by Dan Partridge
This year (2024) PLU graduates Todd and Tyger Penson mark milestones in their lifetime of service to the Lord.
Todd has been an ordained minister for 60 years, Tyger for 40 years. At the time Tyger was ordained in 1984, only 2½ percent of the ministers in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America were women. Todd has served in 22 ministries, Tyger has served in 14, including several new missions starts.
In their 64 years of marriage Todd and Tyger have managed to serve in separate churches in the same location in six states, Canada and Liberia, Africa. Together they’ve shared varied experiences in and out of the ministry. For instance, Todd served 25 village churches in Kolila Parish, Liberia in 1987-89, taught Ethics at the Phoebe School of Nursing, and was a part-time professor at the Gbarnga School of Theology in Liberia. Tyger served as Pastor for four parishes, was a professor at Gbarnga School of Theology, and was superintendent of the K-12 Lutheran School at the Phoebe Compound in Suakoko, Liberia.
They escaped the turmoil of the First Liberian Civil War by catching a flight on the second to last airplane out of the country in 1990. “They were shooting around us and finally we couldn’t stay any longer and left most of our stuff behind,” Tyger said. For 16 years after they left Liberia, they donated thousands of dollars to help pay for the education of 200 children who lost parents to the fighting in the civil war.
Both raised in Christian homes, Todd and Tyger met at Pacific Lutheran University in Parkland, Wash. He was majoring in physics; she was pursuing a teaching degree. She jokes that she left PLU with a “MRS” degree when they married in 1960 and didn’t complete her teaching degree from PLU until 1971.
Todd says the golf course at PLU was the venue where he received his call. “I’d go out there walking in the middle of the night hoping to get a word from God on if I should become a pastor,” he said. God answered in the affirmative. Tyger’s calling didn’t come for years later when on a car trip to a synod assembly in Spokane, WA. Todd suggested she consider going to seminary.
Todd received his training at the Augustana Seminary in Rock Island, IL. Tyger received her training first from the Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary in Fresno, Calif., and finished her training at the Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkley, CA. Her first assignment was as the pastor of a church in Ault, CO., 13 miles from where Todd was serving as a pastor at a church in Greeley, Colorado.
Family and children have always been a big focus of Todd and Tyger’s life together. They raised four children: Dave, Kathy, Julie, and Doug. They have seven grandchildren and four great grandchildren. Their son Dave and his wife Marcia had twin girls in October 2009 and Todd and Tyger became “day parents” for the girls for five years.
Todd and Tyger also reached out to help children in need. In Rock Island while Todd was at seminary, they were house parents for emotionally disturbed and juvenile delinquents at Bethany Home. They had ten boys, ages 6 to 16, for six days a week, 24 hours a day.
In Alberta, Todd and Tyger did foster care for hard-to-place children. In New Westminster, B.C., they opened their home to runaway youth which resulted in their eventurally opening a group home for wayward teenage girls. “They came to our house instead of going to prison”, Tyger recalled.
From seminary, Todd’s first assignments from 1964-68 were in Canada, in Wainwright, Czar and Hughenden, Alberta. This was followed by numerous calls in both Canada and the United States.
As a “mission developer” for the Lutheran Church, Tyger started new churches in Oregon, Arkansas, Georgia, and Arizona. Two of those were a joint effort with Todd.
In 1991 Wilsonville, OR, south of Portland, Tyger went door to door in neighborhoods asking people about their interest in having a church in their town. She became the pastor of the new Community of Hope Lutheran church which met in the Frog Pond Grange Hall until they outgrew it and moved into a school. One highlight was having Christmas Eve services in the barn on Todd and Tyger’s land. By the end of Tyger’s 7-year tenure as pastor this congregation had grown to more than 300. Tyger also started the Community of Joy Church in Hot Springs Village, Ark., by going door to door. “Evangelism is in our hearts”, Tyger said.
Since “officially retiring” in 2002, Tood and Tyger have published two books. His is “Saving Jesus from Identity Theft” and hers, “Route 66 Reflections: A Journey through the Bible.”
They remain active in the ministry. At Faith Lutheran Church in Shelton, WA, they are co-leaders of Adult Studies, such as the “Searching for the Historical Jesus” study. Their son Doug Peterson is lead pastor at Faith Lutheran and his wife Brenda Satrum is Formation pastor at the church.
“God has a plan for all of us,” Tyger said of how she and Todd have accomplished so much in their lives. “If God wants you to do something God will get you through it.” Todd added his assurance: “You and God will work it out.”