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Reflections on our first 50 years

In The Beginning

By Pelham Bookout

 

It was January 1957.   We heard that a mission developer had arrived in our neighborhood to canvas the area for people interested in starting a new Lutheran church.  He was sent by the Board of American Missions of the United Lutheran Church, and he was going house to house inviting people to an Open House at his home to learn more about this.   Arthur and I were interested.  We had returned to Delaware about a year before and had gone back to St. Stephen’s, our church from our previous stay here.  We went to the meeting, along with about 46 adults and 16 children at the parsonage, the home in Graylyn Crest which the Mission Board had bought for this developer, the Reverend Samuel Besecker and his family.  Our second meeting was held at Concord Presbyterian Church in Fairfax on March 10, 195 7.   Arthur and several other men formed a steering committee which found a meeting place for worship at Carrcroft Elementary School and on March 31, we had our first service there with 134 adults and 73 children in attendance. *

 

Now the excitement began!  Each Sunday, Pastor Besecker would read the new number of people who agreed to sign a charter making us a congregation of the Lutheran Church in America.   When we reached 120 we had enough for a charter.  That was May 10.  We didn’t stop there, however.  The pastor, young people in the church and adults all continued to visit homes inviting people to come to our services and consider joining us.  My daughter Jean, who was a teenager, remembers how groups of these young people, accompanied by an adult would go into new developments, knocking on doors.  The church was formally organized on October 27, 1957.    

 

So much for statistics.  Now let’s get down to how this new enterprise affected my family.  First, Arthur was excited about having a brand new church, like a clean piece of paper; to build a new church without lots of contention.  Not so.  We found that the people who joined us all had their own ideas of how a new church should be organized.  It took lots of discussion and compromise to form a really strong organization with true Lutheran doctrine, but that’s what we did.  I was interested in the music and its importance in the worship service.  When we met at Carrcroft School we used an old pump organ supplied by the Winston Johnson family who also supplied their daughter Karen to play it.  She was young and healthy.  The several times I had to fill in for her I found out how young and healthy she was and I wasn’t!  When I‘d stand up after playing, my legs would give ‘way and I‘d have to sit down.  But that little organ gave us enough music for a small choir which led the congregation.  Arthur had volunteered to conduct the choir (another of his loves) and we tried (Oh! how we tried!) to add to the worship service.  However, there was always a hole in the choir, some part missing. For instance, we had one tenor, and if he was absent there was no tenor line in our anthems.  (When I hear our choir now I think of Arthur and how he’d have loved to have this choir with all the holes filled.)                                                      

 

So life continued to be exciting every week with new things happening, until we received word that we would have to move; the State’s Attorney General said we were mixing church and state by meeting in the school so we’d have to get out.  By that time we had a council and this body began a search for another home for us.  We weren’t ready to build a church yet but we were able to buy a small house in a new development on Wilson Road, leaving out the partitions to have a space for our congregation to worship.  We had several Sunday School classes now and they were divided into parts of the open room.  I was lucky.  My class was the smallest so I got to meet in the bathroom, the only room with a door.  It was nice to be able to shut out all other noises and just talk in normal voices.  We used the basement too for meetings and classes and one year we had a mission study (or Bible School, I forget which) where we designated each corner of the basement a different country and had decorations and stories to match.  I forgot to mention earlier that we always had Vacation Bible School, beginning with that first year when it was held in the parsonage.  Poor Marion Besecker!  How she ever put up with that I don’t know.  She was good about sharing her home and she was good about baking wonderful cakes every time we had any kind of meeting.

 

The house chapel served us well for a while, but we needed a real church home and the council began negotiations to buy land on Foulk Road and hire an architect to design what would become the first unit of our church.  Once again Arthur was excited and since he designed and built plants for Hercules he spent a lot of time checking on the builders and the architect until the building was finished.  It was an exciting time for all of us.  Finally our dream of a church home was coming into being.  We had each felt so vital, so necessary to everything that was happening in those early years.  We didn’t want to miss a single event or change. Pastor Besecker had agreed to become our permanent pastor and he and council worked together to make our dream come true. When the charter was ready to be signed Pastor had signed first with his wife and four children following him.  Then Arthur, as council president, had signed and our four children and I followed.  Now we were ready to worship in our new sanctuary.  In the original plan there were doors on either side of the altar, doors with crosses cut in glass.  As I sat down the sun came through the cross nearest to me and I felt it like a benediction.  This was my church home.  I had come home.  And I still come home as often as possible.  Arthur has died, the children are grown and gone but my heart stays at Good Shepherd. 

 

*Statistics from the booklet written by Arlene Steigler for our 40th anniversary

 

 

 

 

OUR FIRST CHURCH BUILDING --- AND A LEAKY ROOF

 

My wife, Harriet Shealy, was on the building committee for our first unit. When prints were reviewed, it was apparent that all of the building beyond the nave would have a flat roof. Harriet, who is observant of such things, protested that the flat roof would leak. The committee included duPont and Hercules engineers, who dismissed her protests. “A properly designed flat roof, such as this one, will not leak.” After all, what did a woman know about such matters? The building went up, flat roof and all, the rains came, and the engineers brought 5 gallon buckets to catch the drips. The roof was repaired and leaked -- again, and again, and again. Finally, as the church building was expanded, the flat roof was replaced with a peaked roof. To paraphrase, “Never underestimate the insights of a woman.”

 

- Otis Shealy

 

 

A Reflection

 

When I was asked to remember the early church, fifty years ago, it has become somewhat blurred.  But in trying to recall, one of the most meaningful blessings was the feeling of being needed, each of us had a calling.  There was a deep sense of obligation to do your share and to be present or you would be missed.  The circumstances were not always the best due to sharing space, portable set-ups and no class divisions.  It wasn’t easy to hold Bible School in a basement with sheets as dividers or teaching a class in the bathroom.  But, there was a wonderful unified spirit that we were called for a purpose. 

 

As time passed, we grew; we expanded and bettered our facilities.  We still enjoyed our Christmas parties, Progressive dinners and the fellowship of each other.

 

I feel that I was privileged being a Charter Member, that I received more than I gave, and there is not way to replace the deep feelings of belonging to God’s family.

 

~Trudy Maier

 

 

From Joyce Prater, a child charter member:

 

As a child charter member, my memories of Good Shepherd’s early years are a little different than those of the adult charter members. I was 5 at the time the charter was signed, as exhibited by my signature on the Charter and while the interests of the adult members focused on important issues such as the growth of the new church my early concerns tended to center around Sunday School and the various youth activities. 

 

My most vivid memories of the beginning of Good Shepherd involve the unconventional location of the Sunday School classrooms in the house chapel. Sunday School was held in every room of the house, including the basement/ garage. This lower, one room area was reserved for the younger children with the classrooms being defined by the various foundation poles. Although it was noisy and damp and in the winter, cold, no one seemed to notice since to most of us this was “normal”.

 

Once you reached a certain age (I think it was 4^th grade) you got to move upstairs with the “big” kids. Of course, no one told you that as the newest group upstairs you had the privilege (?) of having your classroom located in the bathroom. (Yes, you read that right….the bathroom). I vividly remember the six members of my class sitting on the tub, while our teacher had the seat of honor! I think actually, he chose to stand most of the time.

 

Each year you moved to another room in the house chapel including the kitchen, dining room and bedrooms. Again, this was just Sundays for the kids of Good Shepherd. I’m not sure we knew how to react when we moved into the new building and had actual classrooms! It just seemed too big and too quiet!

 

By the time I was in 7^th grade and ready to start confirmation we were in the “big” church. We had to attend Confirmation class every Saturday morning for 3 years. By this time we were in junior high and I don’t think any of us wanted to be there for 2 hours every Saturday morning. But Pastor Besecker had a way of inspiring attendance, (two absences and you repeat the year) and learning (you don’t pass every test, you repeat the year). So we all attended and we all learned!

 

Although I have many more memories of the early years of Good Shepherd, these are the ones that really stand out in my mind. Needless to say, those years certainly made an impression on me. Here it is fifty years later and every time I recite the Apostle’s Creed, I remember that I learned it while seated on the rim of the bathtub in the house chapel.

 

- Joyce Prater

 

 

Memories

 

When we first came to North Wilmington, we were told the Lutheran Church was interested in having a mission church in our area.  Since we were members of St. Stephen’s in Wilmington and we had two little girls, we thought it was a good idea to support the mission close to our home.

 

So, we along with 120 adults and 101 children became charter members of the Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd.  The name was chosen by a member.  It’s hard to recall those early days, but we were like a big family.  Everyone wanted to make it a success with the guidance of Pastor Besecker.

 

Both Fran and I were much involved, especially in the Sunday School.  I was in charge of the Vacation Bible School, the first being held at the home of Pastor and Mrs. Besecker.  Later being in the Chapel House gave us more room. 

 

The first family we sponsored was a couple with a child from Germany.  We rallied together getting them a place to live and furnishings.  Also, we found a job for the father.  The next family was from Uganda, and Indian family of nine.  Again, the church family supplied them with a house, furnishings, and jobs for 3 adult children.

 

We have served on various committees throughout these past 50 years.  There are just a few charter members still here.  We feel we have been blessed being members of Good Shepherd.

 

- Pauline and Francis Raughley

 

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America