A heart to serve is at the core of Harold (g’71) and Darla (Hofer g’74) Loewen’s home.
Five years after returning to Hillsboro, Kan., the Loewens are deeply knitted into the fabric of the Tabor College community. Work projects and volunteering aside, the opportunity to connect and minister to students drives the former Bluejays to participate.
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Darla attended Bethel Mennonite Brethren Church in Yale, S.D., providing a key touchpoint of church outreach.
“We’d have many missionaries and Tabor leadership come to stay at our home,” Darla said. “I’d hear so many different things in conversation about service and my dad, Ben, was very involved in church conference activities, so our vacations often revolved around that.”
Harold’s grandfather, Martin Abram (M.A.) Kroeker served as a pastor, was a longtime advocate of the Mennonite Central Committee, and served in leadership for the Mennonite Brethren Board of General Welfare and Public Relations.
“He was highly influential and having come from Russia, he was interested in people’s physical and material needs,” Harold said. “That impacted me as a social work major at Tabor. Our professor, John Bower (ff’68-78), had us involved in many different things locally and with people that came in to speak to us.”
Only a few months after marrying in 1974, the Loewens began serving as missionaries in São Paulo, Brazil. While challenging, it helped set a foundation for their marriage and their family’s future. Harold also served as pastor for a Portuguese-speaking congregation.
“When you’re newly married in a new place, it changes your lifestyle and we realized we don’t have to have everything,” Darla said. “Going through that together changed us.”
They returned to North America in 1977 and Harold worked as a Tabor admissions counselor, while Darla worked in the dining hall for evening meals. Harold pastored two congregations, including Ebenezer Mennonite Brethren Church in Doland, S.D. (1980-88) and Vineland Mennonite Brethren Church in Vineland, Ontario, Canada (1990-95). That culminated with returning to South Dakota to manage the Hofer family farm until returning to Kansas in 2019. Darla ran a bed & breakfast for 13 years while running her family farm.
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After beginning to drive buses for the local school district, Harold now frequents the driver’s seat of Tabor buses and takes students to numerous academic and athletic events. Darla’s handiwork is across campus, including work on costumes used in musical theatre productions and the organization of its detailed storage facility. When the Shari Flaming Education Commons opened in fall 2021, Darla helped stain the beams and floorboards repurposed from the old Tabor gymnasium bleachers.
After a 1997 flood at James Valley Christian School in Huron, S.D., Darla served on committees for rebuilding its auditorium. Before the
Shari Flaming Center for the Arts opened, President Emeritus Dr. Jules Glanzer (g’74) toured the Huron facility and she provided guidance for the future of Tabor’s arts facility.
“I worked with Todd Jost (fs’83) and [Assistant Business Professor] Lily Arthur (g’96) to help organize the storage facility,” Darla said. “I’ve learned so much from Lily and I’m so thankful I get to ‘play’ in that room and help in that space.”
Harold’s ‘why’ came to be in one of his earliest trips with Tabor softball.
“One of the girls asked me what time we were leaving and where we were going next and I said, ‘I don’t know, I’m just the bus driver,’” Harold said. “She looked at me and pointedly said, ‘You are not just the bus driver, you’re a part of our team.’ That made me think of my role very differently. I’m someone they can hang out with or talk to. Being three times their age, you wonder about connectivity with their generation. I’ve found there is no barrier and sometimes I forget that.”
Friends of Jon and Elizabeth Duba, leaders of Byron Bible Camp in Huron, the Loewens connected with their son Carson (g’24) when he arrived at Tabor.
After he started a Bible study, Darla made food for their twice-a-week gatherings. From those group members to later hosting Tabor resident assistants and directors, they’ve continued to have an open door to the campus community.
“Tabor is a transformational place,” Harold said. “When these students come to our house, I’d ask them what Tabor has done for them and hear things like, ‘I’ve made my faith my own,’ and it’s a little different for everyone. When we see students maturing in their faith and see them grow through community, their teams, on campus… It’s really cool to see lives changed.”
It’s a message that rang true for students in the 1970s and community members over 50 years later.
“Tabor has brought our past and present together,” Darla said. “I used to feel like it was segmented, but there is a sense of togetherness when you see the people you went to school with.”