Ministry Highlight: Property

Rudy Sheets’ highlight during worship on 10/24 [Edited/ Summarized for the printed version]

For me, as you look at stewardship, then to me, this is the main area that it all relates back to. Everything else branches off from there.

Does anyone know when this building was built? 1904

It was started by Lars Rustad. He was the driving force behind him, organizing everything and so forth. Him and his son. He got the lumber here by horse drawn wagons and that kind of thing.

Through this history of this whole building, this building and all the property here, this is a place that you return to. This is the one I look at. And this is a returning for me right now, because I’ve been gone for awhile. Because the pandemic started, and I had other family obligations and so forth. So I look at this as a return and am glad that the pastor asked me to come talk about this. Because this place, this is where it all started.

And you can look at everything that has happened through time. I can tell you things, and I hate to make this seem like a history lesson. And yet stewardship has been in this building completely.

The church building was started in 1904. The first service, I think, was in March 1904. In about 1907, the pulpit was put in by Mr. Lars and his son again. That was a labor of love and a labor of stewardship on his part. The cost to put this in was at that time $15 and change. The labor was about $50. The money was donated by some ladies of the church. In 1935, this building was lifted by a horse and tires. The building was lifted and the basement was dug out.

In 1953, the back portion of the church building was added on behind here. And that too was dug out that was tied into the existing basement. It added a nursery and classrooms and bathrooms and this and that. There was even a meeting room – what was the main meeting room for Our Savior’s – that was added upstairs.

The Fellowship Hall was begun in 1985. And it took a year to complete. In 1993, the rest was added – adding Sunday school rooms and so forth. They added the walkway and the handicap ramp.

All of this was done by the people of the church. They volunteered and gave their time and funds to do this. Members were involved in building the Sunday School rooms and so forth.

We come back to the stewardship word. This place here, like I said, this is the place to return to. To this you added the hall and so forth. There was so much involved. And still to this day. There’s things that were done, such as when the piano punched a hole in the floor. (And it was probably a blessing that it did it because we were able to find and fix other problems, like asbestos). We keep things up. We do maintenance on them. And we have certain expenses that we do on a regular basis.

But everything done around here – it is all stewardship. And this is where it all started. And we donate so much time to others in the community who use these facilities. It is amazing what has been done and continues to be done around here.