Covenant News

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.

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