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 organization by default....

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 did not even...

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 late for a...