Visitation and viewing will be observed on Friday afternoon and evening at the Neil-Schwensen-Rook funeral home in Clay Center. A separate memorial service will be conducted at 2 p.m. on October 29 at Covenant Village of Colorado.
Anderson served in Congo for 30 years and served several Covenant churches as a lay leader and pastor.
Anderson was born February 9, 1920, in Clay Center. He graduated from Kansas City Business College and Kansas City Bible College. During this time, he taught Sunday school at First Covenant Church in Kansas City, Kansas, where future Covenant preacher and pastor Glen Wiberg was a member of his class.
Anderson graduated from North Park Junior College and North Park Theological Seminary in the early 1940s. He was ordained in 1945. He later graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kansas, while home from his first missionary assignment in Congo.
He married Alene Collini on September 14, 1945. They moved to Congo in 1946. For four years he was the only Protestant missionary in the river town of Businga.
Most of the villages along the Bosobolo-Bokada road had never seen a Protestant missionary, so women and children fled at first when the Andersons and another couple arrived. Eventually, as many as 100 of them confessed faith in Christ.
His service in Congo included teaching at a teacher training school and teaching at two newly established high schools. Anderson also served as the legal representative from the church to the government. In 1973, the government presented him with the Medal of Civil Merit.
When the couple returned to the United States in 1975, Anderson became pastor of Clay Center Covenant Church and Alert Covenant Church in Kansas. He retired in 1985.
The couple returned to Congo as short-term missionaries in 1986-1987 and 1990-1991.
Survivors include his wife; two daughters, Lynn Stevens and Sally Anderson; and two sons, Steven Anderson and Gordon Anderson. His brother, Ray Anderson, is a retired Covenant pastor.
Memorials may be made to the Department of World Mission, 5101 N. Francisco Avenue, Chicago, IL, 60625. Please specify “Congo schools.” Memorials also may be sent to Covenant Village of Colorado, Benevolent Care Fund, 9153 Yarrow St., Broomfield, CO, 80021.
