Woodlawn Christian Church Sesquicentennial Celebration 9/13/15

Sign in front of the abandoned Lohrville Christian Church
Lohrville, Iowa

Well this past Sunday, September 13th, 2015 was the official 'Sesquicentennial Celebration' here at Woodlawn Christian Church.  One hundred and fifty years ago on the 6th of September, a group of men and women came together and started a small church which would eventually evolve into the 'Woodlawn Christian Church' that we know and love today.

We had a good turnout for the service and it was a great event. Originally, we'd hoped to worship outside that morning, but it was a bit too cool for some of the members so we opted to stay in the Sanctuary.  After the service, we of course had a potluck luncheon.  The Church provided the meat and buns and the side dishes were all provided by the members of the congregation.  As always, it was a great feast and I for one certainly ate far, far too much food.

Julie Gibson our area Associate Regional Minister, was here at Woodlawn Christian in order to join in on the festivities.  It was great to have Julie here with us again, she has been such a steadying force for the church as it went through it's long and frustrating search for a new minister; and we're very happy to maintain that relationship with her now that hopefully things are off on a more stable footing.

Woodlawn Christian Church, Sept 13, 2015
Lake City, Iowa
Pastor Roy Karlen

Prior to the service starting, myself along with a few of the men decided to go ahead and try to locate the 'rumored' time capsule that was supposedly buried by one of the Vacation Bible School classes back in 1974.  We suspected that it was buried under a rock that is situated in front of the old tree where so many of the classes back then would take their class photographs.

Lonnie Daisy, Jeff Frank & Clyde Westcott
Woodlawn Christian Church, Lake City, IA

Armed with three shovels and a giant pry bar we managed to dig up the rock.  We immediately realized that just as an iceberg conceals most of it's mass, this rock was a hidden giant.  We were able to dig the hole in such a fashion that we were able to roll the rock over and check underneath.  After going down several additional inches (digging made difficult by a considerable number of large tree roots) we found nothing.  By this time a member had shown up with a metal detector and we checked the bottom of the hole.  There was no response from the detector.

We continue to gather details as more folks are discovered who remember the burial of the capsule.  Just this morning Evelyn Johnson told me that her husband Darryl believes he remembers where it is buried.  Darryl is recovering from an illness right now and hopefully he'll soon be strong enough to come to church and point out the exact spot.  We haven't given up hope of finding the capsule quite yet.  Another individual was able to tell us that it's buried in an old metal ice cream bucket.  Hopefully, we'll be lucky and the metal won't have completely corroded away after forty one years of being buried.

I've attached to this post the video of the Children's Sermon above, along with the video of the Sermon itself which is linked directly below.

The photo of the sign at the very top of the blog today, is the sign that sits in front of the old Church of Christ in Lohrville, IA.  The building is no longer being used as unfortunately the congregation voted to close a number of years ago.  The building and the land belong to the Region and just yesterday I was successful in purchasing the sign from the Region.  We will be moving the sign over to Lake City in the near future.  There will be no restoration to the sign as it's in a magnificent state of weathering as it currently is.  We will investigate how to keep it from deteriorating any farther while still keeping it's absolutely beautiful state of aging intact.  I just love this old sign and I'm so very excited that the Church Council went along with their crazy Pastor and allowed me to negotiate for it's purchase.  It's wonderful that this old sign can once again serve a Disciples of Christ Church in the nearby area.

As always, I thank everyone who has wandered through this humble little blog and I hope you've found something enjoyable or perhaps something useful to you in your spiritual journey.  May the good Lord bless you and guide you along your path.

In Christ,
Roy