Bovina U.P. Church Bicentennial Saturday wrap-up

A final entry from yesterday – the history program commemorating the Bovina U.P. Church’s Bicentennial was held last night. We had a respectable crowd. The competition of a major wedding and the fact that it was cold last night didn’t make the crowd overwhelming, but it was decent. Two more former pastors of the Bovina Church showed up for this event. Maynard Grunstra and his wife Betty came and I was pleased how quickly I recognized him after not seeing him in 40 years. But before I could say hello to him, I got a big hello from somebody else and when I said ‘And you are?’ it turned out to be Grunstra’s successor as pastor, Bob Hammer. Given that I knew him probably the best of all our pastors and that he was easily recognizable, I was ever so slightly embarrassed.

I got very kind reviews for my presentation “The Reluctant Reverend Graham and other Stories of Bovina Pastors.” One feature of the presentation not planned was learning how to soldier on as one young attendee rather loudly expressed his displeasure at something – probably me, but who knows? Ministers are very familiar with doing that. Bob Hammer said I did fine dealing with it, but it did throw me a bit. As I’ve mentioned before, I will be putting at least parts of the talk on my blog. One part of my presentation was about Mason W. Pressly, and I’ve already blogged about him.

My cousin Colleen Burns Heavey then presented a very lovely 17 minute slide show, with music and pictures about the Bovina church over the years. That was all followed in the great tradition of the church, a dessert reception with a variety of homemade goodies. Then home to bed after a long day reminiscing.