Jantzen, Lubin W. (1916-2007)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 2007 Mar 5 p. 3

Birth date: 1916 May 25

text of obituary:

Call to India guided mission worker's life

Preaching, teaching were highlights of Jantzen's service

By Angela Rempel

Mennonite Mission Network

NEWTON, Kan. — When he was 19, Lubin W. Jantzen heard a call from God that guided him throughout his life: "Lubin, I want you in India."

Many missionaries visited in Jantzen's childhood home and the congregation where his father was pastor. When Ezra and Elizabeth Steiner, Mennonite missionaries from India, spoke at a midweek service, he felt the call of God.

At home he knelt and "solemnly promised the Lord in prayer that I would answer his call and serve him in India," he wrote.

He fulfilled that promise as a longtime mission worker in India who later served as a mission administrator and pastor.

Jantzen died Feb. 25 at Schowalter Villa in Hesston. He was 90.

"Lubin Jantzen was a longstanding and faithful member of the extended Mennonite missionary team in India," said John Lapp, Mennonite Mission Network director for international ministries.

Jantzen was born May 25, 1916, to Frank f. and Anna Wiebe Jantzen near Paso Robles, Calif.

He completed a bachelor's degree in theology at the Bible Institute of Los Angeles and studied two more years at the University of California at Los Angeles. He was the first in his area to register as a conscientious objector and was given a ministerial deferment. In 1942 he was called to tech at Oklahoma Bible Academy in Meno. The following year he was made superintendent.

On Aug. 6, 1943, he married Matilda (Tillie) Mueller, whom he had met during his student days in Los Angeles.

In 1947, with two young children, they boarded a ship bound for India to serve with the Baord of Missions of the General Conference Mennonite Church.