Funeral Services for Betty Louise Lohrenz, 88, of Garland Texas formally of Fairview will be Saturday, May 10, 2014 at the Saron Mennonite Church in Orienta, Oklahoma with burial in the Saron Mennonite Cemetery following the service. Arrangements by Fairview Funeral Home Inc.

Betty Louise Lohrenz of Findlay, Ohio, passed into the Lord's presence on May 6, 2014.  Betty was born on January 25, 1926 to Truman Richard and Doris (Crawford) Dunham, the eldest of three children.  Betty's life centered around her family and her service to the Lord, particularly in Nigeria, West Africa, where she served as a missionary for nearly thirty years.

Betty spent the first part of her life in northwestern Ohio. Her father was an itinerant pastor for seven churches around Findlay. She graduated from high school and enrolled in Grace Bible Institute in Omaha, Nebraska, where she met Norman. Norman and Betty were married on July 31, 1949 and two years later responded to the call to foreign missions in Nigeria. Their missionary career was focused in southwestern Nigeria, West Africa. In their first term they were stationed at Igbaja Bible College and doing mission work in the village of Oke-Ode. It was there they learned the Yoruba culture and language. After their first term in Nigeria, they returned for Norman to finish his training at Grace Theological Seminary (Indiana). In 1958 they returned to Nigeria and remained there until 1979, serving at Igbaja Seminary.

Betty served in many capacities at the seminary. While being the secretary to the principal, she was also the seminary's registrar and accountant. Outside of the seminary ministry, she loved to serve the mission community as a hostess with a cheerful heart and an open house. She continued to work for SIM as secretary to the regional director well into her 70s. Betty always had the heart of a servant, ready to help in any capacity. She was always active in children's ministries from high school onward. In retirement she visited shut-ins, gave rides to church, delivered Christmas baskets.

Norman and Betty returned to the US due to the health of Betty's mother, but their involvement in missions continued through visiting donors, hosting prayer meetings, and church mission activities.

Their missionary heart continues in all their children and grandchildren. The Lohrenzes were blessed with five children. Sharon (born 1951) and her husband, Richard Cook, are Southern Baptist missionaries in Guatemala. John (1952) and his wife, Jan, are serving with Camino Global in Spain. Beth (1955) and her husband, Scott Cunningham serve with SIM through Overseas Council. Barbara (1960) is a nurse in Dallas and provides a home in the US for her missionary siblings. The Lohrenzes fifth child, James (1957), died in Nigeria at the age of 16 months. Besides these four children, Betty is survived by her nine grandchildren, Andrew, Timothy, and Ben Lohrenz; Scott Jr, Marc, and Micah Cunningham; Toni Falkner, Jennifer Diaz, and Rebecca Cook. She has four great-grandchildren, James, Audrey, Joelle, and Sophia.

Betty was preceded in death by her husband Norman, infant son James, and her two brothers John and James Dunham.