This week’s story is about someone who has been a special acquaintance of mine since childhood. We were never school classmates because we never attended the same school. We attended the same church so we were Sunday School classmates even though we lived in different states. The photo below shows Lakeside Evangelical Free Church at the corner of Sarnia and Huff Streets in Winona, MN. This photo was taken after it was converted from a church to a home in the years following the church’s move to a larger building known as Pleasant Valley Ev. Free Church but that happened after each of us left home.
My family and I lived on a dairy farm in WI when I was a child which was seven miles from the church we attended in Winona, MN. Our farm was near Fountain City, WI (photo below) which bordered the Mississippi River a few miles north-east of the bridge across the river into Winona, MN which also bordered the Mississippi River on the west side.
I was probably about ten years old when my family and I began attending this church. This was a place our family loved and I have many wonderful memories of our years as part of the congregation of this church.
But the highlight of my years at this church was my friendship with Andrea Stallknecht. She was almost exactly one year older than I as we both had early December birthdays. Almost immediately as our family began to attend Lakeside Free Church, Andrea and I became inseparable friends while at church and while attending all activities for children, teens and families that were held there. The photo below was taken of the Pastor’s Instruction Class which we both attended the year I was in fifth grade. In the picture below, my eighth grade brother is in the middle of the back row with Andrea on his left. I am on the far right. This class was held on Saturday mornings during the school year. We memorized lots of scripture and were taught many valuable things about the Bible and its teaching during that year of time.
Our church encouraged youth ages 10 - 18 to attend a week of Bible camp during the summer. Andrea had probably had one year of camp experience before we became friends but I was easily convinced that a week of summer camp would be lots of fun. She and I began attending Camp Decorah together probably in August 1955. Her parents invited me to go with them to check into camp. Andrea and I were able to stay in the same tent every summer through our school years and loved those experiences immensely. Each year we climbed Decorah Peak while at camp so my sister Margelyn and I stopped to get some photos of the peak on a drive by the area a few years ago.
Here’s the peak in the distance of the photo below. The camp is a Boy Scout campgrounds. They used it early in the summer and allowed the grounds to be rented for a week in August by a group for use as a Bible Camp for children from a number of churches in the area.
There were many other church events that we attended together. As teens we had youth fellowship at church prior to the Sunday evening service, youth group parties quite often were held at the Stallknecht home, as teenagers we added a stop at an ice cream parlor after Sunday evening services and in winter we had ice skating parties, tobogganing parties and scavenger hunts. We giggled through church services if our mother’s let us sit together. We also had a blast each 4th of July when we had a church wide picnic at the Arches Park which was a beautiful place to run and play. The spring banquet for teens was a fun dress up event for the area youth who did not go to their school proms. If something happened at church, Andrea and I would both be there and be doing it together.
As I look back on this special childhood friendship there is something I haven’t yet mentioned which was a huge gift to me. Our church had a Sunday morning service and a Sunday evening service. Both my family and Andrea’s family attended both of these services unless we were snowed in. So every Sunday during the summer months, Andrea would ask if I could go home with her after the morning service and stay all afternoon until evening service after which I would go home with my parents. I am quite sure I had this privilege at least a hundred times if not more. Andrea’s father was the caretaker/groundskeeper for a very wealthy widow. Andrea’s family lived on the estate of Mrs. Little. The grounds of this property were a paradise with many amenities which I did not have on our farm. There was an inground swimming pool, tennis courts, five acres of mowed grass, a rose garden and beautiful wooded paths all around the property. Andrea and I had limits to what we could do so only once did she give me a tour inside Mrs. Little’s fabulous 48 room mansion but there was still plenty that we could do. Andrea’s family always warmly welcomed me. As I visited in this home so often, I was observing a rich measure of hospitality which allowed me to learn things that I would use later as a Pastor’s wife and a mother in my own home. I was blessed by the opportunities I had as Andrea’s friend and our friendship has lasted into adulthood though we have not continued to live near each other where we could attend the same church. I am sure that our shared commitment to Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior provided the basis for our common interests so that we enjoyed being together no matter what age we were.
The picture below is of Andrea and me a few years ago.
Our husbands joined us for the photo below.
I am very thankful for this dear lifelong friend and her wonderful family.
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