ZACHARIAS, Victor Abram - For me to live is Christ and to die is gain

Reverend Victor Abram Zacharias, resident of Grande Prairie since 1984, passed away at Queen Elizabeth II Hospital on Monday, July 5, 2010 at 84 years of age.

Dad was born June 4, 1926, in Herbert, SK, to Abram and Helen Zacharias; he and his siblings grew up on the family farm. As a teenager he gave his life to Christ.

In his early twenties, Dad attended Prairie Bible Institute in Three Hills, AB. In 1951 Dad worked at a Bible Camp where he met Marilouise Dowdy.

That fall Dad went to Atlanta, Georgia, to teach at Carver Bible Institute, a college for training African-American pastors. On Christmas Eve, 1952, Victor married Marilouise in Selah, Washington. He pastored churches in South Dakota, where their sons Bryan, Mark and Scott were born. The family then moved to La Grande, Oregon, to serve the First Baptist Church, where their long awaited daughter Miriam was born!

In 1965 the Zacharias family moved to Portland, Oregon, where Dad pastored the First Baptist Church of St. John’s. In 1975, Dad and Mom moved to Anchorage, Alaska; and in 1984 they moved here to Grande Prairie, to serve his last, full-time pastorate at Grande Prairie Alliance Church.

After his retirement Dad really didn’t retire: he continued preaching at various churches around the Peace Country, served as chaplain at Peace River Bible Institute, and encouraged folks of all types, inside the church or out! Mother, and we their children, rise up and call Dad blessed!

Victor Zacharias, our incredible father, will be missed (until we meet again in heaven) by Marilouise, his wife and our mother; their children Bryan (Judy), and their children Brandon, Rachel, Austin and Yaysha; Mark(Pat) , and Pat’s sons Lee and Chriss; Scott (Ramona), and their children Hannah (Fred), Daniel (Alician) and Charity (Quinn); Miriam (Michael) LeRoux and their children Timothy and Harmony; and numerous great grandchildren; Dad’s surviving sister Helen Heinrichs; numerous relatives on both the Zacharias and Dowdy sides of the family, along with innumerable friends and “brothers and sisters” here and around the world. “The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

The funeral service will be held at Grande Prairie Alliance Church at 10:00 a. m., Saturday, July 10, 2010.

Memorial donations may be made to the ministry of your choice.