Bethlen Naptár, 1986 (Ligonier)

Kálvin Egyházkerület

162

BETHLEN NAPTÁR

mérjen nekik is hasonló mértékkel, részünkről pedig tisztelet és hála legyen irántuk. Isten legyen irgalmas továbbra is e kicsiny nyájhoz.

WHITING, INDIANA Lelkipásztor: Ludwig Kálmán Károly

Carol Scheibel, Chief Elder; Magdalene Bajzatt, Assistant Chief Elder; Deanna Taylor, Secretary; Louis Gyure, Treasurer; Elisabeth Salas, Ladies Aid President; Janellen Peterson, Organist; Cathy Rozek, Organist; Deanna Taylor, Sunday School Teacher.

Our congregation — founded in 1919 — rejoices that today we are our Lord’s servants, just as our parents were when they founded this church. In spite of the fact that several of our members have suffered severe financial setbacks due to the current economy, and others because of prolonged illness in their families, we continue at our work as we see the Lord directing us.

This past April we lost two of our longtime faithful friends. First Julia Phillips, after a lengthy illness was called home, leaving her husband Steve to grieve her loss. Julia had been active in the Ladies Aid and in the church for many years and will be missed by our congregation. Shortly after, Mary Gabor passed away after a lengthy illness, called home to her husband who was taken from us tragically over ten years ago. With their passing, we now have only one first generation Hungarian left in the congregation. Yet we can not forget the Reformed Christian tradition which they brought, and which remains as part of our legacy. For Julia’s and Mary’s love for the church and the Ladies Aid, which were an integral part of their lives, remains in their friend and all of us who carry on.

As in the past, our congregation has been very active. We have various fundraising events: our community bingo, attended by many of the elderly ladies in the community, continues to be not only a source of income but a public service to many of the widows in the community. Our sausage sales, which has a following of its own. And our Ladies Aid again has had bake sales and bazaars in which church members pitched in; as in the past, it seems that the true European pastries disappear immediately. Ours are not just Hungarian, for our congregation has had Slovak Reformed members since the mid 1930s, and these members continue to contribute their baked goods, too.