Edna Sandblom West
Edna West was a member of Temple who
went into full time Christian Service. She was the daughter of A.G.
Sandblom.
"I was born April 6, 1904, to Swedish
parents--Anders Gustaf and Elin Sandblom--in Soudan, Minnesota, where my father
had been a pastor and was then in the Wiberg Memorial Bible Wagon Ministry for
outlying areas. When I was six months old, he was transferred to Baptist
work in Utah. Fourteen months later, my mother and newborn baby brother
died--Christmas, 1905. In May, my father took me to his sister's in
Portland, Oregon. He was then called to be the state missionary under the
Oregon Baptist General Conference.
On December 17, 1907, Father married Anna Jacobson, and ideal
helpmeet for him and a wonderful mother to me. It was a happy day when we
moved into our new home on a five-acre farm in the small town of Tigard, Oregon.
At six I started grade school and piano lessons. My
mother had saved enough to buy a fine piano, and encouraged me through nine
years of lessons. Thanks to her, music became a lifetime interest and
vital part of my Christian life and career
Attending Lincoln High School in Portland, traveling the ten
miles by electric train, I received a quality education in preparation for
college.
At Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon, my first year's
tuition was covered by a scholarship, and tuition for the next three years by
teaching Latin in the Academy. My parents' sacrificial help and my
earnings from from various jobs took care of the other expenses. Sometimes
it was "nip and tuck." Being the salutatorian for the
Class of '25 was the final hurdle!
When my parents, after thirty-four years in Tigard, moved to
retire in Los Angeles, I took a two-year leave of absence to go with them.
Teaching at Culter Christian Academy and attending the Eleventh Street Baptist
Church meant much then, and was to be even more meaningful in years to come.
On my train trip from Portland to the 1933 Chicago World's
Fair, I took a circle route to visit relatives in California, Chicago, Detroit,
and northern Minnesota--meeting almost 100 in four weeks, most of them for the
first time. This included my little maternal grandmother, 93, from
Sweden! What a legacy of fine "high quality" relatives!
In the fall of 1945, I returned to Sumner for six more years,
until marriage on August 21, 1951, in the Eleventh Street Baptist Church, to
Harry West from Portland, a sterling man of God, and esteemed longtime
Gideon, In this relationship I gained a big family of seven grown children
and twenty-eight grandchildren (with ten more later). Now there are ninety
great-grandchildren and an ever growing number of great-greats!
Harry and I moved that fall to Boise, Idaho, to operate a
Christian bookstore for five years, and I also taught for three of those
years. We had fine Gideon and church fellowship, and in the store a sense
of mission.
Because of my parents' failing health, we moved to Los
Angeles, arriving just before their "home-going" sixteen days
apart. It was a blessed relief for Mother, 81, who lived thirty years
beyond being diagnosed with terminal cancer.
The next seven years I taught in Arcadia, Downey, and again
at Culter Academy. When I retired in 1963, after thirty-seven years
of teaching, we found a nice colonial apartment near the Eleventh Street Church,
where Harry served as a deacon, and I as organist. We also had fellowship
with the Gideons, Gospel Recordings, and Chinese for Christ. When the
church site was sold, we joined the historic Church of the Open Door.
Harry died March 14, 1973, at age 87. For him it was
eternal gain, for me. it was inexpressible loss; but the Lord's comfort was very
real, and has continued through the years.
My next seven years, as organist at First Covenant Church,
were a time of comfort and blessing.
In October, 1980, I moved into the Wycliffe Gardens
retirement center in Huntington Beach, Orange County, an ideal place for my
closing years. Those who attend the Christian Fellowship enjoy an
excellent Bible teacher and guest musicians. I'm still pianist and secretary.
Friends in that group and in my church, the Warner Avenue
Baptist, have been very helpful and caring. Looking back at sunset, I
thank the Lord for the "pleasant places" and the "goodly
heritage." My times are in God's hands, and I am sure the best is yet
to be --'Beyond the Sunset.'"
The above autobiography of Edna West is taken from her book, Looking Back at Sunset.
Edna Sandblom was baptized at Temple Baptist Church on January 20, 1918. She was received as a member by the congregation on the same day. Edna became member # 271. She transferred her membership on December 3, 1929 and moved to Puyallup, Washington. These facts of Edna Sandblom according to church records.
A poem from pg. 31 of her book "Looking Back at
Sunset", written about the parents of Bert
Johnson.
Faithful Through the Years
A tribute to John and Nanny
Johnson on their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, 1943.
A quarter of a century
You've walked life's road together,
Through joy and sorrow, gain and loss
In every kind of weather.
You have been faithful to your vows
Throughout these years;
And you have been faithful to your Lord,
Come gladness or come tears!
All through the years unselfishly
With others you have shared;
And when testing times have come to them.
You have always helped and cared.
Your compassion I so well recall--
How you helped us year after year;
In our worst trials you took the time
To bring support and cheer!
Your Heavenly Father never failed
In the time of your own trials;
Never when His help you've sought
Have you met with His denials!
And He has poured His blessings out
Mid sorrows and mid joys,
But the greatest blessing of them all--
Your two fine Christian boys!
You've given God first place in your lives:
In your home is an altar of prayer.
How many are blessed at home and abroad
By each day's intercession there!
Now may God reward your faithfulness
And the love that you have shown
With a greater measure of happiness
Than you have ever known!
(These two, who always seemed like family, were married in 1919 in my parental home when Nanny had just come from Sweden. They lived to see their fine sons married to lovely Christian wives, with dear grandchildren, who brightened their later years. Nanny died in 1966 and John in 1971.)
The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: The Lord make his
face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The Lord lift up his
countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.
Numbers 6:24-26
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