Henry Gort, 80, speaks fondly of his 60-year membership at Moline (Mich.) Christian Reformed Church, which is celebrating its 100-year anniversary in 2008.
Gort married his wife, Edith, (now deceased) there in 1948, and the couple’s daughters were baptized and married there.
Lois Wiers, 73, recalled that in her youth, men smoked pipes. “One guy put his pipe in his overcoat pocket and hung it in the cloakroom,” she said. “During the service, we smelled smoke.” A quick-thinking church member tossed the coat outside before fire could damage the church.
Eleven members of this small congregation are direct descendents of charter members, said church history writer Henry Raad, whose grandparents and father were Moline members.
“Change is all around us, but God remains faithful,” said Rev. John Ouwinga. “There’s a commitment to sharing Christ from one generation to the next.”
