While teaching and preaching in Thailand and Cambodia, he suffered several strokes. He was in the hospitals in Phnom Penh and Bangkok and planned to return to his home in Palmer, Alaska. When he was released from the hospital in Bangkok, he flew to Phnom Penh to stay at his daughter Ronda and son-in-law Rich’s home. Loren’s daughter Julie, who also lives in Phnom Penh, was there to help. His son Troy Hollingsworth from Uncasville, Connecticut, flew in to help when it became obvious that Loren wouldn’t be able to fly home.
Loren was the third son of four, to Velma and Joyce Hollingsworth of Belle Plaine, Kansas. He was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1936. The family soon returned to their farm in Kansas.
Loren graduated from Belle Plaine High School 1954 and attended Wichita University on a football scholarship, worked the summer as a derrick man in the oil fields of Nebraska and Wyoming. He worked at Boeing as a draftsman, married Penny (Banks) of Wellington, Kansas, on July 13, 1957, and joined the Army. He excelled in the military and was sent to the 10th Special Forces in Bad Tolz, Germany.
Loren went to Vietnam early in the war. Later he made a 13-member High Altitude jump (Operation HALO) that resulted in a World Record of 43,500 feet. He received a Distinguished Flying Cross at the Pentagon with his team. He was picked up from the ground into a Caribou on a Fulton Skyhook System while in the 7th Special Forces at Ft Bragg as he worked with the HALO demonstrations.
As his children were starting school, Loren decided to return to the Kansas farm and work with his parents raising wheat, corn, cattle and pigs.
In 1971, Loren moved his family to Lubbock, Texas, to study at the Sunset Bible Institute. In 1973, the family moved to Bangkok to serve God as missionaries. He studied the Thai language and taught in the Bangkok Bible School, spending weekends teaching in villages around the country.
In 1987, he moved to Phuket and started a Preacher’s School. He lived in Phuket for 20 years. During that time, Phuket and further north on the coast suffered the terrible tsunami. With large funds arriving from churches and friends all over the United States, Loren and the students traveled all over helping the survivors to start over again. The generosity of Americans went to help schools, build fishing boats, start home businesses, buy motorcycles and build new houses.
Loren and his students also enjoyed scuba diving and boating. He went mountain climbing with coworkers in Nepal and Borneo.
Loren is survived by his older brother Kermit and wife Beverly of Davis, California, and younger brother Harvey and his wife JoAnn of Panama City, Florida.
His children: Julie Broyles, Ronda and Rich Dolan both of Phnom Penh, Cambodia; Kim and Jeff Anderson of Nampa, Idaho; Troy and Melissa Hollingsworth of Uncasvillle, Connecticut.
He has 15 grandchildren and 21 great grandchildren, scattered all over the US.
Loren always said he would never live long enough to do everything he wanted to do but he did his best to do it. He loved his life, family and friends and serving God in Thailand, Burma, Laos, Vietnam, Korea, Nepal, and Alaska.
One of his favourite scriptures was Jeremiah 9:23,24: “Thus says the Lord: Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord”.
This article was provided by Jeffrey Hobbs with permission from the family.