Otto Torvik

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Otto Torvik (12 June 1901 – 8 April 1988) was a Norwegian missionary who worked in Xinjiang, China, and in India. In 1940 he founded the Norwegian Missionary Muhammad Mission, which is now known as the Christian Muslim Mission. He was born in Bolsøy near Molde, Norway. His father, Ingebrigt Taraldsen, was a farmer and lay preacher, and his mother prayed he would be used in God's service. He studied at Rauma Folkehøgskole near Molde, then at Fjellhaug Internasjonale Høgskole in Oslo. He earned a Master of Theology from Augsburg Seminary in Minnesota and studied at Hartford Seminary in Connecticut; he was ordained in 1946.

In 1931 he traveled to Chinese Turkistan to explore starting a mission there. In 1940 he founded the Norwegian Missionary Muhammad Mission (later Kristen Muslimmisjon) and served as Secretary General from 1958 to 1966. In 1948 he went to India as a pioneer missionary and established a mission station at Sajinipara in West Bengal, the group’s first field mission in India. He was married to Helene Wiebe (1908–1979), whom he met in Kyrgyzstan; they lived in Norway in later years. Otto Torvik died in 1988 and is buried beside his wife at Grorud Cemetery in Oslo.