Covenant News

Services Held for Myron Hegge

TACOMA, WA (November 21, 2003) - Funeral services were held on Tuesday at First Covenant Church in Tacoma for longtime visitation pastor Myron Hegge, who died at the Tacoma Lutheran Home on November 12. He was 83.

He served with First Covenant Church after retiring from many years as a missionary to Japan with the Evangelical Alliance Mission.

Born in rural North Dakota on January 31, 1920, Hegge came to faith after his high school years as a soldier at the Christian Serviceman's Center in Tacoma on October 14, 1941. Later that day, the 21-year-old met his future wife, Irene Bergman, a member of First Covenant Church in Tacoma. Hegge served with the U.S. Army in Australia and New Guinea during WWII. Following the war, he and Irene were married on August 16, 1946.

The Hegges attended Prairie Bible College in Three Hills, Alberta, shortly after their wedding. They studied for three years there and decided they wanted to become missionaries to Japan. They served together in western Japan with The Evangelical Alliance Mission from 1950 to 1984. And after returning to the United States, the Hegges moved to Tacoma and became members of First Covenant.

"They were together doing everything - they did visitation together, they were on the mission committee together," said Byron Amundsen of Covenant World Mission, who served with Hegge at Tacoma for more than six years. "They were always very hospitable people. They were a team."

Hegge is survived by his wife, Irene; son, Deane Hegge of Pasadena, California; daughter, Gloria Hegge and son-in-law Jonathan Beachy of Wichita, Kansas; daughter, Grace Ahrens of Lancaster, California; and six grandchildren and numerous nieces and nephews.

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