In Service To God

In the late 1960s, when Lois Zigrang and her husband, Walt, first learned of a missionary opportunity with Africa Evangelical Fellowship (AEF) in Angola, Lois thought, "Who me?" She pictured primitive living conditions. "I had never even camped," she recalled.

God's plans for the couple and their young son did include Angola and later Mozambique, where they were forced to leave so their homes could be overtaken. "Who, Me?" is the title of a book by Lois that begins with her childhood in Pitman, N.J., and ends with Walt's and her retirement to Lancaster. Along the way, Lois details how God changed them both through His faithfulness.

Lois met Walt, shortly before he received his degree in citrus at Florida Southern College, where she was studying elementary education. The pair wrote to each other daily during the summer, became engaged in October, and married in December 1958. Lois gave birth to their son the following November, and Walt took his first job as an assistant grove production manager.

"That's when the Lord got a hold of us," recalled Lois. She and Walt were attending a Christian Missionary Alliance Church near their home in Gainesville. "I was like a sponge," said Lois, who had accepted Christ at age 15. "I had been waiting to learn the Word of God." Walt, however, was miserable, not understanding Lois' need to learn. Lois began praying about Walt's relationship with the Lord. One day, the church pastor visited and talked to Walt. While Lois prayed in another room, Walt and the pastor knelt, and Walt accepted Christ. "From that moment on, he was hungry for the word of God," said Lois.

The Zigrangs met missionaries and wondered about God's plan for them. Encouraged to look at Columbia Bible College, Columbia, S.C., the pair took a risk by attending the college while trying to sell their Gainesville home. "We were (at Bible college) two years. Our house didn't sell, but we managed," said Lois. When they finished school and joined AEF, they sold their house for cash, which they needed to begin their mission.

The Zigrangs were sent to Catota, Angola, where they taught Bible classes and Walt worked in agriculture. In 1975, a communist uprising caused the family to flee. "It was getting too dangerous," recalled Lois. When the United States offered refugee air flights, the family returned to Columbia, but back in Angola, the people they had taught were hoping the couple would return. "They kept ... asking us to come back," said Lois. The Zigrangs applied to teach Bible classes and were shocked when they were quickly approved. The family remained in the war zone for 13 years before returning to the U.S. to work with AEF, which eventually became part of SIM, a missionary organization with representatives in a number of countries.

In 1998, when SIM needed a field leader for Mozambique, the Zigrangs were asked to take the position because they knew Portuguese. The pair was there until the early 2000s, when they returned to the States permanently, eventually settling in Lancaster to be near their son and his children.

Lois knew she had to share their story with others. "God kept pushing me to write the book," she said. "The last two years, I knew if I didn't get done it wasn't going to get done."

"Who, Me?" is available at http://www.amazon.com. Lois is interested in sharing her story live. She can be reached at zigscfh@verizon.net.

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