Today is Sunday and at church this morning we celebrated the 40th anniversary of the first day our pastor came to our church. It was a wonderful and fun filled service. I was reminded once again of how important our home church family can be in our lives. Walk with me for a minute down memory lane.
Our wonderful mother started taking her 6 children to this church when I was a toddler. Of course, I don't remember much from those first few years. The things I do remember revolved around the people of the congregation and my interactions with them.
One person I remember was a man I called Uncle Wilford. I loved that he always knew my name and he always spoke with me as an intelligent person who was worth his time. That is very important to a child, believe me!
Another member of the church family was a lady that everyone called Gran. Nothing else, just Gran. She treated each person as though they were her very favorite child or grandchild. A lovely Christian woman and a world class cook! Her cinnamon rolls were perfection and she always had delicious cookies for her visitors.
There were times through the years at LC when life for me seemed especially hard . My church family showed us support over and over. They prayed with us, they provided meals when we faced overwhelming grief or times of struggle, and they gave us the love, joy, and peace of knowing they would always be there.
I remember summers in that little white church with all of the windows wide open and everyone using cardboard hand fans to stir the air and hopefully cool themselves down. During the winter we would all gather around the old gas heating stove in the back corner for worship service. No central heat or air conditioning back then.
I remember Vacation Bible School with so many children that we had classes in every room in the building plus classes outside on the lawn. We had more teachers needed for VBS than we had adult attendees on Sunday mornings. Our VBS was a favorite in our rural community.
Mother and us kids would clean the church every week for Sunday services. I felt that it was a privilege to be allowed to clean the CHURCH! That was big! And I loved that we siblings and our mother would sing hymn after hymn, in perfect harmony, while we cleaned.
The last 40 years with the same pastor has been a wonderful journey. The LC family has grown from just 7 in attendance to more than 200 attending over two morning services. We went from being the little home mission church with a huge heart to a very large church with a very big heart! Through all that growth, Max has been leading, and guiding, and learning with us. Thank you, God, for bringing that very young college student to us as a student pastor all those years ago. And thank you for letting him stay!!
Keep Joy Filled.
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