By Janet Somers, Peninsula Daily News
PORT ANGELES – For exactly 40 years this month, Omer Vigoren has been the pastor at Bethany Pentecostal Church.
At a ceremony Saturday afternoon to honor Vigoren’s years of service to the church, a handful of people stood up when he asked the congregation, “How many of you have been here for 40 years?”
The ceremony, attended by about 150 people, was a quirky blend of spirituality and humor.
A group of grandchildren – he has 15 grandchildren and two great grandchildren – sang, danced and acted out a take-off one of them, Britney Maloney, had written on the theme song from the TV show “The Beverly Hillbillies.”
The kids onstage all held their nose at a line about cow manure on the family’s annual camping trips to Minnesota.
And Vigoren’s brother Lowell – Vigoren grew up the eldest of seven boys and two girls – recalled thinking he saw his brother’s name the first time he saw a map. He pronounced it, “Omerha, Nebraska.”
The ceremony also was punctuated by frequent “Amen’s.”
And Vigoren, a fit and dapper 72, told the congregation, “God’s church is made of believers, no matter what the tag or the label on the door.”
Said the church’s youth and music leader, Jeff Douglas, “It’s an honor to work beside this man.
“He’s a teacher, but not a teacher by letter – a teacher by ‘what I do.'”
Until 2000, Vigoren also was known for his second job: that of school bus driver for the Port Angeles School District.
“He has no accident record, and it was thousands of miles,” said Daphne Green, a congregation member who organized the event.
“God is good, right?”
Vigoren enjoyed driving the bus.
“I had a country route, from Port Angeles to Lake Sutherland, every morning and afternoon.”
He compared driving a school bus to being a pastor.
“Both are working with people, and you have a real close relationship with the families,” he said.
Mark Hense, 55, who was at the ceremony, rode in Vigoren’s bus while attending Stevens Junior High School.
Hense joined the congregation after being diagnosed with bladder cancer.
“I came to talk to him about two years,” he said of Vigoren
“He was somebody I knew over the years and I trusted him, and my wife trusted him.”
After his diagnosis, Hense became depressed.
“My situation is terminal,” he said.
“I told him about it and he turned me towards Jesus. I’d already believed there was a higher being, but he’s very inspiring in that way. The guy lives it.
“I’ve talked to him six or eight times over the last four years. He told me, ‘You’re going to the right place.’
“I feel more secure in facing what will happen. I’m a lot less scared than I was.”
Vigoren’s wife recalled moving to Port Angeles 40 years ago from Rainier, Ore.
“We [she and the children] were here a few days before hubby came with the dog. We brought the cat.
“You cross that little bridge, and there’s a shack covered with briar bushes. It was a hamburger stand. We walked downtown. It was a beautiful day. That’s when I noticed the cold air. It was crisp and beautiful.
“God knew, and it was just the right time to come, and who’d ever think that we’d be here that long?”
