Trinity Lenten Devotional February 20, 2015 Jodi Kirk Jeremiah 2:6

Trinity UCC  Lenten Devotional

February 20, 2015

by  Jodi Kirk

BIBLE VERSE:

Jeremiah 2:6

Barren, Land, Deserts Dry Places

Darkness During DaytimFreedom,

"They did not say, 'Where is the LORD Who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, Who led us through the wilderness, Through a land of deserts and of pits, Through a land of drought and of deep darkness, Through a land that no one crossed And where no man dwelt?'

PRAYER:

Dear Lord, sometimes it is impossible to see the forest through the trees. We get lost in the wilderness...so busy trying to gain our bearing that we lose our center.  Open our hearts so that we feel and know your presence even when…especially when…the landscape is rocky and jagged and our course is difficult and exhausting. Thank you for being with us during times of deep darkness and offering the gift of your expansive and ever present love to carry us through to the other side.

REFLECTION:

I wrote the following reflection when my sister was in hospice care three years ago.  I felt helpless and lost. I prayed for solace and understanding:

 

I open the door

quietly…

The room is dark.

The humming of the oxygen seems louder than it should.

You are sleeping.

            Your chests rises and falls.

I say a quick prayer of thanks.

I look at your face –

            I see mom.

 

I try to be still.

I don’t want to disturb your restless sleep.

I whisper,

            “ I am here Ter. It’s okay, you are not alone…”

 

Of course, that is not true.

You are not okay…and…we are not alone.

 

Death surrounds us.

She is so very present…

            You can feel her…

                        smell her…

She is suffocating.                               

            Pernicious.

                        Pervasive.

                                    Cruel.

 

We don’t talk about her anymore.

            She is in ear shot,

                        She is too close at hand.

 

I watch as you struggle to take in a full breath.

I watch as your heart seemingly leaps from your chest.

I listen to your whimpers and moans..

 

            I am paralyzed.

 

Your breath is uneven and ragged.

            Your body is swollen.

                        Your sparkling brown eyes are closed – sunken shadows.

                                    Your radiant smile is absent -

replaced by an unconscious grimace.

 

I try to stay quiet, but I am screaming inside:

“NO!”

I try to be present.

I take a breath.

I close my eyes.

            I feel another tear fall down my cheek.

 

“How can I make this better?” 

I am struggling…

            Struggling to find the right words.

                        Struggling to know what to do…

Searching,

            Searching for something – ANYTHING – to make death…better.

                        To make you …better.

                                    To make your death… your dying…better.

I want to – I need to – redirect this final scene.

 

I long to whisk you away to a villa in Tuscany …

or an enchanted cottage in Southern France.

 

I want to fill the room with sunflowers…

 

I want to bathe you in perfumed oil, lotion your back, rub your swollen feet, hold your hand and sing you to sleep.

 

I want to recite Shakespeare and read aloud our favorite poems.

 

I long to lavish you in the simplest of pleasures…

            Crisp linen sheets.

            The softest blankets.

            Funky new PJs.

            Fresh bouquets.

            Hot tea.

And delicious scones with Devonshire cream like the ones we had in Stratford.

 

I want to create a sanctuary – a sacred resting place.

            Peaceful.

Grace filled.

            Love soaked.

 

Mostly, I want to make meaning out of this experience.

I thought I knew death.

I thought I had experienced loss.

I thought I understood medical realities…

                        Human fraility.

                                    Mortality.

But this is different.

            This is more real.

                        This is my sister.

                                    My Terri.

                                                This is you.

 

I see you suffer.

I see your body begin to shut down.

I see your frustration at the limits that now shape your world.

I see you resist the help of strangers and the assistance of those that love you best.

I see you battle with a public mask and a private agony.

I see you struggle with what you believe, and what you are experiencing….

 

            Darkness overcoming the light.

 

I want our love to pierce through that darkness and offer a sense of real comfort, peace and, perhaps, moments of joy.

 

Those are my wants…

            My desires…

                        My hopes…

 

I let them go.

This is your journey.

 

I am learning…

            To be quiet.

            To be still.

            To pray deeper.

 

You are still my teacher Terri Jean.

Even though I am not finding solace in faith and what seems to be a faulty premise…

When I look beyond the darkness of what I am feeling now…

Of what you are experiencing now…

somewhere in the deep recesses of my memory…

I remember that death is not the end. We are not alone.

Part of my heart will die with your passing, but somehow my spirit will continue to grow…it has to…for I will carry you with me.

Death may not be as simple or beautiful or even as mysterious as we hoped and imagined, but your life, your love and your amazing legacy will continue to shine in all sorts of beautiful and mysterious, simple and profound, and unexpected ways. God will make it so.

I love you Terri Jean!

 

 

BLESSING:

May the light of God’s love shine on all who are wondering through the wilderness, May the power, mystery and wonder of God’s grace offer solace for all who feel consumed by darkness and are seeking to make meaning of burdens that feel impossible to bear. You are not alone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trinity UCC devotion February 19, 2015 by Nancy Boorman

Trinity UCC Lenten Devotional

February 19, 2015

Thanks to Nancy Boorman for writing the devotion for today.   We are seeking out people of all ages to share their thoughts about the following topics: Wilderness; Refuge/Sanctuary; Healing; Comfort; Struggle; Peace; Emergence/Transcendence and Obedience and the ways in which God is still speaking.  We will be sharing these reflections everyday throughout Lent electronically (via this blog and Facebook) as well as through weekly summations that will be available at worship.  We will get a chance to soak in the ponderings and tales of many of our members, and - best of all - respond in writing and dialogue in our journals, on line and in person.  What better way to engage our spirit and embrace and celebrate the wonder and mystery of God's love and our collective human stories?

Wilderness

By Nancy Boorman

Psalm 63  ( A psalm of David. When he was in the Desert of Judah.)

1 You, God, are my God,    earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you,    my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land    where there is no water.

I noticed the subtle but not ordinary coming and going of her memory well before anyone else did. Perhaps it was because our visits were twice a year and not a daily social event. I held what I noticed close to me at first, filed it just behind the daily thoughts of the day. I didn’t want to acknowledge that my Mother, who had become my best friend, was aging and something was not quite right. I chose to put off the thought that somehow, in what seemed like a blink of an eye, she had become “old.”  Two years later at my urging my sister took her to her general practitioner for a checkup and cognitive testing. It was Alzheimer’s. Three and a half years later I moved in to help care for her. 

My sister and I became the parent and caregiver, my mother the child. It is a hard realization when that happens. Her most striking question to me came just this week, “ I won’t ever have to be in a nursing home will I?” I looked up from my busy work, with great compassion in my face.  What I saw in her face at that moment was her fear of the wilderness, her wilderness. Her fear of being lost to her family, disconnected physically from those she loved. Alone and waiting for our return as her illness marched on. I told her only the truth, we can’t say never because we do not know what the future holds.  

For now I hold her, talk to her, cook with her and grab tight to all the good we can get before it slips away into her wilderness. 

So I ask you, are you wandering on the edge of a wilderness or are you in the midst of it? What does your dry and parched land where there is no water look and feel like?

Dear Lord, our great healer and physician, as the ravages of the wilderness tare at our physical and emotional selves, help us to remember that you are what we thirst for. You are the water that can quench our dry parched land. You are what we long for. You and you alone. AMEN.

To be commanded to love God at all, let alone in the wilderness, is like being commanded to be well when we are sick, to sing for joy when we are dying of thirst, to run when our legs are broken. But this is the first and great commandment nonetheless. Even in the wilderness - especially in the wilderness - you shall love him.”

Frederick Buechner,

A Room Called Remember: Uncollected Pieces

Ash Wednesday Devotion

Ash Wednesday

February 18, 2015

Lenten Devotion; "Ashes to Stardust"


“Pray in the Spirit at all times with all kinds of prayer, asking for everything you need. To do this you must always be ready and never give up. Always pray for all God’s people.” -Ephesians 6:18

By Kevan Franklin

Sword fights break out in the Palm Sunday Children’s choir! Children tickle each others ears with the prickly end of the branch.  The Palm branches seem to have been given for this purpose. They will remember always these years of childhood and how their presence and faith were cherished by such a large, mixed gathering of people.

Spiritual but not religious folks leave them in the hymnal rack. Some do this reluctantly, wishing they had the courage to carry their Palm branch back home, but know that they cannot for the jokes and peer pressure of others.  For others, their eyes have not been changed yet.  The scales remain and they have not been transformed to see the Holy in every grain of sand.

Youth who want to appear disinterested and cool, quietly slip the palm branch into their bulletin, and in their privacy, later carefully unfold this reminder of the sacred and lay it in a dresser drawer.  Over the years, it will be a consistent reminder that there is more to life than classes and parties and striving to fake it.

A young woman mourning the passing of her father will drape her mirror with the Palms as a silent gateway to the place that lives in her heart, like the fans of Jesus who held up Palm branches creating a portal into a new realm, in a mock ceremony of welcoming a homeless, powerless king into the Capital city.

A little boy stuffs his palm cross into his coat pocket, unaware that years later it will serve as a grave marker on, his companion sent to watch over him through the wilderness of his growing years; his beloved pet cat.  The cross is his reminder of the Holy in the ordinary.

An aged woman will take the Palm home and carefully fold it into a cross as she learned to do years before from a devoted Sunday School teacher.  A reminder of hope and innocence lost and today regained.

I have personally witnessed all of these Palm Sunday acts of faith.

On Ash Wednesday ” left over” Palms, strewn around the church,  left forgotten for another year, are rounded up and burned. The potential to witness the Holy is present even in ashes. With the ashes of our dreams and broken connections to God and others,  we form these remnants into symbols for the ceremony and reminder today that God is with us.   No matter what wilderness we find ourselves in, the Palms and the ashes remind us of the joyful celebrations to come when we welcome Jesus as Savior.  This is where Jesus Lives!  The light shines through the dust and ashes of our lives. 

We begin our journey with an unusual anointing. Today Christians enter churches around the world in quiet reflection and exit with a symbol on their foreheads—ashes mixed with oil applied in the shape of a cross. Reminders of the death of Jesus, and our deaths.  What a difference we could make in the world if we lived with this reminder every day.

Prayer  “Accomplish your work through us, O God.   We ask that through our devotion to these Lenten observances that we may live the rest of our lives in faithfulness and be witnesses of our risen Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.”


Ash Wednesday (February 18, 2015) invites us into the season of Lent – a time within the church year to acknowledge that we are mortal, limited. Lent awakens us to hope in God whose "steadfast love endures forever".  As disciples of Jesus Christ we are called to struggle against everything that leads us away from the love of God and neighbor. The Lenten disciplines of repentance, fasting, prayer, study and works of love help us return to the steadfast love of God. During Lent we confess our mortality, our limits and our vulnerability so that we might be transformed and become the new life God calls us to be.

Lenten Devotional Series 2015

FROM ASHES TO STARDUST...LENT 2015

The Season of Lent invites all of us to look within and examine the various landscapes of our heart and reflect upon our personal faith journey.  As we travel with Jesus through the wilderness, and explore his teachings and wade through the darkness of fear, betrayal, and death to the transcendence of his resurrection, we hope to help you to engage in new and ever meaningful ways. Each week we will be investigating the themes of the season through scripture, poetry, prayer, blessings and a vast array of personal stories, and reflections. 

We are seeking out members of all ages to share their thoughts about the following topics: Wilderness; Refuge/Sanctuary; Healing; Comfort; Struggle; Peace; Emergence/Transcendence;Obedience and the ways in which God is still speaking.  

We will share these reflections everyday throughout Lent electronically (email, via Kevan's blog and Facebook) as well as through weekly summations that will be available at worship.  We will get a chance to soak in the ponderings and tales of many of our members, and - best of all - respond in writing and dialogue in our journals, on line and in person.  What better way to engage our spirit and embrace and celebrate the wonder and mystery of God's love and our collective human stories?

 Pastor Kevan, Nancy Boorman and Jodi Kirk are spearheading this exciting endeavor and are looking for guest writers to share their experiences and interested in talking to anyone who has a story to share.  Please join in this opportunity to share and grow and connect !

Weekly Devotions                                                   Theme                                         

February 18-21                                 Wilderness (Pilgrimmage)             

February 22-First Sunday in Lent  Sanctuary                                        

March 1                                             Healing                                            

March 8                                             Comfort                                              

March 15                                           Struggle                                            

March 22                                           Peace                                                  

March 29                Holy Week         Obedience                                        

April 5                   Easter Sunday    God is Still Speaking                     

Let us know if you would like to "author" a devotion on one of these themes.

To sign up to receive the devotions by email, please send a note to Docksf@aol.com.  

To follow the devotions  on Facebook, simply “Like” Trinity UCC Wooster.

To follow the blog, http://kevansfranklin.blogspot.com/     

Let us know if you prefer paper copies.

The first devotion will be posted on Ash Wednesday, February 18th.

December 2013 Newsletter message

This is my December newsletter article reprinted  by request.

"Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!" 

                                                                                                                                       -----Luke 1:45

Trinity Friends,

A Rabbi explained to me that in Jewish teachings, one reason that God appeared to Moses in the burning bush was to show that God's Spirit can come through anything even a thorn bush on the side of a barren mountain!  God can speak even through a thorn bush! 

God's Spirit can come anywhere and to anyone. No one is outside of God’s care.  God's Spirit can move anywhere!  This is the message of the Christmas story.  The point of the Gospel story is not that Mary was more holy or more faithful or more worthy than others. The point is that Mary was a nobody from a nowhere town.  The "low estate of your handmaiden" was an economic and social truth. The story of Jesus’ nativity convinces us that no matter who, where or what we are, we  can still have a real effect on the world.   God came to Mary!  God comes to a stable.  God comes to small country churches at midnight on Christmas Eve through the Candles and the Songs.  We know what it’s like to hope, to anticipate. Read the rest of Mary's Song, the Magnificat, in  Luke 1. Her song is about real things of life like economic justice and  equality! 

Do people respond to a pregnancy with dread or with joy?  I've seen both. It depends on the situation.  But one thing is for sure, a lot of preparation needs to take place before the baby arrives and you had better be ready! The way people greet a pregnancy is similar to the way people greet life.  We can greet life with joy or dread.  Many challenges were in store for Mary.  Yet, she accepted her call by raising her son to be a force for  creating a better world.

When we celebrate Christmas, we do so in the hope that we will find our place in the story.  We want to find that this story is not about "remember when" but about "still today".  God is still able today to find people who are open to the movement of the Spirit.  God is still planting seeds of promise in the most unlikely places. The church still makes disciples.

God can move anywhere, through humble Mary, thorn bushes and people like you.  Christmas isn’t about make believe. Christmas is about real things.  We make a commitment and a conscious decision to be open to God and to greet life with joy!

Henrietta UCC 140 years of Ministry

I grew up in an area that described itself by the name of the township.  When I tell people that I am from Henrietta, Ohio they look puzzled.  Not many people have even heard of it.  Henrietta United Church of Christ is my home church.  It began as a German Reformed Congregation in 1873.  They are having a celebration in honor of their 140th anniversary on October 13th.  Unfortunately, I will not be able to be with them due to my weekly Sunday commitments. They asked me to write something up about the impact of the church on my faith journey as I am the only member to enter ordained ministry from the church. After reading my comments,  someone told me that I should add them to my blog.  So here are my reflections in honor of my home church's 140th anniversary.

Henrietta friends,

Most of the important things that happen to us in life happen beyond our choosing.  Some people call these” random events” or “accidents of birth” or “good fortune” or “circumstances beyond our control.”  Scripture calls the ordinary circumstances of our lives that shape us, “God's plan”. So it came to be that Chester and Donna Franklin found a home to rent on Garfield road between Green and Gore Orphanage roads in 1950 when my sister Christine was two and my second sister Joyce was on the way.  In 1959, they built a home on the adjacent lot, which by virtue of its location to Henrietta UCC shaped the life of the baby born to them that same year. 

The symbolism of the design of the Church itself served as a spiritual reminder for me.  As a kid, I would ride my bike back and forth on Garfield Road, circling the church parking lot and then gaining speed for  "the hill" just past Charles and Idabelle Berg's house where a small creek passed under the road.  The creek afforded me with the entertainment of snails, frogs, turtles and other such critters that were attracted to it.

As the sun sets in the evening, the shadow of the steeple lengthens down Garfield road in a way that points to some unseen spiritual reality.  In addition to the astronomical observatory that my father and I enjoyed on the lot beside our house,  the steeple of the church was a true landmark and cornerstone of my life.  The steeples’ presence assured me of  the reality of spiritual things and has had an enduring influence in my life. 

There was something about the one third/ two third yoke with St. John's in South Amherst that caused the members at Henrietta to take special responsibility and care for the white church by the road. I was a teenager when the extra classroom and bathrooms were completed.  Most of the work was done by members and Ben Krysik asked me to crawl into the unfinished basement and shovel slag through the opening for the basement floor. 

The Henrietta Youth always put on a large Christmas play production each year and I still remember some of the parts that I had. Dianna Krysik took a great deal of interest in the spiritual care of the Youth in Youth Fellowship during those years.  A few days before high school graduation, I spent my eighteenth birthday in the gravel parking lot beside the church as the youth held a square dance and later shared a cake to help me celebrate.  On Father's Day, a week after graduating from High School, Rev. Lawrence asked me to preach the sermon in honor of both occasions. 

Confirmation with Rev. Wilbur Stell was fun as classes were held with me, Randy Ronez and Dianna Hawke.  Some classes and trips were held with the St. John's Confirmands as well. During the winter we had snowball fights in the St. John's parking lot and later, I played baseball against a number of those students in High School.  Rev. Stell gave me a card that I carried with me for a long time which read, “ Only one life will soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last. For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain.”  St. Paul’s little phrase, “For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21) has meant a lot to me over the years in many different and surprising ways.

Christmas Eve Candlelight services were also special.  It was always a central part of our family Christmas celebration. I have good memories of standing next to my Dad on Christmas Eve singing Carols. (He didn't usually like to sing, but he enjoyed Christmas carols. We tried to get to church early so that we could sit in "our" pew, which was on the far side of the east/west aisle where I could wiggle and my Dad could stretch out his legs.) All of these experiences led to my developing sense of call to ministry and interest in the church.

As a youth, I remember the kindness of the Berg brothers, Roger McCartney, Tom Hawke, Don Krebs, Ray Brown (For whom I also baled hay) and others,  who asked me how things were going and how school was coming along.  As my Mother began to suffer from memory problems, on one Sunday in 2004, I determined to bring her to worship in Henrietta.  She thoroughly enjoyed it and until her death in 2007, despite the fact that she couldn't remember much of anything else, she would always ask me, “Do you remember that time we went to church in Henrietta?”   My Mom's life, from 21 to 78, was enriched by the friends she made at Henrietta UCC. I can't imagine who my parents would be without the church in the center of their lives.

Rev. Paul Eaton deserves our gratitude for faithfully serving in the yoked parish since 1990. I can't write these things without mentioning the importance of Henrietta UCC connecting me to the larger United Church of Christ.  I can't imagine how my life may have been different without the collective impact of the UCC and its commitment to justice and peace  for people in need here and throughout the world.  Over the years, the UCC has provided a vital connection with faithful people trying to live out the Gospel in a changing world.  I am grateful for the connections made and retained since those early days in Henrietta church and the opportunities for spiritual growth and service that have continued since.

Throughout my ministry I have kept a reminder of Henrietta in my office. At a dinner that you held for me in 1981 when I left Ohio to attend Eden Seminary in St. Louis, the congregation presented me with a wooden plaque with the following  poem written in script;

Great is the power of might and mind

But only love can make us kind

And all we are or hope to be

 is empty pride and vanity

If love is not a part of all,

the greatest man is very small.

A fitting summary of faith at Henrietta church!  Please excuse the length of this note, as  I originally planned much less, but I have a lot of memories on that short stretch of road. 

God bless you all as you celebrate 140 years of ministry!!

Sincerely,

Rev. Dr. Kevan S. Franklin

Pastor, Trinity UCC

Wooster, Ohio

Henrietta UCC Celebrates 140 years

On Sunday, October 13, the Henrietta UCC will celebrate 140 years of faith and ministry beginning at 11:00 a.m. with Rev. Paul Eaton leading the service. Located at 52861 Garfield Road, Birmingham, the church is on the corner of Garfield and Green, and about a mile south of SR 113. The public is invited to a special worship service, followed by light refreshments and a time to view the special displays and exhibits that range from 1873 to the present time. 

Founded by a group of German and Swiss immigrants, the history of this little country church is intertwined with that of Vermilion, Brownhelm, Birmingham, Florence, Berlin Heights, Mitiwanga, and later So. Amherst.  It’s the story of families who shared the German Reformed faith and arrived in the area between 1840 – 1860.  These immigrants cleared and farmed the land; worked in the quarries, on the railroads, and in the Lake Erie fisheries; and started small industries and businesses in the area.  It’s also the story of one particular family, Adam and Mary (Englebry) Latteman, and their German Reformed pastor, Rev. Gerhardt Kuhlen. 

Adam had arrived in the U.S. about 1851, married Mary Englebry and had children in Brownhelm and Vermilion.  Rev. Kuhlen was serving the Vermilion German Reformed church as well as the one at Brownhelm Station.  When Adam bought property in what many referred to as the “German Settlement” in Henrietta Township, he invited Rev. Kuhlen to come and hold worship services in homes in 1872.  By early 1873, Adam had convinced many of his neighbors that they needed a place for baptisms, weddings, funerals, and weekly worship in their neighborhood.  Land was donated by Heinrich Heidrich, over 22 families gave money, a cornerstone was laid in May, and a 28 x 40 building was completed and dedicated in September.  There were 60 members, mostly from Henrietta and Florence Townships, and Rev. Kuhlen was elected as the pastor.  He served this church, as well as the Vermilion and Brownhelm churches, until the end of 1874 when Henrietta called Rev. Johannes B. Braun, who had arrived from Germany just 5 years before.

But Rev. Kuhlen wasn’t done.  He and some of the Vermilion parishioners thought there should also be a church near Mitiwanga and Ceylon so he started a 4^th church on April 4, 1874, with services being held in the District School House, Vermilion Twp, for the first six years.  The German Reformed Church of Mitiwanga was built in 1880 at the corner of Frailey and West Lake Roads, and renovated in 1905.  (The building is still there but is now privately owned.)  The Henrietta and Mitiwanga churches soon decided to share a pastor and they were a “charge” until 1952.   In 1902, a parsonage was built at East Drive and Lake Road.  In the 1890’s and until about 1918, the pastor would hold Sunday morning service, get on the Lake Shore Electric interurban at Stop 147 in front of the Mitiwanga church, take it to Berlin Hts, switch to the Green Line Interurban and get off at Stop 13 on the Altmiller farm, just east of the Henrietta church. 

In 1920, the size of the church doubled with the addition of a parish hall, nursery, and kitchen.  The sanctuary was turned to face the west, the balcony was removed, the front door was moved to the new addition, and 13 stained glass windows were installed on all four sides of the building.  They soon had electricity as well, with poles running along the interurban line from the Birmingham substation. 

In 1934, the German Reformed and the German Evangelical churches decided to join together and form the Evangelical and Reformed church.  It took several years to work out the differences and write a constitution so it wasn’t until 1942 until the Henrietta church officially became the Henrietta E & R.  But until that time, it had been referred to by several other names – The First Reformed Church of Henrietta Township, near Birmingham, Ohio; the Henrietta Reformed Church near Birmingham; the Birmingham Reformed Church, near Birmingham; and even the Birmingham E & R Church. 

In 1952, Henrietta became part of the NE Ohio Synod of the E&R Church, while the Mitiwanga church remained with the NW Ohio Synod.  Henrietta was then yoked with a former German Evangelical church, St. John’s of So. Amherst. The two churches came together to build a parsonage in So. Amherst, which was dedicated on January 31, 1954.   Today, St. John’s and Henrietta can celebrate being a yoked parish for 61 years. 

The UCC was formed in 1957 but Henrietta’s name did not change until it was incorporated as the Henrietta United Church of Christ in 1961.  In 1958, the kitchen was remodeled and two years later the sanctuary was again turned to face the south, the ceilings were lowered and a folding door was installed to divide the sanctuary from the parish hall.  The renovation was dedicated Nov. 6, 1960.  Ten years later fifteen new pews were purchased and dedicated.

Thanks to Ben Krysik, the last renovation was completed in 1976 adding two new classrooms, a small basement and, for the first time in 103 years, indoor restrooms!  As with all the other projects, it was the church council, the Women’s Guild, the Sunday School, and the Youth Fellowship members all working and sacrificing together that made it possible.

Kathy Bruns, the great-great granddaughter of Adam and Mary Latteman, has written a history of the church that will be available at the celebration.  She says, “Our history is, of course, the stories of those who have passed through the doors of this church over the years.  The lives of twenty-two ministers and hundreds of families have intersected here as they worshiped, worked, celebrated, grieved, prayed, and served together. It is a story of sacrificing, giving, and modeling for each other and their children how to extend grace, show mercy, and live out the love of Jesus Christ. From this little church, there are believers scattered all over the country and the world, serving where they have been planted and spreading the Gospel through word and deed.  We are coming together to celebrate the fact that the stories of our ancestors are still being written. If your story intersects with ours, I’d love to hear from you – kibruns@gmail.com.”    

Contact information for the newspaper:

Kathy Bruns, PO Box 567, Angola IN 46703

260-905-6763 cell

kibruns@gmail.com 

Thank you!