Photo Gallery
During our 150th anniversary celebration, we were honored to have as our guests Miss Fanny Crosby )(Pat Houser), Miss Jennie James (Samantha Boston) and Peter Cartwright (Don Parsons).
Fanny Crosby wrote thousands of poems, many of which were put to music and became some of our best loved hymns. Jennie James, an Ashland native (James Park is named for her family) became a missionary and served in India. Peter Cartwright was a circuit rider who settled in Central Illinois. (Visit the museum at our sister church to learn more about Rev. Cartwright.) These historic characters were brought to life during our anniversary celebration as we shared where we came from and where we are headed in the future.
Our church family worked together to create a beautiful float depicting our past (Rev. Cartwright), our present (Pastor Smith) and our future (the Sunday School children). We received 2nd place in the village's float competition.
Created by Tom Beckett, this plane and fish serve as a memorial to Lee Houser. Lee carved fish banks for our church family as part of our Pennies for Hunger campaign. The plane symbolizes Lee's love of flying and the many airplanes that he carved as a hobby.
Samantha Boston as Miss Samantha, a school teacher from 1857, who made many visits to the children at Second Saturday as part of our 150th celebration. Miss Samantha has shared stories of life in 1857 while encouraging the children to share what their lives are like in 2007.
Second Saturday - December 2007. Despite freezing rain, about 15 children provided a wonderful program to a great crowd. The children also made Christmas cards that were delivered to residents of Walker Nursing Home and decorated cupcakes that were served as refreshments following the program. We offer special thanks to our brothers and sisters of First Baptist Church for allowing us to use their fellowship hall this month.
December 16, 2007 - The Sunday School children and their teachers presented a program during the worship service. The program, written by Phoebe Betters, was "A Christmas Comedy". The play began with a June Cleaver type mom (Samantha) reading a story to her active 3 year olds (Johanna & Kim). The story featured the nativity story from the viewpoint of the donkey (Gretchen), the star (Addie), the shepherds (Molly & Cheyenne), the sheep (Cerys & Kaitlin) and the angel (Izeyar). Frankie and Kobe portrayed Mary and Joseph. Will and Kyler rounded out the cast as the little drummer boys who came to share in the good news of Jesus' birth.
