As a Quality Review Nurse at Memorial Hospital’s Emergency Room and a father in a household with five teenagers and one preteen, Jerry Janssen faces many challenges daily. However, very few of those challenges are as memorable to him as the situation he faced as the vice president of the Lutheran Youth Organization (LYO) when he was in high school. The president of LYO had enlisted into the Army before his term of office was complete and Jerry became the leader of the organiz

When Wanda Williams moved to Springfield on Memorial Day of 1974, she had no idea what the future held for her. She knew she had a new job and had to find a place to stay. Moreover, Wanda had been a church goer all her life. “I had to find a church home where I felt accepted and comfortable.” To begin with Wanda felt she needed a place to settle. She really could not imagine making any kind of home here in Springfield since to her it seemed such a hostile place to live. “I

Mary Plymire grew up surrounded by the rhythms of church life and the harmony of the close-knit bond of her sisters. That early foundation of faith stayed with her through the years, even as life took her in new directions. In the late 1970s, Mary and her husband were raising their young family in Springfield and attending another local church. But on Christmas Eve in 1978, practicality led them to Grace Lutheran Church. Their home church was holding a midnight service—too la

When Brenda Poston retired from Bank of Springfield seven years ago, she was a Senior Vice President of Commercial Lending. This was just one of many roles Brenda played in her life. She was a daughter and sister who grew up in Attleboro, Massachusetts, a college student at Illinois College, a wife and mother, a community volunteer, an administrative assistant (who couldn’t type), a cocktail waitress and a part owner of a neighborhood bar. “It was like the TV show ‘Cheers’,”

Harrison Allen looks at life with two views – the creative and the practical. Harrison is an inventive eighth grader. “I enjoy reading books and writing fiction stories about the deep south, and cowboys of the far west. What drew me there is that I like the music from those areas,” he said. He also enjoys art, especially drawing cartoons and sketching blueprints for building robots. On the practical side, his interest in politics will hopefully lead to important leadership