not been uploaded to the public wiki by this article.