An immigrant Dutchman with a 64-year record of service to the Gideon Society was honored for that service at the Pastor’s Day luncheon of the Albert Lea Camp of Gideons International on Tuesday at Wedgewood Cove Golf Club in Albert Lea.

Albert Lea resident William DeBoer also was recognized for his long service to the organization with a plaque at the recent 2010 convention of the Minnesota Gideons and Auxiliary.

DeBoer, 95, described the organization as a Christian business and professional men’s organization that gives Bibles free, with a goal “to give a Bible to everyone that breathes.’’ Gideon Bibles are offered in schools, colleges, hotels, motels and other locations in 192 countries in more than 80 languages. They are also available to the military, nurses and doctors. These special editions are paid for and distributed by the women’s auxiliary.

DeBoer explained that Bibles are distributed only in countries where there is a Gideon Camp, and in many countries, the government has to approve of a camp before it can be organized.

Gideon membership, he said, is at the international level. They meet as local camps where “we don’t have anything to argue about, except to stick to the rules and the rules are strict. You have to fit the bill. It’s a lot tougher than joining a church.’’

Members must be recommended by a local pastor, then be approved through the area, state and international level. DeBoer is a life member of the organization. DeBoer stressed that Gideons International is not a church, but local church membership is required to be a Gideon; he is a member Faith Baptist Church in Albert Lea.

Gideon membership meant service, and DeBoer, who was a farmer, said, “You did your farming, your business, your family — and you took a day off when the Gideons needed you.’’

He has held every office in a local Gideon Camp and was active in the state organization for years.

He emphasized that all expenses of the local camp come from dues, and “100 percent of donations go to buy Bibles.’’

DeBoer immigrated with his parents from Holland, where they were potato farmers, to Platte, S.D., at the age of 5. Because of the hordes of grasshoppers that decimated their crops, so thick the wagon wheels spun going up a rise, they eventually sold out and moved to California for a few months, during which time the then-18-year-old drove fertilizer truck in the orange groves and pruned orange trees. Then it was back to South Dakota — and the grasshoppers. DeBoer’s father and a friend started hauling grain to South Dakota farmers who needed food for their cattle. Soon they moved to northern Iowa, across the border from Worthington, bought land and prospered in the business of hauling hay, grain and straw to South Dakota farmers.

DeBoer met his wife, Sadie, at a “Wink ’em’’ party, which she described as the girls sitting in a circle with the boys standing behind their chairs, and the boy winks at the girl of his choice. She was 16 and he was visiting at a relative’s home near Clarks Grove, where the event took place. He winked at Sadie, and he recalled, “I got the pick of the bunch.’’

They were married in 1941.

Sadie was born in Montana of Dutch parents, who immigrated to the United States as newlyweds. Her family soon migrated to Crookston in a Model T Ford. While she was a child, they moved to the Clarks Grove area with the family and all their possessions crammed into a car. She remembers falling off the pile of possessions in the back of the vehicle, and running after the car until her father realized she was gone and came back for her.

While living at Worthington, the DeBoers attended the Evangelical Covenant Church, which was where they were introduced to the Gideons.

“Two guys from the Gideons came to speak one evening. They did a good job — they blew me off my feet, so to speak. After the service, they stood at the door with an open Bible. People laid their money on the Bible (to be used) for buying Bibles to give away free.’’

He joined the Worthington Camp of the Gideons at age 26, but moved to the Hollandale area about a year later. The organization eventually placed him in the Austin Camp, and when that larger group was divided, he became part of the Alert Lea Camp.

The DeBoers moved to the Hollandale area with three of their four children in 1947. They eventually owned three farms and retired from the last one in 1982. Since then, they have spent a lot of time traveling and visiting with their children, 10 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. They wintered in New Mexico for 28 years until his heart attack curtailed use of a motor home.

They visited Holland and the Holy Land in 1982 and have been back to Holland several times since. William DeBoer is fluent in “high Dutch.’’ (Low Dutch is a a village dialect, which his wife speaks.)

“Bill says that’s ‘clumsy Dutch,’’’ his wife said.

He also enjoys yardwork.