Boe Family

BOE TWEET

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 4/18/2010 at 23:17:33

Woodbury County History 1984

Boe Family
By Peter V Boe

Although Pastor and Mrs. ‘Betty’ Peter Boe and their children, Nathan (11), Sarah (9), Justin (7), and Steven (5) are new to Woodbury County, they are not new to Iowa. They resided in Washburn, Iowa southeast of Waterloo, 1978 to 1981; Pastor Boe served the Redeemer Lutheran congregation there. But an uncle of Pastor Boe – the Rev Egbert T Boe – served the Morningside Lutheran congregation in Sioux City 1940-1946. An uncle of Betty’s – the Rev Gabriel Tweet – served 1933-1937. Peter commenced is duties as pastor of the Skien Lutheran (A.L.C.) congregation, rural Sloan, Iowa (about 20 miles south of Sioux City), June 1, 1982.

Betty Lou (Tweet) was born March 21, 1943, in Eleva, Wisconsin, to Joel and Pearl Tweet – both of Norwegian descent – who owned and managed a small dairy farm close-by. Youngest of three children (including brother Curtis and sister Ramona). Betty attended the local elementary school and the Eleva-Strom Central High School. After receiving her Registered Nurse degree at the Fairview Hospital School of Nursing, Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1965, after three years of study, she served as staff nurse at that hospital in the OB Department and was charge nurse in the new-born nursery.

From September, 1969 to October, 1972, she worked in the Child Care Department of the Lutheran Social Services Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She accompanied children brought in a Boeing 747 from Korea for adoption in the States. It was while she was with L.S.S. that the two met, shortly before Peter’s return to Nigeria, West Africa, where he served as missionary for the American Lutheran Church, September, 1965, through August, 1971. He had just concluded a year of studies at the College of St Thomas in St Paul, Minnesota, to earn an M.A. degree in education. Yet he would return to Nigeria for two more years – alone – before their marriage in the States, December 18, 1971.

Although his records of birth and origin were lost or destroyed during World War II, it is presumed that Peter (originally named Volodja Sinegins) was born near Baldone, Latvia. He and his brother, Thomas (fomerly Tolja Sinegins; now also a pastor, married, with five chidlren) were among some 130 children, who fled from a Majore, Lativia, children’s home to escape the Russion forces – a flight made possible by a small group of heroic counselors. After residing in several children’s homes in Germany (British Zone), the brothers came by plane from Hamburg, together with other children, to New York, March 16, 1949, and were received into the home of Norwegian-Swedish-background couple in Moorhead, Minnesota in 1950. Father Rev Victor C Boe was Dean of Men at Concordia College in Moorhead and Mother Hilda was librarian at the same Lutheran school. Peter graduated from Moorhead High School in 1957. He received his Bachelor of Arts (Cum Laude) degree at Concordia College in 1961 and Bachelor of Divinity degree (later renamed Master of Divinity) at Wartburg Seminary, Dubuque, Iowa, in 1965, whereupon he accepted the Call to serve the Church in Nigeria, West Africa, mostly as a Chaplain and teacher of Bible Knowledge at the Sudan United Mission schools in the community of Numan, by the Benue River in Northern Nigeria.

Pastor Boe served the Grace Lutheran congregation in St Paul, Minnesota; Faith Lutheran Church in Bismarck, North Dakota; and the 4-church Vining Lutheran Parish, Vining, Minnesota, before serving parishes in Iowa. He has written numerous articles for various journals and publications (as: The Missionary and The Lutheran Standard journals of the American Lutheran Church; the Sudan mission (Danish) journal; the Nigeria cultural publication; and Practical Anthropology). He is now serving as pastor for the Skien Lutheran congregation, which was established in 1868 by settlers from Skein, Norway. The church is in the countryside, about seven miles southwest of Sloan; the family parsonage is in Sloan, a neat little community of about 1,000 citizens.