Eulogy

Loren was born on Tuesday, February the ninth, at 3:00 in the morning to Russell Jay Mandigo and Elaine Lucile Bohlman Mandigo in a hospital in Eugene Oregon USA. He was the second of three children with an older sister Cherie and younger sister Trisha. His family moved several times until they finally settled on the family farm in Newport Washington USA where he spent the rest of his growing up years. As a child he developed a deep love for the great out of doors which he carried with him the rest of his life.  At a young age he began working with his father in his father’s concrete business which gave him a high work ethic and invaluable knowledge that he used much in the years that followed.

Loren was schooled at home by his mother for one year and then attended the local church school until the ninth grade.  He then moved on to Upper Columbia Academy and graduated in June of 1984. After this he took three years of Collage at Weimar that were interrupted by lack of funds which he worked to earn himself.

In 1994 He married his childhood friend Lisa Newman and in the eight years that followed brought four beautiful children, Victoria, Moriah, Jessica, and Jonathan, into the world. He loved his family and they each looked up to him as their Priest, guide, and friend leading them, as a father should, in the Narrow way. His fatherly heart was open to all that needed his love and he had a broad family of people that viewed him as father. 

He worked for over thirty years in the construction business specializing in framing and interior trim.  But he was skilled in many things from electrical wiring, pluming, gardening, and anything that he set his mind to. He often told his children that there was nothing that they could not do if they had an interest and studied it out themselves. He lived this advice and educated himself on many subjects.  He was not only a skilled workman but was an amazing Bible student and a speaker that blessed many lives.  He severed as an elder in the Seventh-day Adventist for nearly thirty years.  He loved His Maker with all his heart and sharing this love with others was the joy of his life.

He had a heart for missions and lived his life in constant labor for those who had not yet heard the blessed hope.  He went on several mission trips to Mexico, Brazil, Japan, Guyana, Tanzania and finally Kenya where he spent his last days on this earth. After He was married he brought his family on every possible mission trip and as a resalt instilled in them a love for missions like he possessed. Their family called themselves “God’s Missionary Band,” and endeavored to truly be all that that name implied. He came to Kenya with the vision of raising up a Bible Collage to train the local people to be missionaries to their own people.  He had studied the subject of true education in Ellen White’s writings, the Bible and from our educational reformer E.A. Sutherland.  It had been his dream for many years to start a school that followed the pattern given in these works but was not given an opportunity until he came to Kenya where he undertook to do this work. Before he fell sick and died he was only able to build two buildings and draw plans for four more. He never got the privilege of teaching any students or of seeing the school up and running.  But in the spirit of his life his remaining family has given their lives to finishing what he was never able to do. They have chosen to bury him here in Lolgorian, Narok County Kenya as this was where his work was.  He died on the battle front fighting the good fight of faith and no greater honor could come to him than to have others choose to do the same.