Marilyn Friesen Strunk

Though hampered for much of her life with physical disability and often severe pain, she lived many years in service to family and others who feel a great absence, as she departs her earthly journey to be welcomed into heaven by her Lord and those loved ones who have gone before.

She was born in Salem, Oregon June 23, 1940 to parents Ernest and Doris Friesen. She was the first of five siblings, who followed in order: Kathy, Roger, Charles, and James.

Her early years were in Salem as her father was a businessman, director of the Salem Singers Male Chorus and director of music for the Salem Evangelical Church. Marilyn developed the physical deformity of Scoliosis and was fitted with a brace that slowly brought her back up straight and her shoulders square. Due to this condition, she was limited from PE classes and athletic endeavors. Music was a major part of her life and she was taught Classical Piano, playing a composition by Frederic Chopin for her senior recital piece.

As Marilyn began her high school years, her father developed a small sawmill in Sweet Home, Oregon and moved the family to Lebanon. Erney, as her father was known, then was the musical director for the Albany Evangelical Church. Marilyn’s mother was the pianist and Marilyn sang a strong alto in the choir, duets and trios. It was then that another high schooler named Folmer began to notice and appreciate this quiet and reserved young woman. The relationship grew and they were married midway through their college careers June 25,1960 at Salem Evangelical Church. They graduated together in 1963 from Seattle Pacific University. They settled in Salem, where Marilyn was employed as office manager for Friesen Lumber Co. and Folmer began graduate school at Western Evangelical Seminary and served as Youth Pastor for Salem Evangelical Church.

The summer of 1965 they spent in Haiti at the campus of One Mission Society, helping out the missionaries in whatever way seemed best. Returning to Salem in the fall, as Folmer continued seminary, they began to pastor the Evangelical Church in Jefferson, Oregon. Shifting from classical piano to hymns, Marilyn served as pianist, S.S teacher, etc. She gave birth to their first son Todd January 18, 1966. They later moved to reside in the old parsonage of the church in Jefferson. Second son Eric was born Dec. 21,1969.

In 1970 they were assigned a dual charge serving two churches in Mapleton and Swisshome in the Siuslaw Valley near Florence, Oregon. In 1972, moved to Lake Oswego to plant a church and held their first public worship service February 4, 1973. Again, Marilyn was pianist and along the way shifted from hymns to contemporary worship, adapting to different chords and rhythms. Third son Joel was born January 27, 1976. It was shortly afterward that Marilyn began to develop symptoms of a condition known as Trigeminal Neuralgia. (In medical circles it is called “the suicide disease.”) It took 30 plus years before a difficult surgery brought significant relief.

After ten years in Lake Oswego, they were assigned for two years to the Evangelical Church of Corvallis, Oregon. Then there was a five-year hiatus with a small business in Salem. Along with the business, Marilyn began to work for a doctor for nearly ten years. Folmer was music director for Salem Evangelical Church, then worship leader for a new church plant in South Salem with Marilyn as pianist, then Folmer was teaching for two years at Salem Academy and a year as worship leader at the Middle Grove Evangelical Church with Marilyn as pianist.

In 1990, they were assigned to pastor the Middle Grove Church…with Marilyn as pianist. They completed ten years there and in 2021 were accepted to serve as missionaries with One Mission Society. Initially they served the mission as regional directors for the northwest and Shepherds with the division of the mission known today as Every Community for Christ. They were Shepherds to church planting teams in Singapore and Indonesia. Marilyn travelled the northwest with Folmer and flights to Singapore and Indonesia.

As ECC began to change church planting strategies to planting house churches led by lay pastors, the overseas trips increased, expanding the training to more countries across Asia and South Pacific. (And Haiti)

In the fall of 2009, while in the Philippines, Marilyn contracted Dengue Fever. The doctor discouraged her from further trips to that region of the world. From then on she kept the office at home, helped Folmer plan trips, and enjoyed more time with her grandchildren.

By 2015, signs of Alzheimer’s began to cloud her horizon and complicate life. She was admitted to Brookdale Memory Care facility in South Salem February 23, 2019. She came to feel she was in a school of some kind with other residents being fellow students. She often slipped outside through doors that set off alarms, wanting to go home to be with her mother and siblings. However, the morning of July 26, 2022 she quietly slipped away. She shot right by “that home” to enter a far more glorious home and to dwell forever with her Lord and loved ones who have gone before.

She is waiting there for us to join her.

Praise the Lord!