While completing his alternate service in Topeka, Bob Thiessen roomed with Vernon Klaassen who told him, “I have a sister that needs outta the house.”
Those words set in motion a relationship between Bob and Frances (Klaassen) that was consummated in their marriage on November 10, 1967, in Newton.
Bob and Frances moved to the land farmed by his parents east of Buhler.
Bob focused on the farm and woodworking while Frances handled everything clerical pertaining to the farm and the shop.
They became parents of a son, David (his wife, Janene) of Inman; and two daughters: Lynn (husband, Dave) Winze of Trinity, North Carolina and Lori (husband, Matt) Gallagher, of Wichita.
As of today, their family has grown to number twelve grandchildren and five great grandchildren.
While vacationing in Texas, in association with the Mennonite Central Committee, Bob and Frances met a man from Oregon who was needing cabinet workers.
That launched their interest in volunteering annually, spending four to five months at a time, at Rio Grande Bible College in Edinburg, Texas (900 miles from Newton).
For about twenty years Bob and Frances have traveled to the forty-acre campus, lived in their fifth wheel while Bob works with three to four others in the cabinet shop to build kitchens in married students’ four plexes. F
rances reports there are fifty couples from various states who join with them in this volunteer missionary work.
While Bob is busy with woodworking, Frances engages in tutoring adult students who wish to develop their English-speaking language skills and craft projects. She proudly states “The pay is outta this world!”
When the Thiessens’ moved to our campus in the summer of 2015, Bob successfully negotiated with administration to be able to rebuild the kitchen cabinet work in their new house.
In September 2017, the In Memoriam Display Cabinet Bob constructed was dedicated with the promise to use and respect it as an invaluable resource for honoring our deceased residents and to memorialize them through donations that help Kansas Christian Home continue its vital mission of holistic caregiving.