Memorial Service for Coral Ann Janssen

Coral Ann (Ferguson) Janssen, 72, of Berrien Springs, passed to her rest on Sept. 7, 2020, in her home and surrounded by family.

Coral was born Sept. 18, 1947, to Leslie Lee Ferguson and Wanda Viola (Wells) Ferguson. She spent most of her early years in Riverside, California, and graduated from Ramona High School in 1965. She studied at La Sierra College and spent a year studying in Collonges, France. After a short stint in business school, she entered the workforce as a secretary and bookkeeper while taking classes at Riverside City College toward a degree in accounting.

On August 12, 1973, she married Douglas Janssen, a Seventh-day Adventist ministerial student at Loma Linda University on the La Sierra campus. Together, they lived and served in Riverside (1973–1974), Santa Barbara (1974–1975), and Torrance (1976–1977), California. During this time, she worked in a variety of positions including bookkeeper in a facility that crashed cars for safety testing.

From 1977–1979, she worked as bookkeeper at the Andrews University Book Store while her husband was in the Seminary in Berrien Springs; here she became a mother to Jennifer. Returning to California, they lived in Lancaster (1979–1982) where daughter Amy was added to her circle of love. Working alongside her husband in church ministry continued at Pomona (1982–1987) (Monrovia church) and Pine Grove (1987–1996) (Sutter Hill and West Point churches). Church administrative work continued in Healdsburg (1996–1997) and Santa Rosa (1996–2000). After a short stay in Silver Spring, Maryland, they moved to Berrien Springs in late 2000.

After many years being a full-time mom to Jennifer and Amy, and eventually part-time bookkeeper, in 1995 she joined Douglas in his new ministry providing administrative and technical support for the Adventist Communication Network, supporting over 1,500 churches in their satellite evangelism efforts. During this time, she also worked as secretary/treasurer of the California Beekeepers Association for many years, producing their newsletter, managing their finances, and facilitating their meetings and conventions.

In late 2000, Coral moved with her husband to work at Adventist Information Ministry on the campus of Andrews University in Berrien Springs. She worked as satellite technician, order desk coordinator and then bookkeeper at AIM until her retirement in 2013.

Coral’s primary joy was being a mother and grandmother. Providing transportation, food, water and chief cheerleader to various sports, church and school events and family meals gave her great pleasure.

After Coral became a Seventh-day Adventist at 19, and then marrying Doug, she served as pastor’s wife, church secretary, music leader, deaconess and women’s group coordinator. She was a member of the Stevensville Seventh-day Adventist church the last many years.

Coral’s memory is cherished by Douglas, her husband of 47 years; daughter Jennifer Janssen-Rogers and husband John Rogers Jr. of Benton Harbor; daughter Amy Maydole and grandchildren Tyler and Bethany Maydole of Berrien Springs; and brother Leslie (Butch) Ferguson Jr. of Banning, California. She is preceded in death by her parents and brothers Brian and Jim Ferguson. She will be missed by many more.

A memorial service will take place at the Stevensville Seventh-day Adventist Church on Friday, Sept. 18, at 7 p.m., and will be live-streamed on the church’s Facebook page (http://facebook.com/stevensvillesda). In lieu of flowers, donations are welcome in her name to Your Story Hour of Berrien Springs (https://www.yourstoryhour.org/support-us).