Holy Cross in Highlands Ranch Colorado
We started this blog because of the partnerships that existed between the Minnesota North District and the North Dakota District in so many ways that we never thought about and now that some of those are formalized it is fun to see how our paths continue to ‘cross’.
I went to the the graduation of my nephew and God child last week and I attended church at Holy Cross. This congregation is Pastored by Rev. Skelton, who, if my memory serves, which it often does not, has a connection to Hankinson North Dakota. It seems that half the Missouri Synod has a connection to Hankinson. Pastor Skelton was gone on vacation and filling in for him was a retired Pastor by the name of Wayne Woolery. Pastor Woolery I came to find out was a roomate of Ken Weinlaeder when they went to school at Seward. Ken is the brother of Roger Weinlaeder who is one of the original Project 24 guys. Woolery also asked me about Pastor Phil Hanneman who is a Pastor in Rugby North Dakota. They are evidently friends so – Hello Pastor Hanneman.
My brother, who is the organist at Holy Cross, then introduced me to a women that obviously had been gone from the congregation for a while. Her name is Denise Seaman and right now she is living in Cypress. She is working with a mission called “Lutheran Radio – United Kingdom”. I told her that I was on the Board of International Missions and she asked if I knew Brent Smith. Brent is the Regional Director for World Missions in EurAsia. I had a wonderful lunch at his home in Oberusel Germany a few years ago. The partner church that is doing the Radio Work is the Evangelical Lutheran Church of England and when it was constituted as an independent sister church in 1954, the first Pastors installed were the Rev. Norman Nagel, and the Rev. Louis Brighton who were two of my Professors when I was going to school. Anyway Denise has a program on this radio station every Thursday called Songs of Hope. Check it out at http://www.lutheranradio.co.uk/programme.php.
On a more somber note another connection was discovered during the prayers. Rev. Gary Buss is the Pastor at Messiah in Grand Junction. Gary was a good friend of mine while in North Dakota and the Pastor at Redeemer in Lisbon. When he moved to Grand Junction he was the Pastor that buried my Uncle Howard Seter. Gary is battling cancer so your prayers are requested too.
I mentioned that a former Pastor from Minnesota North and North Dakota is down the road from my brothers house. Pastor Stoltenow is at Shepherd of the Hills in Centennial. His associate Pastor is Greg Zillinger who was Pastor at Hannover North Dakota. One of our Mary Okeyo Scholarship travelers, Mike Henke is from Hanover. It is truly a small world.
