Northwood’s St. James Lutheran Church proved to be a perfect partner for a rural Wisconsin church.
Eleven members of Peace Lutheran Church, located in Baldwin, Wisconsin, spent last week at St. James, at Castor Avenue and Pratt Street, performing various service projects there and at spots around Philadelphia.
Peace Lutheran has completed numerous similar missions all over the United States, according to youth director Leann Huston.
Pastor Paul Andell, of St. James, had a vision for St. James to be an urban destination for church groups that help needy congregations.
Huston and Andell met at a conference in Minneapolis, and the meetup later paid off for St. James, as five adults and six teenagers from Peace Lutheran made the long trip to Philadelphia to perform good deeds.
The week went well.
“Everyone was very hospitable and generous,” Huston said.
“They’ve been fantastic,” Andell said. “They’ve come with this incredible motivation. They’re dedicated and have a sense of love and commitment to each other, the Lord and their church.”
The week included devotions, worship, a tour of the Liberty Bell and USS Olympia, a trip to the Ocean City beach and boardwalk and plenty of service projects.
Projects at St. James included painting and storage cleanout, along with jobs in the yard, playground and library.
The visitors also performed property care at the Historical Society of Frankford, packed goods at the food pantry at Tabor Lutheran Church and helped out at St. Mark’s Frankford, the Frankford Boys and Girls Club, Pinkett Tabernacle Friendly Community Church and Old Zion Lutheran Church.
“The gratitude shown by everybody for the work we were able to do in the community was rewarding,” said adult volunteer Aaron Paulson.
In addition to Huston and Paulson, adult volunteers were Rich Cronk, congregation president Peder Parizek and the Rev. John Hanson, pastor for the last 31 years.
Youth volunteers, ages 15-19, were Van Hanson, Isaac Iverson, Merrick Paulson, Tanner Feyereisen, Garrett DeLong and Colin Iverson.
“It was cool getting to tour the town, visit St. Mark’s Church and help around here. It was nice getting to help people,” Isaac Iverson said.
Baldwin is a town of about 3,800, and the group rode in a bus for 20 hours, 1,100-plus miles, each way.
The youths said the people they met in the big city were nice and seemed to care about each other. They were happy to visit historical sites and experience a lifestyle a lot different from Baldwin.
The group is back in Wisconsin, with good memories and pride in the work they did.
“I’m glad we were able to get it done,” said Feyereisen, “and getting to see some of the older stuff from when the country was founded was pretty cool.” ••
