errill Ohlson’s official job title comprises one word: custodian. Clad today in khakis, a polo shirt, and a suit jacket, his smile comes easily. But behind his soft blue eyes lies so much more than his title implies. “You can define my job in 10 words,” he says with a chuckle. “If it’s dirty, clean it. If it’s broken, fix it.”

Ohlson has spent the last 12 years as the maintenance staff at Bethel Seminary San Diego. Born and raised in San Diego, the 81-year-old only recently paid his first visit to Bethel’s St. Paul campus in Minnesota. No detail of Bethel’s buildings in St. Paul escaped Ohlson’s attention—things only a custodian would appreciate. “I’ve gotten the tour of every boiler room in the place,” Ohlson says. “This has been a wonderful experience.”

Merrill Ohlson’s road to Bethel was not as straight as a California highway, however. Many twists and turns guided him into longtime service for the Lord.

Growing with God

Ohlson grew up during the Great Depression, a time that left him with few options for schooling. “We didn’t have a lot, but we never thought of ourselves as poor,” Ohlson recalls. “College was not an option for me.”

Ohlson went to work for Roar Aircraft after completing high school, and spent 35 years there in middle management positions. He left Roar in 1944 for a two-year stint in the U.S. Navy, but returned to the company immediately following his assignment.

Throughout those years at Roar, God was working on Ohlson’s heart. Though he was not raised in a Christian home, Ohlson’s family never opposed his attending church. “I went to church with a boy from my street,” he remembers. “He went forward for an altar call, and so did I. No one ever presented to me the plan of salvation, or even followed up with me.” At the age of 27, Ohlson and his wife Gertrude (he calls her Trudy) went to Sunday school with some Baptist neighbors. Under the pastor’s preaching the couple came to know Christ.

Bethel connection

After taking early retirement from Roar, Ohlson was asked by his pastor to be business manager at the church. He accepted the position, but when church attendance dropped and the pastor departed, Ohlson was left unemployed.

Then a new opportunity presented itself, whereupon Ohlson served five years as business manager for San Diego’s College Avenue Baptist Church. “During that time, Bethel Seminary came to San Diego under the umbrella of College Avenue,” Ohlson says. “I worked with seminary dean Cliff Anderson to carve out space for a library and classrooms that the seminary could use.” As the seminary grew, Ohlson took time away to start his own business selling pressure washers, but he returned to the seminary as a one-man maintenance crew for the campus in 1990.

Now Ohlson works 24-hour weeks. Rising each morning at 4:30, he spends an hour in devotions and arrives at Bethel by 6:30 a.m. His tasks include everything from taking out the trash to repairing the roof. “I’m a gofer,” Ohlson explains. “I’m there to help...whatever is needed.” Over the past 12 years, he has installed more than 30 electrical outlets, and is always busy with a project. “When they built the buildings, they didn’t put lights outside. They called me and said, ‘Hey, it’s dark out here.’ So I went around and put up outside lighting.”

One of Ohlson’s shining accomplishments is a fan he installed after someone broke a window with a rock. Instead of repairing the window, seminary administrators decided a fan would be a good thing since the building had little ventilation. “I went out and bought a big fan, put it in, wired it up, and asked God to help me because it was a big project,” Ohlson says. “With the Lord’s help, I put the fan in and it looked like it had been there all along.”

Man behind the mop

But Merrill Ohlson’s ministry does not end there. He also teaches two Bible classes at the seminary, and leads a Bible study. Ohlson’s teaching “career” began soon after he accepted Christ. “Our church had a Sunday school in the housing projects, and they asked me to teach a group of six-year-old boys. I thought, ‘Well, that shouldn’t be too hard,’” Ohlson says, shaking his head. “What a challenge that was! I’ve been teaching ever since.” Though he has taught almost every age group, his primary focus today is adults.