Deaths of Mrs. Hogberg and Mrs. LaRavia
Ambassador Auditorium
A reader forwarded me the following reports. The first related to the illness and death of Barbara Hogberg:
The health of our loving wife, mother, mother-in-law, and grandmother, Barbara Hogberg,has taken a serious turn for the worse. During the time when our family was not permitted to visit her in her memory care facility because of the coronavirus pandemic, she had been progressively losing weight, drinking mostly vitamin beverages. We didn’t know how much she weighed until late last week, registering only 95 pounds. Yesterday she stopped eating completely, and we were advised late at night that we should see her, with current precautions in place, which we did. Barbara is resting comfortably at the moment, under the supervision of a hospice nurse, And as a daughter of God, she is in His loving hands. He could choose to heal her at this late date, as powerful scriptures show, but we nevertheless pray that “God’s will be done,’ in anticipation of the time when “this mortal has put on immortality.” and “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
Gene Hogberg and family
Tuesday, April 21, 2020
From an elder in the Dallas United Church of God:
Neal Hogberg contacted me about 15 minutes ago to inform us that his mother’s race is finished. Please keep Mr. Gene Hogberg, sons Neal and Derek, and Denise, Chloe, Brett, and Grant in your prayers in the days ahead. Andy Burnett
Dallas & Sherman, TX congregations
Gene Hogberg was a writer for the old WCG, essentially specializing in world news and prophecy reporting. I met him and spoke with him a couple of times in Southern California years ago and believe my wife and I met Barbara as well.
Now, here is a report about LaRavia:
From Steve Buchanan, United Church of God Pastor, Tucson, AZI received notice from Romney Chapman, eldest daughter of the Ellis and Gwen La Ravia, that Gwen died a short time ago, Sunday afternoon, April 19, 2020, about 4 p.m. Pacific time.
The last few years have been difficult for Mrs. La Ravia, but for many years after their move to Tucson in the early 1990s, she served our areas here in Southern Arizona as the devoted wife of a longtime, highly respected elder of God’s church.
As Mr. La Ravia said in his last sermon, in speaking of our spiritual journey, “there has been a lot of water under the bridge—and some of it has been muddy water.”
Together the La Ravias led the church through some very difficult times in their position of high responsibility.
We have those memories—ones of inspiration and personal sacrifice to remember them both, and to continue to inspire all of us.
We met the LaRavia’s a couple of times. Ellis LaRavia was vice-president of the old Ambassador International Cultural Foundation and was ordained evangelist in Tucson, 1979 (which I may have witnessed). In more recent times he has been affiliated with the United Church of God.
Anyway, comfort for the Hogberg and LaRavia families are now in my prayers.
On other matters, a while back, my wife Joyce and I visited the grounds. If you would like to see them, we put some photos together of our visit–see Pictures of the Pasadena Campus of Ambassador College and the former Headquarters of the old Worldwide Church of God.
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