|
Home
Memorial Service Friday for Ann E. Berg
TURLOCK, CA (May 20, 2003) - A memorial service will be conducted at 1 p.m.
Friday at Covenant Village's Berg Fellowship Hall for longtime Covenant
missionary Ann E. Berg who died May 14 in Turlock.
Berg served 36 years as a missionary in Congo (then Zaire) before retiring
in 1980. The 89-year-old Berg served primarily at the Karawa mission
station, running the church bookstore, coordinating literacy work and
ministering to women in the area. Missionary colleague Eileen Thorpe said
Berg also encouraged Africans to write materials to encourage others to
follow Christ.
"She was a good friend to many people, especially the Africans," Thorpe
said. "She did a lot of work in the villages. She never did anything slowly
- she walked with a purpose everywhere she went. And she did very special
things for the kids, a lot of things that were not part of her job
description."
Born January 5, 1914 in Salt Lake City, Utah, Berg was a member of the
First Covenant Church in Oakland and attended the Bible Institute of Los
Angeles and North Park Junior College in Chicago before beginning language
training in 1944. She moved to Africa in January 1945 and arrived in Karawa
a month later. Following retirement, she resided in
Northern California before living in Turlock at Covenant Village.
In a reflection for a 50th anniversary booklet documenting the history of
the Covenant Church of Congo (CEUM), Berg wrote about her call to ministry
and life in Africa. "As a child, God spoke to me about being a missionary,"
Berg recalled. "While still in high school, I committed my life to the Lord
for missionary service . . . I thank the Heavenly Father for all those
wonderful 35 years in Congo-Zaire. I thank him for my many Zairian
friends, some of whom I still keep in touch with by letter. I thank Him for
seeing boys and girls grow up to enter the Lord's work as pastors, teachers
and nurses. And I thank Him for the privilege of seeing a growing, serving
church."
Berg is survived by a sister, Ethel, of Oakland. The family suggests
memorial gifts be directed either to Covenant World Mission, 5101 N.
Francisco Ave., Chicago, IL, 60625, or to Hospice of Emanuel, P.O. Box
2120, Turlock, CA, 95381.
Copyright © 2008 The Evangelical Covenant Church. |
|
|
|
