Depending on the kindness of strangers

My childhood church in Laona, NY. The church was raised
and a new basement put under it in my teen years.
The addition at the rear is more recent.

This is a shout out to Frances Lyon of the United Methodist Church's Commission on Archives and History (located, it turns out, in Madison, NJ), who found a piece of information for me that had proved elusive despite many Internet searches.

The little (well, not so little any more) country church in which I grew up is celebrating its 150th anniversary this fall and I have been composing a reminiscence of my years growing up in the congregation from 1948 to the early 1960s.

I was able to find obituaries for the minister and his wife from my early years but was completely stumped when it came to the Rev. Harold J. Wood, who served in the late 1950s to early 1960s. (In those years, ministers were moved about after a few years to a new congregation.)


In desperation, I sent an email to an address I found for the UM Archives folks and within an hour Ms. Lyon had sent me a PDF of the memorial for Rev. Wood from the 1971 Journal of the Troy (NY) Annual Conference.


This little Evangelical United Brethren congregation truly served its community and took seriously its responsibility for Christian service in the wider world.


I owe much of my outlook on life and community service to these warm-hearted and welcoming folks and will ever be in their debt.



It was there I learned the Sunday School song, "Jesus loves the little children." That's a pretty good summary for a lifelong view.


Many thanks for this service of kindness from a complete stranger. Heartening in these troubled times.

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 -- Dan Damon [ follow ]

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