MEMORIES OF DOROTHY OGREN

The Publishing Ministry was started in 1954 – the year I was born. The Herald of Truth was the name of the monthly magazine, and also printed were Sabbath School Lessons for each quarter and a variety of tracts. My earliest memories of the printing ministry is when I was maybe 3 years old. My Dad, Martin (M. L.) Ogren, had rented office space in downtown Caldwell above the stores (it was on 4th St. between Main and Arthur streets). My Mom (Virginia) was the typist, among other things, so when she needed to type the articles or do other work there, she would, of course, take me along. My two sisters (Carole and Linda) were both in school, so most of the time it was just me and my Mom there if it was daytime; but then in the evenings the whole family were there, including Carole and Linda, assembling the pages of the Herald of Truth or the Sabbath School Lessons, etc., getting them ready for mailing.

I remember going to the windows in that upstairs office and looking out over the town (the bus station was on the corner). I also remember taking naps there. My Dad had purchased two wooden tables from the Post Office that they were discarding, and one table had a wooden shelf (or a wide slate) underneath. That shelf is where my Mom would have
me take a nap.

Later, when I was 8 years old, we moved from our home in the country into Caldwell to be close to my Grandma Sheffield who needed care. About that time, my Dad bought a piece of property at the end of the alley from our house that had a one-room house on it. That became the headquarters of the Office, and it was a very convenient location, being just one block down the alley from us. In about 1968 or maybe 1969, my parents sold that property and moved the printing operation to our garage. It was a small onecar garage, so it accommodated the printing press and tools and equipment, and a dark room for developing the negatives for the plates that were used on the printing press, but the typewriter found a home in my parent’s small bedroom, set up in the corner. It was
tight quarters, but convenient for my Mom. She could work on the typing part of the operation in between other chores, etc., that come with housekeeping and mothering. A few years later, a brother in the local church here in Caldwell, a carpenter named Pat Hathaway, helped my Dad put an upstairs addition over top of our garage and he was able to have a desk of his own to work at, the typewriter was moved up there, and there was adequate storage for the tracts, etc., room for assembling the publications, etc.

I think it may have been around 1976 when the Lord impressed upon my Dad that He wanted him to write a correspondence course. So he set out to do that. He wrote a lesson a week until there were 48 lessons total, with a test after each fourth lesson. When the Lord first told my Dad to do this, there was no money for the production of it, nor for advertisement, etc., so my Dad asked the Lord that if He was really leading in this, would He send a sizeable offering in the mail that day to cover the initial costs. God never fails to
persuade us of His will. That very day when my Dad went to the Post Office to get the church mail, there was a check for $200.00, enough to cover the initial costs. The course was called Zion Faith College and I will guess that thousands of people took the course
over the many years, many of them being men who were incarcerated. One time he received a letter from a ministry in Finland wanting to know if they could translate the course into Russian because they had a ministry across the border in Russia. Of course,
permission was given to them.

My Dad took two missionary trips to Nigeria and the Philippines, somewhere between 1978 and 1980. It had been a long-time desire of his to meet and encourage the brethren in those places. So he waited until he was past 63 to begin Social Security. At that time, they would backpay you to age 62, so he took that backpay money to take the first trip overseas. He came home with lots of testimonies to share – and also came home with Malaria. The Dr. didn’t know what he had, but there was a male nurse on duty who had served overseas in the military and he recognized the symptoms immediately. So they began treating him, and through God’s healing power, he recovered and was able to take another trip over there two years later. My Dad passed from this life in May of 1982 of a fast-growing cancer and is awaiting the sound of the Trumpet to wake him from sleep so he can meet the
Lord in the air.

After his passing, the elders of the various churches in the affiliation of the fellowship of the Feast observing churches asked Paul Woods (son-in-law of Martin, and my brother-in-law) if he would step in and continue the printing ministry. My Dad had previously taught Paul how to run the printing press so he was somewhat familiar with the operation. After he and Linda (my sister) prayed about it, they agreed to do that. A few years later, Paul was able to
get an office building for free from a businessman here in town, and he, along with help from church brothers here in the valley, moved the building to the church grounds, where it remains today. All the printing operations were moved from my mother’s house to this new office site, so she was then free to sell her house when it became necessary.

Over the years equipment was added to make the work easier and to increase the volume of printing. Collators, folders, and big paper cutters were added. Bro. David Hingston from the church in Everett, WA worked for the local phone company. He got a used computer from their company and donated it to us – that was our leap of faith in learning to operate a computer. But it proved to be a big help, and over the years we updated the computers in the office once or twice and used them in conjunction with the printing press to make the paper plates, print the yearly calendars, etc. Over the years, the volume of printing increased until we were sending out a mailing list not only here in the U.S., but thousands of Herald of Truths and Sabbath School Lessons overseas, mainly to Nigeria, the Philippines, and to India. Once each year we would send as many Bibles to Nigeria as we
could – 100+, as there was always such a need for them there. Then the brethren said the print was too small for some of the older ones to read, so we began sending reading glasses to them with the Bibles. Sis. Brenda Kellogg worked in a drug store in Republic, WA, and she was able to donate many pairs at the end of each year that the store gave to her. God blesses in many ways, not always with dollars, but in ways that meet the needs.

During Paul’s years as editor of the Herald of Truth and pastor of the local church here in Caldwell, he was able to take two trips to India, with a stop in the Philippines, to visit the Hebron Orphanage in Palakol, India, as well as many local Churches of God in that area of India. He also came back with wonderful testimonies of how the Spirit of the Lord was/is
working in those places.

One project that we took on during those years was to print copies of the Gospel of John in Spanish (I can’t remember if it was 5,000 or 10,000) for Bro. Elmer Bolt to distribute in Mexico on his next missionary trip there. Several in the local church got involved in
getting those put together, and what joy to be printing the pure Word of God to be given out.

In later years, Paul’s older brother Allen, retired and needed something to fill in his spare hours. So he came to the office faithfully for many years and did the collating and stapling for us. What a blessing he was to us.

After Paul’s wife, Linda, passed away, he felt the need for a change so he took a short leave of absence. He returned to the work but was getting to the point where he really wanted to retire. A replacement could not be found at that time, so the printing office was shut down in December 2009. It has remained shut down until now.

God has brought us into a new season and has put a vision in Bro. Bryon Sanchez’s heart to resume the printing ministry, maybe not as it was exactly but for the season of time we are in now. The physical work has changed – printing presses are a thing of the past, as are some of the other equipment we previously used. But as we embrace the new methods, we trust that the Lord will have His blessing on what is done in His Name.