Little country church

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RELIGION SATURDAY, AUGUST 6, 2016 |

magicvalley.com |

SECTION B

PASTOR’S CORNER

Whom Are You Going To Trust?

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“One thing people miss the most is not being able to kneel. I’ve heard that from a lot of people,” Amidei said. “A lot of our comforts have been taken away.” No one has been charged with setting the church ablaze. But Perez and others in this small town know that investigators suspect a man already in jail on unrelated burglary charges. The man’s lawyer confirmed authorities are looking hard at her client, whose criminal history goes back almost 20 years. “They will” charge him, Perez

rustworthiness is a foundational attribute that we all seek. We want to trust. We want to know and follow those who gain our trust. However, the reality is that we live in a fallen world and that there is more to distrust than to trust. People disappoint. We disappoint. Failure BEAR is around every MORTON corner. If that isn’t enough, we are in the middle of a presidential election year. The candidates are positioning themselves with promises. Can we trust them? Can we trust that they will deliver their proposed promises? Time will reveal if they are trustworthy or not. Do we live in a messed up world? You bet. Such a dilemma reminds me of the story of a woman driving through a snowstorm just outside of Denver. She was completely lost and struggling under the hazardous weather conditions. She was relieved when she happened upon a snowplow. Since she was lost, she decided to follow the truck and keep as close to it as she could while it removed snow from the road. Seems wise, right? At times the blowing snow almost cut off her view, but she kept following it. After some time, the snowplow stopped and the driver got out and came back to her car. “Lady, where are you going?” he asked. “I’m on my way to Denver,” she replied. The truck driver replied, “Well, you’ll never get there following me; I’m plowing a parking lot!” In this case, it would have been to the woman’s advantage to know the direction, purpose and plan of the snowplow before she started following it. It makes sense, then, before we let others lead us, to know their direction. It would be helpful to know that we can trust what they say and to see that their actions are trustworthy. May I propose to you in light of much-publicized promises that there is only One whom we can trust. There is only One who is a man of His word and has fulfilled and will fulfill all His promises. That person is God Himself. Solomon says this in Proverbs 3:5, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” Solomon’s wisdom is straightforward and based upon an examination of God’s character and Solomon’s personal experience of His goodness and kindness. Solomon lived that. As born-again Christians we too find ourselves living that. God does not disappoint. He is trustworthy. Why? Because of His character. God never changes or goes against who He is. Scriptures point to the reality that God is omniscient, which means He knows all things — past, present and future. Nothing happens without His knowledge. 1 John 3:20 says, “…for God is greater than our heart and knows all things.” Speaking of God, Job 12:13 says, “God is wise. With Him are wisdom and might; He has counsel and understanding.” David, in Psalm 139, says, “O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar.” The living God knows all things. That is just one attribute that describes God’s character, but there are many more. God is omnipotent, which means He is all powerful and sovereign. Nothing can defeat Him or rule over Him. Psalm 24:8 speaks to His power when it says, “The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord strong in battle…” And, get this, the Gospels speak of God’s power in Luke 1:37, which states, “With God nothing will be impossible.” In Matthew 19:26, Jesus says, “With God all things are possible.” A third characteristic of God is that He is omnipresent. This one just floors me. “Omnipresent” means that God is present everywhere at the same time, doing different actions according to His will and plan.

Please see Church, Page B2

Please see Morton, Page B2

PHOTOS BY PAT SUTPHIN, TIMES-NEWS

Light shines in through a stained-glass window and illuminates a cross engraved in the pews inside the chapel of the Trinity Lutheran Church on Tuesday in Eden. Steven Huettig, chair of the anniversary committee, said the pews were redone in 1962 and paid for by a member of the congregation that wanted padded seats.

Little country church Trinity Lutheran Want to go? Church celebrates 100 Saturday, Aug. 6 Ice cream social at 7 p.m. followed years TETONA DUNLAP tdunlap@magicvalley.com

EDEN — Tucked between Interstate 84 and the Snake River is a small country church. You might not know Trinity Lutheran Church exists, but it’s been there for 100 years. It sits at the intersection of Lutheran and Eden Road among fields where beans, corn and barley grow. When the church was founded in 1916, there were no roads to travel. The church’s first pastor, Rev. F.E. Traub, used to travel to Jerome by train in order to preach at the Luthern church there. Today, if you stand outside the chapel, face north toward the cemetery, you can hear the hum of traffic as it flies by on the Interstate. Inside the church Monday morning, Larry Schwarz mopped the floors of Trinity Lutheran Church just like his father before him did. Schwarz, 84, grew up in the church and attended its school. When he was a teenager, Schwarz used to sit up in the balcony with his peers and listen to the pastor’s sermon. When Schwarz was growing up, his family farmed beans, beets and potatoes. They had no tractor until he was 10 and used teams of horses to plow their fields. He moved away from the area for three years and lived in Seattle. Eventually, he returned home to farm for 40 years. “I’m just not a city guy,” Schwarz said. Trinity Lutheran Church’s congregation will celebrate its 100th anniversary with an ice cream social at 7 p.m. Saturday. It will be followed by devotions, entertainment and fireworks. The Rev. Paul Linnemann, president of the Northwest District of the Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod, will hold worship at 10 a.m. Sunday, followed by lunch and a brief program. Like Schwarz, Steven Huettig also moved away and returned to the church he grew up in. Huettig lived in Portland for a couple of years. He now farms as well. Huettig is the chair of the anniver-

by devotions, entertainment and fireworks. Sunday, Aug. 7

Worship at 10 a.m. with the Rev. Paul Linnemann, president of the Northwest District of the Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod, followed by lunch and a brief program. For more information about Trinity Lutheran, go to www.trinitylutheraneden.org. sary committee. His great grandfather was Julius Arno Huettig, a charter member who helped found the church. “It’s quiet, close and friendly here,” Huettig said. “Kind of like our little church.” Over the years, the church’s population has dwindled, but is stable now. There are 150 members and an average of 60 show up for Sunday worship. The church started out as a one-room building with a steeple in 1916. An elementary school was founded at the same time. The school closed in 1966 and in 1982 an early education center was open for students preschool through kindergarten. That center closed in 2006. The preschool was opened in 2014 and has 20 children enrolled. About 70 children attend the popular youth ministry King’s Kids. The current church was built in 1962. The original one was sold and is now on Locust Street in Twin Falls. The congregation hasn’t had a full-time pastor for two years. They are awaiting word to find out if a potential pastor will accept their offer to lead. Huettig said it’s a testament to the congregation that they are still going strong without a pastor. The church has had 20 pastors over its 100 years. Each stayed an average of five years. The Rev. Gary Benedix was pastor at Trinity from 1973 to 1977. When Benedix and his family came to Trinity, they had just returned from the Philippines where he served as a missionary for five years. He said they felt welcomed

A photo of Larry Schwarz as a child sits on display, left, as part of a scrapbook wall showcasing the history of the church while Schwarz browses through other photos in the background on Tuesday in Eden. Schwarz, 84, has been a member of Trinity Lutheran Church his entire life.

Trinity Lutheran Church will celebrate its 100 year anniversary Saturday with an ice cream social and fireworks. by the Trinity congregation. “The congregation at Trinity was like congregations everywhere,” Benedix said in an email. “People wanting to hear that God is first and foremost One who loves all people. And the people of Trinity in Eden loved knowing they were God’s children. That was the joy of my ministry there and wherever I have served.” Benedix said he is unsure whether or not he will be able to attend the centennial celebrations. The church’s gymnasium walls were decorated Monday with scrapbook pages containing old photos and newspaper clippings. Some were donated by congregation members and others were a part of church records.

Church member Shirley Schutte has worked on the project eight to 10 hours a day for the last two years. And it’s still not complete, she said. Schutte, a member of the centennial committee, grew up in Kimberly. Her husband grew up in the area and they live in the same house where he was born. “I learned a lot and got a real education,” Schutte said. “I just got interested and it grew.” After the centennial celebration, she will put the scrapbooks in the library for people explore church history. “We are blessed,” Huettig said. “This probably could have been the first congregation to fade out, but this little country church still has a mission.”

After arson, church rejoices again SCOTT MABEN The Spokesman-Review

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BONNERS FERRY, Idaho (AP) — It’s noon, time for the weekday Mass at St. Ann’s Catholic Church. But the church building is gone. Just a dusty gravel lot remains. The only clue to what happened here is the charred timbers of a detached bell tower along El Paso Street, reported The Spokesman-Review (http://bit. ly/2asLjih). Fourteen weeks after an arsonist burned the church to the ground, the small north Idaho parish is forging on with prayer

and song and hopes of rebuilding next year. For now, they worship on weekends in a Methodist church next door. During the week, the Rev. Carlos Perez leads Mass under a wooden pavilion next to his residence. On a Wednesday in July, four women and three men attend the 20-minute service, sitting on folding white chairs. It’s a pleasant day to be outside in the shade. Birds chirp and a train wails in the distance. “God is in our midst. He’s always in us, in good times and in bad times,” Father Perez says in

his brief homily. Carol Davis, who helps arrange chairs for the daily Mass, said she misses the quiet space for prayer in the sanctuary of the old church. “It’s disheartening,” Davis said. “But at night there is weeping, in the morning rejoicing. When this is over, we will rejoice.” “It’s sort of being on a permanent retreat,” she added. “We’re actually meeting like they did before churches, so it’s kind of nice that way.” Another parishioner, Karen Amidei, said she’s grateful for the shelter of the pavilion for Mass on Tuesday through Friday.


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