According to an e-mail message from Ron Lomax, a Southern Baptist missionary in Pinelands, South Africa, Barrow was playing tennis when he complained he didn't feel well, then collapsed.

"I ran into the office of the club to ask that an ambulance be called," wrote Lomax, who was playing tennis with Barrow and two other missionaries, " ...and then went back to Joe...he was beginning to gasp for breath and didn't look good so Mike (a missionary) and I began CPR until the police arrived within five minutes."

When the men discovered none of the police officers knew CPR, they asked that Barrow be taken to the hospital in a police car. The ambulance arrived before they left, however, and paramedics continued the CPR on the way to the hospital, Lomax wrote.

"By the time we got into (the) hospital, he was gone," he wrote.

Barrow's wife, Faye, serves as North Carolina's partnership coordinator for mission teams going into Cape Town.

"She has opened her heart and the doors of her home with all of our volunteers and has been a real advocate for our team members," noted a prayer request that went out June 22 from the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina. "Because of Faye and Joe, our volunteers have had great mission experiences; and many people have come to know Christ."

Faye Barrow is expected back in the United States June 28.

Besides his wife, Barrow is survived by two daughters, Sheila Parr and Sharon Davis, both of Arlington, Texas; and a son, Jared Barrow of Raleigh.

A memorial service was held June 25 at Cape Town college. Funeral arrangements in North Carolina are being handled by Rouse Funeral Home in LaGrange. Another memorial service will be July 1 at Hull Road Free Will Baptist Church in Snow Hill.