Today's
E-Votion Special
Edition
Honoring a Faithful Man of God
Happy and Blessed 80th Birthday Harry
Oldenburger Harry has been
a friend and encourager of PraiseNation Group for several years. We love
him and are thrilled to be in position to honor this humble servant of Jesus
Christ. Please take time to enjoy the brief summary of his life and times. HARRY
OLDENBURGER Spiritual biography
Born 1926 into a Christian home
in Manhattan, Montana. Elementary years
were spent attending a Christian
Reformed Denomination school. He accepted the Lord by himself at the age
of ten. At age thirteen, he responded
to an altar call at a church in Bozeman, Montana
where he dedicated his life
to the Lord for full-time Christian service. He
was leader of his church youth group in high school years. Entering the
Army in l947 as a naive Montana boy, he learned about the world and its evil
ways in Basic Training. Sent to Japan,
he became chaplain’s assistant to a dedicated Army captain. While there he
received a call on his life to be a missionary to Japan. He attended
Seattle Pacific College in Seattle, Washington where he studied the Japanese
language all four years. While
attending college he taught Sunday School in the Seattle area Japanese
churches. After receiving his bachelor’s degree, he enrolled in a post
graduate course at Multnomah School of the Bible in Portland, Oregon. He
was married in l954 to Elizabeth, a graduate of that school, also called to
missions. They were accepted by Far Eastern Gospel Crusade in l955 as
missionaries to Japan. 
Harry
and Elizabeth Oldenburger
Harry did
not pass the strict medical exam, so he served as office manager in the mission
headquarters in Minneapolis for some years. He was actively involved with
many missionaries and missions agencies while serving there. They
adopted daughter Joy and son Tad from Korea in l959 and 1960. The family
moved to the West Coast where he earned a Masters Degree in Language
Arts at Central Washington State College. He then taught Language Arts in
two Seattle area high schools. He had the exceptional opportunity to teach the
Bible as Literature in these schools. In
1977 Harry and Elizabeth pioneered a church. This came to be known as Praise
The Lord Fellowship. Retiring from teaching he pastored the church for
fourteen years. The church grew from a dozen to five hundred in a rural
community of Buckley, Washington. He
“retired” and moved to Vancouver, Washington in l998 where they are part of
an on-the-move interdenominational church, actively involved with missions. He
also ministers in retirement homes and senior retreats. He
is president of a Christian veterans group comprised now of mostly retired
pastors and missionaries. Their son Tad
is a missionary to Thailand sent out from that church. Harry’s present
ministry is to pastors, missionaries and lay people all over the world on the
internet, encouraging, comforting and exhorting them with scripture and prayer. The
verses Harry and Elizabeth endeavor to live by are Hebrews 12:24, “…Be holy;
without holiness no one will see the Lord,” and I Peter 1:15, “Be holy
because I am holy.” Happy
Birthday Harry and may the Lord richly bless you
as you continue your
work for Him!
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