Uncle Henry was my childhood hero and a lifetime hero. He, along with his family and the Regions Beyond Missionary Union, planted churches in Borneo for 25 years. He passed away this week at the age of 96. Here is his obituary, written by his children.

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On August 1, 1929, Henry Thiessen was born, the fifth son of Dietrich & Helena (née Voth) Thiessen, in Grunthal, Manitoba. Later, that same year, the family moved to Yarrow, BC, where they lived in a house on Majuba Hill. When Henry was 2 years old, the family built a house on McCallum Road, and eventually their family grew to include seven sons and two daughters. After Grade 10, Henry worked for his father and older brother, Nick, driving a Caterpillar and moving houses for approximately 2 years. When he was 19 years old, Henry got a job logging in the Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia. On one visit home, he met his sister, Margaret’s Bible School roommate, Edna Toews, who was attending Yarrow Bible School.

May 31, 1952, Henry married Edna Toews in the East Aldergrove Mennonite Brethren (MB) Church. Their first summer as a married couple, they taught Daily Vacation Bible School (DVBS) for kids at Copper Mountain near Princeton, and Henry preached his first sermon. Henry and Edna decided that Bible School would be helpful if Henry were going to try preaching again. Vange was born March 16, 1953, during Henry’s first year as a student at Bethel Bible School on the corner of Gladwin & Huntingdon, in Abbotsford. That summer, Henry earned enough as a logger in Lytton, BC, to allow both Henry & Edna to attend Prairie Bible Institute in Three Hills, Alberta.

In the summer of 1954, Henry & Edna went to work in an orphanage called “Bethany Homes for Children” located east of Wetaskiwin, in Gwynne, Alberta. There they cooked, cleaned, and helped to care for 50 children so that some of the staff could take holidays. One day, a lady came to the orphanage door and asked if she could admit her three young sons to the orphanage. When Henry and Edna phoned the manager, they were informed that the orphanage was at capacity. However, if they would like to accept the three boys into their unit and take care of them as their own, that would be okay. Thus, in September of that year, Henry & Edna returned to Prairie Bible Institute with the three brothers, Donny (5 years), Alvin (4 years), and Walter (3 years), whom they had fostered. The boys started to call them “Mom” and “Dad,” and Henry and Edna began to discuss adopting them.

By the time Dan was born on Oct. 21, 1954, life at the small Motel #10 was buzzing with activity! Caring for five kids under the age of 6 and both Henry and Edna studying full-time was hard work! Henry could study at home with noise, but Edna needed to go to the library. They worked as a team and both passed to the following year. Henry and Edna decided that if they could adopt Walter, Donny, and Alvin, then they would abandon their plans to be missionaries and stay in Canada to raise their family. However, when the foster boys’ mother would not allow Henry and Edna to adopt all three brothers together, they made the difficult decision not to split the boys up. Henry took a friend from school with him on a somber drive to return the three brothers to their biological mother.

On April 12, 1957, Henry and Edna were one of only two couples who both graduated from Prairie Bible Institute that year. In September, they were invited by West Coast Children’s Mission to work in Port Edward, BC, while they waited for their Indonesian visas. On Sundays, Henry travelled in a small boat to minister to the Japanese and the Indigenous communities up the coast in Sunnyside and Inverness, BC.
May 18, 1959, with visas in hand, Henry, Edna, Vange (6 yrs) & Dan (4 yrs) boarded a cargo ship called “Java Mail” at Seattle, WA. It was a sunny day, and a group of family and friends from the East Aldergrove MB Church (now Ross Road Community Church) drove to Seattle to see them off. After approximately 1 month at sea, they arrived in Singapore, where a second ship, named “Langkara” took them on a 1-week voyage to Pontianak, (on the island of Borneo) Indonesia.

During their first year in Borneo, they were stationed in Anik (1959-1960), located in West Borneo, also known as Kalimantan Barat, where their primary focus was to learn the Indonesian language. Edna also taught Vange in grade 1 by correspondence, and Henry spent afternoons in the medical clinic across the red mud road, learning from Clara Lima, a single American missionary Registered Nurse, how to stitch up wounds, deliver babies, and treat the wounds of a crocodile victim. Henry accepted invitations from the locals to go hunting for monkeys and alligators before he had learned and spoken the language.

The following year, the Thiessen Family opened a new area in Sebadu (SumSum) (1960 – 1962), where they were a day’s travel (by vehicle) away from any other foreigners. Edna homeschooled Vange in grades 2 & 3 and Dan in grades 1 & 2. As would be their style in the years to come, Henry and Edna started a small weekly Sunday service in their home. As the group grew, Henry removed walls in their house to accommodate the many Dayak people sitting on the floor mats, crowded together. Eventually, the congregation grew large enough to build its church building. Small home meetings were also initiated in several villages within walking or bicycling distance.

In the summer of 1963, on their way back to Borneo, the family was delayed in Singapore because the doctor suspected Edna was carrying twins, which would complicate the planned home delivery. Fortunately, Henry and Edna’s classmates from PBI, Ben and Muriel Sawatsky, were working in Singapore and invited them to stay in their home during that time. After the family spent 3 months waiting in Singapore, Rebekah was born in a Seventh-day Adventist Hospital in Singapore. Nine days after Rebekah’s birth, the Thiessen family sailed by ship to Pontianak (Borneo). At the Regions Beyond Missionary Union annual conference that year, it was decided that Henry and Edna would open another new area in Menjalin. There were no known Christians or contacts in the area, so Henry had to meet people, find land, and build a family home. Once the family moved into the Menjalin house, Henry spent many hours trekking with locals to villages for meetings, learning about the culture, food, and visiting with Dayaks in their homes. Although Henry always carried medicine to share with the people, his big passion was literature. Some of the young Dayak children attended elementary school up to grade 6, but there was nothing to read. They were eager to buy, borrow, or share Indonesian Bibles, the hymn books called “Kemenangan Iman” and tracts that Henry brought. Many also embraced the gospel and started the process of changing their lives and overcoming animistic fears. Henry also enjoyed sports and scheduled regular volleyball games (in which he participated with enthusiasm) in the front yard of our home – everyone welcome! He enjoyed hanging out with locals and doing things like going to hunt Durian fruit, which was an all-night event. There were many good opportunities to visit and share about life and the Lord.

However, political problems were brewing in Indonesia. The Indonesian government was concerned that the Chinese were planning a Communist takeover, so it had enlisted many of the Dayak natives to plunder, kill, and chase the Chinese out of the rural areas. Many of the Chinese (among them our neighbors) fled to the forest to hide, and it was a perilous, stressful time. Some Dayaks reverted to their old head-hunting traditions, and we heard stories of cannibalism. One day, in an attempt to keep his family safe, Henry put Edna and the three children on a truck to drive to a safer area. He had just given the Chinese truck driver (our storekeeper friend from town) gas for his vehicle full of fleeing Chinese people. Edna and her children were separated from Henry for several scary nights with no communication. All Edna wanted to do was get back home. After being stopped by raiders on the first attempt, Edna successfully returned home to Henry. On December 24, 1964, Christmas Eve, after opening presents, the Thiessen family evacuated to the capital city of Pontianak. The hope was to return to Menjalin as soon as possible, but instead, the Regions Beyond Missionary Union mission recommended that all missionaries leave the country. On December 28, 1964, the entire Thiessen family made an unscheduled trip to Canada, as it was considered politically unsafe for foreigners to remain in Indonesia.

Henry and his family moved in with his widowed mom, Helena Thiessen, on Pine Street in Clearbrook, British Columbia, Canada. Four months later, on April 29, 1965, Henry returned to Indonesia alone in response to a request from missionaries in Borneo for his help. Edna remained in Clearbrook to give Vange and Dan a chance to finish their already interrupted school year. The plan was for Edna to follow to Indonesia, as soon as the children finished school. However, during Henry’s absence, Edna had gall bladder surgery, and Henry’s mother passed away. Henry’s letters from Borneo reflected that the political situation was still precarious. It was decided that Vange & Dan would be safer in Canada while Edna returned with 2-year-old Rebekah to Indonesia to be with Henry. A year later, in the summer of 1966, Henry, Edna & Rebekah returned to Canada to seek help for Edna’s health problems. After a year in Canada, the whole family returned to Menjalin, Indonesia. Henry & Edna (and Rebekah) spent the next 4-year term in Menjalin (summer 67 – summer 1971) working in the local churches. During this term (summer 1969), Vange travelled to Canada to attend the Mennonite Educational Institute (MEI) (for Grades 11 and 12) and live with Uncle George and Auntie Margaret Bergen. Dan followed the next summer (1970), joining Vange at the Bergen residence. Henry & Edna arrived in Canada for furlough, just in time to attend Vange’s MEI High School graduation (1971).

After a one-year furlough, Henry, Edna & Rebekah returned to Borneo for their fifth term (March 1972 – May 1976) and were allocated to the city of Pontianak. Vange was in Briercrest Bible Institute in Saskatchewan, and Dan was working for Uncle Art in McBride, British Columbia. In Pontianak, Henry and Edna operated an Intermission Guest House, complete with meals, post office services, and more. This large rented facility also had a back wing of bedrooms, which Henry and Edna used as a Christian Girls’ Dorm to provide a safe home for Dayak village girls who came to study in Pontianak. Henry was also asked to supervise the Dayak Boys Dorm, located a few blocks away from the PPIK Pontianak Church. During this term, Henry worked to open a Christian Book Store, named “Hikmat” (Wisdom) in the city of Pontianak, and employed Mahidin and other Dayak staff to operate it. When Elmer & Ruth Warkentin were on furlough and Goodrun Lima (their intended backup) became sick, Henry and Edna moved to Ansang station to oversee the Berea Bible Institute and taught some Bible classes there for one year.
Henry and Edna spent their sixth term (April 19, 1977 – April 21, 1981) in the city of Pontianak and their 7th Term (April 19, 1982 – July 23, 1983) back in Menjalin. Their last term was cut short due to Edna’s health. During the 23 years they worked with the Dayak people in West Borneo, Henry and Edna established many churches that are still operating today, led by Indonesian pastors.

In 1983, upon their return to Canada, Rev. Nick Dyck approached Henry & Edna about church planting in Pemberton, BC. Two weeks after they arrived in Pemberton, the town was flooded, and students from the East Aldergrove MB Church and Columbia Bible College (CBC) came to help the Pemberton residents with food and cleanup. This created many opportunities for Henry and Edna to get to know and minister to the people of Pemberton. Henry sometimes challenged the people’s stereotype of a minister by responding to a widow’s need for help in rounding up her horses that had gotten out, and participating in many other practical ways. Henry & Edna served 7 years (1983 – 1990) as the first resident pastor in Pemberton.
In 1990, Henry and Edna responded to an invitation as guest speakers at Gardom Lake Bible Camp. Edna spoke at a ladies’ retreat in Armstrong, and after several invitations, they began to pray about a ministry in Armstrong, BC. They lived and worked in Armstrong, BC, for 2 years. During this time, their son Dan was telling them about a great need in Sayward, on Vancouver Island.

Henry loved to be involved in the pioneer work of opening up new areas, so in 1993, when the invitation came, Henry and Edna moved into an old run-down house in Sayward, on Vancouver Island, to work with a group of believers there. During their 2 years in Sayward, Edna struggled with a severe allergy to the Poplar fluff in the area. When her allergies became life-threatening, the doctor recommended they move, so they decided to retire in Abbotsford, BC. In part as a result of Henry and Edna’s work, both the Pemberton and Sayward groups of believers became MB Churches.

During their time in Abbotsford, Henry enjoyed helping with grandkids. He also participated in several CPE trips to Lima, Peru, Manila, Philippines, and to the Congo, where he contracted Dengue fever and almost did not make it home. In 1998, Henry came out of retirement and accepted a position as pastor in Midway, BC, where they ministered for 3 years.

When Henry and Edna retired for the second time, he continued to speak in churches when asked and enjoyed spending summers speaking at different Bible camps: Gardom Bible Camp, Pines Bible Camp and Canadian Sunday School Mission, Lillooet, BC. Henry and Edna also had the opportunity to return to Borneo in 2003 and celebrated the 50th anniversary of the PPIK church. They had the chance to visit many of their old friends, evangelists, and pastors. They also visited some of the different churches and groups of believers that were still meeting weekly to worship God. In the summer of 2007, Henry traveled with his son, Dan, to visit his nephew Rick & Deanna Bergen, who were working as missionaries in Brazil. In
July 2010, Henry and Edna moved into a suite on Pete and Rebekah’s Bradner Rd. (Abbotsford) farm where they lived for 12 years. Henry enjoyed picking up grandkids, Sarah and Amisa, from MEI after school, and taking them to music lessons, etc. His favorite activity was taking the kids or anyone else who came to Tim Hortons for coffee and ice cream. He liked one-on-one visits and would often ask, “How are you really doing?” Henry and Edna walked for exercise each day (in the mall during the winter months), watched hockey together, and played Scrabble often. Henry loved the outdoors and physical labor, such as chopping firewood, gardening, and hunting. As he aged, he continued with other activities, such as reading, doing puzzles, or sitting on the patio with his mom and singing hymns from memory in German, Indonesian, and English. Dad was a gracious and cheerful helper. Forever positive, he expressed his wish to outlive mom, so that he could be her caregiver until the very end. February 9, 2022, Edna passed away quietly in her sleep. Although she was gone, Henry held her hand, told her what a good wife she had been, and then prayed.

July 11, 2022, Henry moved into The Oxford in Abbotsford, BC. He would tell us that this facility was far too nice for him, and it took a few weeks for him to adjust and find other Scrabble players and puzzlers, etc. At 93 years old, Henry remained positive and happy to go out for coffee and ice cream with anyone who would take him! October 14, 2023, Dad moved to The Valhaven Home. The family continued to take him out for coffee, and then came the inevitable request, “Can we just drive around a bit – maybe the airport, or maybe Mission?” Henry passed away on August 16, 2025. He left behind his children: Vange (Eric) Thiessen, Dan (Sandy) Thiessen, and Rebekah (Peter) Vandervelden and grandchildren: CJ (Stephanie) Thiessen, Jessica Thiessen, Perry (Brittanie) Thiessen, Rachel (Chuck predeceased) Keim, Amanda (Paul) Chaffee, Avi (Wendy) Thiessen, Sarah (Jordan) Regier, Amisa Vandervelden, and Kaden Vandervelden and great grandchildren: Silas Thiessen, Ari Thiessen, Callum Thiessen, Chloe Thiessen, Hannah Keim, Aden Keim, Levi Keim, Elli Keim, Safiya Chaffee, Emmett Thiessen and Nolan Thiessen.
We will miss you, Henry!