church parking lot


When I was growing up our family attended a little country church two large country blocks down the road.


I wonder why they took this photo?
It could be because this is likely how the cars were parked every single Sunday.
Our car was either 1st or 2nd on the parking lot.
My mother was punctual.
I expect I inherited this from her.
It is the turquoise  '56 Chevy.
The other family...the Poetkers were either 1st or 2nd on the parking lot.
Their car is the white Ford Falcon.

I can't remember who owned the maroon...navy or green car.
They did not have a girl my age..
so it probably didn't matter.

I loved that little church.
I was baptized there as a teenager.
I was a candle lighter for two weddings in that church.
My girl friends and I raced around the church when we waited for our parents.
We picked little bits of boxwood off of the perfect square bushes.
We ate downstairs now and then and loved the aroma of pickles and coffee and fresh buns.
On occasion I would go home with Nancy or Shirley or they would come home with me...
and return for the evening service to go home with our parents.
I sang in the choir and learned to sing in harmony.
I watched the clock for both hands to point straight up...
so we could go.


I think of my Sunday School teachers through the years.
I remember...
Mrs. Wiebe, Mrs. Haak, Mrs Teichrob, Mrs. Peters, Mrs. Froese...
ladies that  loved Jesus and taught from the word of God.
They might wonder if any of it made an impact.
It did.


all for now..




Comments

  1. What special memories of a place that had a huge impact on you!

    Love the cars....

    Deanna

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  2. Those old photos are precious..they bring back many memories. Thanks for sharing Lovella.

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  3. What great memories! I love the photo. I have similar memories -- with different style cars. :) I should try to collect photos of every church I went to growing up -- bad side and good side to going to many, different churches.

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  4. Those are great memories....running so similar to my own.....it's heart warming!:0

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  5. This taught me something. I do not like cars pictured in my photographs and work carefully around them if I can. But this photo is great! It really is. Your family car is my favorite, too. Very snazzy with the white top and turquoise bottom. I must remember to document, too.

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  6. All that and not one mention of anything spiritual...oh dear. Sunday school classes are remembered with great fondness here as well and my pastor's wonderful way with a flannel graph.

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  7. Oh boy - that photo and your stories bring back a flood of memories for me too. 8 kids piled into the old Ford with mom finishing up our braids, wiping our faces from the front seat, straightening up the boy's shirts - Oh My. I recall that we were usually one of the last cars in the parking lot (hmmm - wonder where I get that from :)).

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  8. Great memories. Love the photo of the cars all lined up, too.

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  9. What lovely memories! I have many memories of Sundays as a child, going to the big brick Baptist Church. The decades fly by so quickly, don't they?

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  10. Good Grief! Were all mennonite churches the same or what? I have almost identical memories from East Chilliwack MB days.

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  11. I remember the old bells ringing before service start. I got to pull on the bell rope as a kid, it was so fun!

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  12. We usually lived close enough to walk to church... but that does not change some of the same memories inside. That is a great photo!

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  13. Hi Lovella,
    Great to see you again today at Winks!
    And of course to be able to make our connections that go back to VCS..and Wendy...not being Mennonite I love to at least try to play "the Mennonite game" with all the lovely people I have met en route during our time here in Abbotsford.
    Ready to make my next MGCC recipe.
    Just trying to get the courage to start.
    What's stopping me is that I am actually having the audacity to try an ethnic Mennonite recipe for a group of REAL (yes, not fake... Haha!) Mennonites!
    I am curious to know which church this is?
    I love history...and am interested to know.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Jane,
      It was so good to see you today too.
      I love that you are trying all these recipes. You certainly are inspiring.
      The church was Matsqui MB. It still stands near the corner of Gladwin and Harris.

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  14. After a somewhat flustered morning teaching the preschoolers at our church I came home and came across this post. I teared up reading, thinking that maybe God could use even this young mother's rushed preparations to build into the lives of the kids in our church. Thanks for sharing.

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  15. What a great photo from a by-gone era! I love that your folks took photos of the everyday...and the mundane. Now they are treasures! That looks much like the parking lot at the country church I attended long ago...and I too have good memories of my Sunday School teachers. (Miss Riediger, Miss Willms, Mrs. Hamm, Miss Wiens, Mrs. Warkentine. I'm sure they had first names as well...but we never knew them in those days!)

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  16. A lovely trip down memory lane - we'd give something for those old cars now! And your post brought to mind my old church in Ontario - girls club, German school, choosing books in the basement library, Sunday School teachers and sitting on the front bench with all the other kids in church trying to be good!

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