Slain ADRA Worker Honored by Hundreds at Memorial

The life and work of Kaare Lund, slain country director for the Adventist Development and Relief Agency office in Norway, was remembered at a funeral service by 700 attendees March 21.

Held at the Onsoy Adventist Church near Fredrikstad in Norway, the service was attended by many who remembered Lund as a person who had a unique ability to set projects into practice while at the same time connecting with people on a personal level.

Lund and two other ADRA colleagues, Emmanuel Sharpulo, country director for ADRA Liberia, and Musa Kita, chief driver for ADRA Liberia, were attacked and killed Feb. 28 while driving to an ADRA project in Liberia funded by ADRA Norway.

“Kaare exemplified the life of service that is present in so many ADRA employees,” said Byron Scheuneman, senior vice-president of ADRA International, who attended the service. “The compassion and caring Kaare had for those he served was evident in the relationships he built with them.” One of the condolences from Sudan said, “the nomads are crying! Kaare would always spend time with them. We will miss him very much.”

Scheuneman said, “Kaare was one of ADRA’s most seasoned workers with years of experience in development work around the world. Emmanuel, Musa, and Kaare will be missed greatly.” Lund had served as country director for ADRA Pakistan for many years and had extensive field experience from inspecting projects in South America, Africa and Asia.

To many people in Norway, Lund will be remembered as the energetic youth director for his years spent both in the East Norway Conference and later in the Norwegian Union Conference. Many of the young people came in their pathfinder uniforms to pay respect to their youth leader from years past.

Pastor Sigve Tonstad officiated at the funeral and said that Lund practiced the motto of ADRA: he worked to change the world—one life at a time.

Additional information about ADRA can be found on its Web site at www.adra.org.