Luella Loewen

Luella Lucille Loewen was born September 14, 1915 to Frank F. and Katharina (Wiebe) Loewen on a farm 4 miles west of Mountain Lake. She had a twin sister Clara. She attended country school and graduated from Mountain Lake High School in 1934. She had one year in German Bible School. She gave her heart to the Lord at the age of 16 and was baptized in Bergfelder Church, now Lakeview Gospel Church. Having felt the call to be a teacher early in life, she went to Mankato Teachers College. Luella started teaching in various country schools until she knew it was time to finish her Bachelor's degree at Wheaton College followed by her Masters at Wheaton. Luella then taught Christian Education at a Bible College in London, Ontario, Canada. She had a happy year of teaching but distinctly felt the call of God to go to China as a missionary. She went under the auspices of Ass. Of Baptists for World Evangelism. She barely arrived in 1948 and was studying Cantonese when the Communists started taking over and she was ousted. The mission sent her to the Philippines where she taught in the Manila Seminary for six years. Besides teaching, she was the first editor of a church magazine that covered all Baptist Churches in the Philippines. Then it was back to the United States - to California as an adult editor of the Gospel Light Press (she also cared for her mother) and on to Dayton, TN as a teacher in Bryan College. When the opportunity came for her to supervise a teacher training program at a Presbyterian Church in Chattanooga, TN she jumped at the chance. That developed a life-long friendship in the Chattanooga area. Luella then became the head of the Christian Education department at a college in Birmingham, Ala. and began working on her doctorate. The degree was interrupted when Luella struck out for Beirut, Lebanon to teach in an American College for women. In her third year of teaching the Six Day War in Israel came in. Before she left Lebanon she was offered a teaching position in the University of Tennesee Chattanooga. She also completed her PhD in Behavioral Science. She remained at the University from 1968 until her retirement in 1989 when she moved to Mountain Lake to be with her two sisters. She loved teaching and the students loved her teaching. It was possible for her to travel extensively. She studied in Israel one summer and visited there repeatedly besides being in Europe, USSR (the home place of her grandparents) and Iran. Her life song was "All the way my Saviour leads me. What have I to ask besides? Can I doubt His tender mercy, Who through life has guide?" She followed the Lord faithfully all her life, teaching Sunday School in all the churches she attended. She is survived by three sisters: Clara Schultz and Sarah Loewen, both of Mountain Lake and Elfrieda (Harold) Fast, of Alexandria, MN and one brother, Al (Carol) Loewen, of Edmonds, WA and many nieces, nephews and friends. She was preceded in death by her parents, three brothers: Abram, Albert and Frank Loewen; and four sisters: Mathilda Loewen, Katie Dye, Edna Dick and Louise Loewen.