Background
Børresen was born in Sætre in the municipality of Hurum, where he and his seven siblings grew up in a Christian home.
Børresen was born in Sætre in the municipality of Hurum, where he and his seven siblings grew up in a Christian home.
He studied history and learned several languages: French, English, and Swahili.
In 1942, at the age of 19, he moved to Oslo for further education. Their daughter Thordis Børresen is missionary in Niger, but previously worked in Congo and Mali. After a long illness, Børresen died in Oslo on January 22, 2010.
During a meeting at the Filadelfia Church in Oslo, where new missionaries were being appointed to serve the mission"s work in Congo, the missionary John Brynhildsen approached Børresen and told him, "You must go there and run a school for mission children."
At the time, Børresen was engaged to Inger-Marie Bastrup.
The day before their departure from Norway was both a wedding and a farewell gathering at the church. Odd was 23 years old, and Inger-Marie was 21.
The Børresens left as missionaries in 1946 from the Filadelfia Church in Oslo to what was then the Belgian Congo (later Zaire and now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). They were part of the first group of Norwegian missionaries sent to Congo after the Second World War.
Both of them worked as schoolteachers.
Børresen became the director of the school in 1961. The rebels were based in the mountains above the school. The school"s students also had to flee, traveling over the mountains to the provincial capital Bukavu.
Because of the turbulence in Lemara during the rebellion, it was decided to move the teaching school to Bukavu, where Børresen again served as director from 1970 to 1971.
During his time in Norway, between periods abroad as a missionary, Børresen took various university courses, usually one during each period spent in Norway. In 1977 he received a master"s degree in Swahili at Uppsala University, which he earned in conjunction with teaching at Lambertseter High School.
Børresen held a permanent position at Lambertseter High School, with extended leaves for the periods he spent in Africa. He held this position he held until his retirement.
He also traveled around as a preacher.
Børresen was also engaged in integration of immigrants to Norway, particularly Romani. The Norwegian authorities also made use of him as an interpreter for French and Swahili.