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Sunday Morning, August 21

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Our church doors opened at 8:00 AM for those who wanted to look at the displays which depicted our church life during the past 250 years, and many took advantage of that time.

There was no Sunday School – except for the very youngest classes.

Our PowerPoint committee members did a fabulous job of putting together a variety of slides and videos. Above you see one of our retired ministers Sam Cassel sharing some facts and memories.

It was interesting to hear a short description of several deceased ministers, then listen to their voice from one of their sermons. Above: Rufus Fahnestock. I especially enjoyed listening to my Grandpa Hershey’s voice.

Caleb Kreider

Luther and Joann Patches shared memories of when baptizing was in the pond in their yard.

There was a break for visiting and looking at the displays about the time we would usually have a break between Sunday School and the worship service.

Singing

Two guys from the youth group did a cute skit on I.N.H. Beahm – an interesting preacher from Virginia who preached in our church many times in the early 1900s. He was known for traveling by train and convincing a conductor to stop for him, even when it wasn’t an ordinary stop as he went around the country, preaching – and he was invited to a lot of churches.

I enjoyed it so much that I forgot to take pictures. This photo shows Derek Cassel introducing the children to I.N.H. Beahm (Isaac Newton Harvey Beahm).

After that he put on night clothing and a night cap and went to bed on the bench behind the pulpit. Suddenly there was the loud sound of knocking on the door. It was the story of when I.N.H. appeared at a preacher’s door early one morning to tell him that he was there to speak at his church that day.

They acted out a few other stories of his life, then ended with I.N.H. saying that he was thinking about going to the 250th Celebration of the White Oak Church. Derek said, “I think they have a speaker. Ken Leininger is supposed to be there.” I.N.H. who was very short, said, “You mean tall Ken Leininger – the giant.” 🙂

Ken Leininger enjoys history and shared interesting facts and things from our church history.

At the close of the service, it was time for lunch which was organized by our deacons and their wives. Many items were provided by people from our congregation.

There was a tent for extra seating. Many went there before sitting in the fellowship hall because the weather was so nice.

Instead of waiting in line, some used the time to look at displays.

Some of the young people chose to sit on the ground. When I saw Caden Wagner (green shirt on the right) I said, “I.N.H. Beahm, you did make it to our celebration.” He smiled and said, “I did.”

In my last post about our celebration, (tomorrow) I will tell you why we needed four busses.