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Leonard Jimmie Vogt © Fairview Funeral Home 07-2017 Submitted by: Jo Aguirre
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Funeral Services for Leonard Jimmie Vogt, 92, will be 10:30am, July 15, 2017 at the Fairview Mennonite Brethren Church, with burial following in the South Mennonite Brethren Cemetery. Arrangements by Fairview Funeral Home Inc.. Leonard Jimmie Vogt was born to Abraham W. and Justina (Leppke) Vogt at Corn, Oklahoma on January 20, 1925. He went to be with his Lord and Savior on July 8, 2017.
He grew up on his parents farm near Corn, Oklahoma. He had two older brothers, Lawrence and Barney, and a younger sister, Esther. He obtained his elementary education at Pleasant View School in Washita County. Always industrious, he earned ten cents a day at the school by sweeping the floor and maintaining the fire in the coal stove throughout the school year. He saved all of his earnings until he had enough to buy a calf. His father took him to the sale barn in Cordell and let his grade school boy do his own bidding. He paid $2.75 for the calf and raised it for a year and the sold the steer at the stockyards in Oklahoma City for $30. He gave half of the amount to his parents to pay for feed and pasture and had a profit of $12.25. He felt like wealthiest boy in Pleasant View school.
He obtained his high school education at Corn Bible Academy. During his freshman year, on March 13, 1940 after a baseball game, his teacher, J.J. Franz asked him if he was ready to believe in and follow Christ and Leonard said yes. He was baptized by Pastor J.J. Wiebe on September 28, 1941 and accepted into the membership of the Corn Mennonite Brethren Church. Shortly after, he began speaking at outreach services conducted by the Corn Bible Academy students in nearby town. In his junior year he was the youth speaker at the Southern District Convention of the Mennonite Brethren Churches. By the time he was a senior, a number of individuals were encouraging him to be a minister of the gospel. However, this was the last thing he wanted to be. His goal was to be a mortician or an auctioneer. H.R. Wiens who was the superintendent at Corn Bible Academy counseled him to enroll in the study courses that were a prerequisite to college but he refused. One day H.R. said to him, “Stay out of the ministry as long as you can and when can’t stay out any longer, get into the ministry with all you have!” Leonard said that was the best career counseling he received.
After graduating from high school he worked his parent’s farm and also rented a wheat and cotton farm of his own. During World War II he served his beloved country by joining the Civilian Public Service. He served first at the U.S. Forest Service Camp near Camino, California and almost died from a bad tree fall. Recovering from that he served in the TB ward of the Veterans Hospital at Livermore, California and then at the MCC Center in Reedley, California. During this time on May 30, 1946 he was united in holy matrimony with the love of his life, Leona Kliewer, at the South M.B. Church in Fairview, Oklahoma. They made their first home in a one room apartment in Livermore. He was discharged from CPS service in December 1946 and they moved to Hillsboro, Kansas where he began a ministry major at Tabor College. In July 1947, their first child Philip was born and had significant physical and mental handicaps. After two years at Tabor and substantial medical bills their finances were depleted. For two weeks the only food he could provide for his family was bread and peaches. Leona baked the bread and the peaches they had canned the previous summer. It was during this time that the Lord prompted dad to start tithing faithfully and so he gave fifty cents of a $5 gift he received at the close of these two weeks. He has often said, “We have never been broke since we began to tithe.”
During his time as a student at Tabor, he pastored the First Baptist Church in Canton, Kansas and it was here that his love for the pastorate and the ministry of evangelism was born. After graduation he served as the Assistant Executive Secretary of the M.B. Board of Foreign Missions headquartered in Hillsboro. During this time their daughter Grace was born. In Hillsboro he also served as the chairman of evangelism for the Hillsboro M.B. Church and initiated the church’s ministry at the Rescue Mission in Wichita, Kansas and opened an extension church in Ramona, Kansas.
In January of 1953 he began his first Mennonite Brethren pastorate at Collinsville, Oklahoma where he served for almost eight years and where Dwight and Dewayne were born. His other pastorates were:
Kingwood Bible Church, Salem, Oregon, 1960 - 1974
Belleview Acres Church, Littleton, Colorado, 1974 - 1985
New Life Bible Church, Denver, Colorado, 1985 – 1990
After retiring, his interim pastorates were:
Pine Acres Church, Weatherford, Oklahoma
Fairview Mennonite Brethren Church, Fairview, Oklahoma
Enid Mennonite Brethren Church, Enid, Oklahoma
Bible Mennonite Brethren Church, Cordell, Oklahoma
He exercised his gift of administration throughout his life. He served as president of his senior class in eighth grade, highschool and college. He served as director of youth camps in Kansas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Oregon. He also served as the District Conference Chairman for four terms in the Southern District Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches and two terms in the Pacific District. He was a member of the Southern District Home Mission Board and was instrumental in birthing the Garden Park Church in Denver, Colorado, the Siloam Springs Church in Arkansas, the Pine Acres Church in Weatherford, Oklahoma, the Parkside Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma and the North Park Community Church in Eugene, Oregon. He also served as chairman of the U.S. Board of Evangelism, was a member of the M.B. Board of Missions/Services for eight years and the Board of Mexican Mission Ministries (now Evangelical Missions Ministries) for six years.
He taught Couselor Training Courses at the Billy Graham Film Ministry and at the Jack Van Impe Crusade in Salem, Oregon and at several Mennonite conferences on evangelism.
Some of his speaking engagements included: The Central District Conference in Henderson, Nebraska Portuguese M.B. Conference in Brazil Spiritual Emphasis Week, Fresno Pacific University in California Bible Conference Speaker at M.B. Biblical Seminary Chaplin at the state senate, Salem, Oregon
It was his privilege to conduct one-week Evangelistic Crusades in the following locations:
United Mennonite Church, Premont, Texas
Pine Acres M.B. Church, Weatheord, Oklahaoma
Parksind M.B. Church, Tulsa, Oklahoma
Okeen M.B. Church, Okeen, Oklahoma
Enid M.B. Church, Enid, Oklahoma
Bible M.B. Church, Cordell, Oklahaom
Wesport M.B. Church, Collinsvilele, Oklahomana
Balko M.B. Church, Balko, Oklahoma
Adams M.B. Church, Adams, Oklahoma
First M.B. Church, Wichita, Kansas
Ulysses M.B. Church, Ulysses, Kansas
Community Bible Church, Olathe, Kansas
Zoar M.B. Church, Inman, Kansas
Parkview M.B. Church, Hillsboro, Kansas
Ebenfeld M.B. Church, Hillsboro, Kansas
Ingalls M.B. Church, Ingalls, Kansas
Marten Box M.B. Church, Marshall, Arkansas
Reedley M.B. Church, Reedley, California
Country Bible Church, Orland, California
Kingsburg M.B. Church, Kingsburg, California
Dinuba M.B. Church, Dinuba, California
Rosedale M.B. Church, Bakersfield, California
Salem M.B. Church, Bridgewater, South Dakota
He and mom also found it a joy to host people in their home for both short and longer periods of time. It began already when Dwight and Dewayne were in highschool when they had the privilege of having Michael Rollins live with the family for several years and then Gene Mildren for a year. This was followed by many others during their time in Denver and then Fairview who needed a place of temporary respite.
His recreational activities varied according to the opportunities available where they lived. At Collinsville, Oklahoma he took up golfing because that was the sport the members of the Southern District Youth Committee participated in before getting together for their regular meetings. While living in Salem, Oregon, he enjoyed deep sea fishing, water sking and great camping vacations with the family as well as Friday night swims at the Y.M.C.A. In Colorado he was challenged by the 14,000 foot mountains and climbed fifteen of them. For many years he ran two miles a day and completed the Boulder 10k in Colorado and the Tulsa 15k Run five times each. In Colorado he also took up bicycling. His first signficant ride was a one day 125 mile ride from Vail to Denver over Loveland Pass. Next to that was his ride up 14,264’ Mt. Evans. After his retirement he took daily rides in Fairview and joined the Oklahoma Freewheelers three times in riding across the state of Oklahoma. We lost count of his total miles (though he didn’t) but it was well over 25,000 – the circumference of the earth.
Possibly what he enjoyed the most was getting the entire family together for reunions. One of these was at Ten Killer Lake in eastern Oklhaoma where everyone enjoyed days of water sking. Another was a Christmas reunion in Fairview and a family bus ride to see the lights at Chickashea (sp?) Most memorable was the 50th anniversary of their marriage at Salem, Oregon and the days following at the Eagle Crest Resort in eastern Oregon. Nine years later the entire family got together for six days at a resort in Sunriver, Oregon.
In 1995 he and Leona took up retirement in Fairview. Besides serving in interim pastorates during this time he also helped purchase the Silver Eagle Bus for the M.B. church in 1995 and obtained his commercial drivers license so he could drive it. This gave him the opportunity to transport many young people to various camps in Colorado, Kansas, Arkansas and Oklahoma and to drive for several tour groups including a U.S. / Canada tour by an MB choir from the DR Congo. He was also employed as activity bus driver for the Fairview schools and as a truck driver for Bramco, Inc. All of the earnings from these activities he placed into his and mom’s “God bank” and from this fund they had the joy of supporting many worthy causes. Another one of his great joys was to serve as the Fairview Area Director for the “Jesus Video Project” in which videos were delivered to all of the homes in the 73737 zipcode. In the Spring of 2007 he began to serve as the Chaplain for the Fairvew Fellowship Home and Village Apartments for two years and had the privilege of introducing a number of residents to a personal relationship with Christ.
His final ministry was as a “Minster of One” caring for mom for six and a half years as she lived with alzheimer’s disease.
Those who have gone on before Leonard are his parents, brothers Barney and Lawrence, son Philip, infant grandaughter Bethany Vogt and his wife Leona.
Those continuing on to live and work for our Lord are his children Grace Klewitz of Salem, Oregon, Dwight and Deborah Vogt of Phoenix, Arizona, Dewayne and Beverly Vogt of Tulsa, Oklahoma; fourteen grandchildren and nine great-grandschildren.
SERVICES
Funeral Service
Saturday, July 15, 2017
10:30 AM - 12:00 PM
Menonote Brethren Church
East State Road
Fairview, Oklahoma 73737
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