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Harcourt (IA) Church to Celebrate 125 Years
HARCOURT, IA (June 19, 2002) - Glenn R. Palmberg, president of the Evangelical
Covenant Church, will preach during the 9:30 a.m. morning worship
service
September 8 as Lanyon Covenant Church celebrates 125 years of ministry.
Eric Marx said that the church is celebrating its heritage during the
weekend of September 5-8. The theme is "His Glory: Yesterday, Today, and
Forever." Palmberg will also speak during a September 7 banquet hosted
at
the church.
Palmberg has family ties with Lanyon Covenant as his paternal
grandfather,
Oscar Palmberg, served as pastor at the church from 1901-1907. By then,
the
church (originally known as the Lost Grove Evangelical Mission Church)
was
already 25 years old. A revival in the spring of 1876, led by Rev. A.
Hallner, had been the precursor for starting the church on September 1,
1877, with nine charter members. Mission meetings were started in
January
1878 and a building was erected 10 years later one and a half miles west
of
Lanyon.
Within two decades of starting the church, the congregation had produced
a
Covenant missionary, David E. Johnson, who served from 1891 to 1904 in
Unalakleet, Alaska. Martin Axelson, Emory Lindgren and Charles Ryberg
eventually followed Johnson to Alaska in missionary service. Other
missionaries went to Canada (F.O. Gustafson), Congo (Doil and Ruth
Burkett)
and China (Dr. Obed S. Johnson and Martha Anderson). Anderson was
martyred
for her faith January 7, 1948, while serving as a missionary
to China.
According to church records, seven others served as pastors or in other
full-time ministry positions during the church's first 100 years. One of
them was J. Fredrick Burgh, a longtime professor and administrator at
North
Park College.
Lanyon Covenant currently has an average attendance of about 80. It is
located 20 miles south of Fort Dodge and 75 minutes northwest of Des
Moines. The unincorporated town has a population of 50 and the church
has
people attending from 12 different townships. Two of its members,
Richard
and Marlys Johnson, serve the denomination as missionaries in Colombia.
For more information about the church and its celebration in September,
call Marx at 515-879-2414 or email him at enpmarx@wccta.net.
Copyright © 2008 The Evangelical Covenant Church. |
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