But, Rex Trogden said Saturday, “I’d like to introduce you to the word ‘triumph.’ ”


A hard word to speak when standing on a stage behind two closed caskets, with five orphaned children in the front row, yet one, the Bordens’ friends said at their funeral service, that is integral to their lives and their faith.


“They risked their lives together,” Trogden, a pastor who knew the Bordens in Charlotte, N.C., said. “Mike and Cathy were willing not only to risk their lives but to lay down their lives.


“And they did so ... together.”


Before a gathering of at least 500 in Lancaster Bible College’s Good Shepherd Chapel, the Bordens, who were shot to death last Sunday, were memorialized in a funeral service with a strongly evangelistic tone.


That was intentional, Trogden said: The Bordens’ children knew their parents would want the gospel message to be proclaimed.


David Ludwig, the 18-year-old boyfriend of the Bordens’ 14-year-old daughter Kara, has been charged with the killings at the family’s Warwick Township home.


Kara Borden, wearing a light-colored sweater, sat with her four siblings during the funeral.


Afterward, the children and other family members attended a graveside service at Landis Valley Mennonite Cemetery.


Trogden referred to the funeral as a “homegoing to be with the Lord.”


“They loved you so much,” he said, speaking to the Borden children, “and cared for you so well, and prayed for you.”


Echoes of tragedy


The service was led by elders from Monterey Chapel in Leola, where the Bordens worshiped and where Mike Borden was an elder and Sunday school teacher.


None of the five children spoke during the service. They appeared drawn but composed, even near the end of two hours of greeting mourners.


Television cameras and still photographers were barred from the LBC campus Saturday, although reporters without cameras were permitted to attend; the funeral was open to the public.


Cameramen were sent to a “media area” at the far end of the Manheim Township campus.


One person who attended a Wednesday service for the Bordens at Monterey Chapel said friends had noted that the oldest son, James, was bringing his girlfriend home for Thanksgiving to meet his parents, and the second son, Justin, had recently returned from serving in Iraq.


The other two children, Katelyn, 15, and David, 11, were at home last Sunday morning when, according to police, David Ludwig pulled out a .40-caliber handgun and shot first Mike Borden and then Cathy.


Police have said Ludwig was summoned to the house after the Bordens discovered he had brought Kara home after what they thought was a sleepover at a friend’s house. The parents apparently disapproved of the relationship, at least partly because of the age difference.


Ludwig is charged with abducting Kara after the shootings, triggering the issuance of an Amber Alert. The two were finally caught in Indiana after Ludwig crashed his Volkswagen Jetta into a tree during a police pursuit.


Saturday, the funeral included only fleeting references to the tragedy.


“I see the compassion of Mike and Cathy in Kara,” said Bill Bradford, who delivered the message. “Kara was able to reach out to touch some of the most unlovely people.”


Focus on triumph


Instead, the Bordens’ friends talked about Mike and Cathy.


Trogden compared them to Aquila and Priscilla, a husband and wife mentioned in the New Testament. Three times they’re listed as Aquila and Priscilla and three times as Priscilla and Aquila.


“Equal billing,” Trogden said. “It’s that way, isn’t it? The two of them were together in everything.”


Mike was “a bit of a perfectionist,” said Bradford. “He wouldn’t preach a sermon until every I was dotted and every T was crossed.”


Cathy had the same perfectionist streak, Bradford said.


Both were “mighty warriors of prayer”: “If you were in Mike Borden’s Palm Pilot, you were prayed for.”


Mrs. Borden had a twin, Cindy. “Bookends,” Bradford said.


And, because they both spoke with Southern accents, “stereo bookends.”


Mike had a “wonderfully dry sense of humor,” Trogden said. One Christmas, Cathy wanted the biggest tree they could find to best display all the family ornaments. But the tree was so big that it had to be trimmed before it would fit into the house.


For Christmas, Mike gave Cathy a crystal snowman with an inscription: “Room for one more ornament.”


Mike Borden was vice president and general manager of the Digital Publishing Services Division of Cadmus Communications in Ephrata. Cathy Borden was a homemaker who home-schooled the three youngest children.


They dated in high school in Hannibal, Mo. Cathy earned a bachelor’s degree in special education and Mike an associate’s degree in graphic design, both from Northeast Missouri State University. They were married in 1977.


Both were 50 when they died.


Cathy Borden had been attending weekly Change of Pace Bible studies at Lancaster Alliance Church, sponsored by Friendship Foundation, since the family moved to Lancaster in 1996.


Dona Fisher, head of Friendship Foundation, said Thursday that Mrs. Borden was “just a joy. When she walked in, she was just so happy.”


The group offers a program for homeschoolers, so the three children accompanied their mother. Change of Pace participants told Fisher that Kara was “so much fun. The kids just loved her.”


Michael Borden was a “spiritual leader” in his home, Fisher said: “He confronted evil.


“... It’s a real loss for us.”


‘Not the end’


Most importantly, the Bordens’ friends said, both of them loved Jesus.


One Bible verse printed in Saturday’s program, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord,” from the book of Joshua, was taken from a plaque in the Bordens’ home.


The Bordens went with Bradford to see “The Passion of the Christ” at the theater two years ago. “We all shared the same hanky,” Bradford remembered. Afterward, Cathy said, “It never dawned on me how much somebody was willing to do on my behalf.”


“It’s difficult for us to say goodbye,” Bradford said in his benediction. “It should be easy to look forward to a time when we can say, ‘Welcome home.’ ”


He quoted Matthew 5:4, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted,” and John 16:22, “Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.”


“This,” Rex Trogden said, “is not the end.”