In which JC feels really good about himself.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

You ever have that deep sense of personal satisfaction that comes of doing good in the world?

I do. Right now.

I have a pal named Packrat. That’s his Cat23 handle (Cat23 is an online group of Diplomacy players). He’s recently sworn off to focus on school. He’s 40+ with 4 kids and back in school. He’s in school to become a pastor or somesuch.

Now let me take us back 10+ years…

Lady Chance (prior to our marriage) and I were browsing at the antique fair at Columbia Mall (in Columbia, MD, unsurprisingly) one Sunday. It’s an outdoor fair in the parking lot. Hot as blazes so I’m assuming this would have been July or August. Maybe in 1992 or so.

Lady Chance is looking at dolls and such. I’m mostly making the scene, not really looking to buy anything.

However…

I collect old hand-written journals and diaries, letters and documents. She points me to a dealer specializing in such. Kind of her.

Most of the stuff is too expensive for me. I recall one letter of indenture from the 1700s that I really wanted but the price made my blood pressure spike.

Then I stumble across something. A journal, leather-bound, about 3/4 inch thick with the word ‘Vermeldungen’ on the cover. I open it. It’s a record of sermons, collections, and other activities for the English Lutheran Church of the Redeemer at Fort Wayne, Indiana dated August 23, 1908 to November 20, 1912. The dealer only wants $15 for it. I pick it up.

When I show it to Lady Chance she mentions that it would be nice if we could track down the church and see if they wanted it. I agree but do nothing about it.

Fast forward to 2003. 10 years gone. In that time I’ve gotten married, entered and exited graduate school. Bought a house, sold a house, bought a house. Moved to Iowa, then to Virginia, then to Maryland then to Virginia. Become a parent. I am most decidedly not thinking about a certain pastors journal in the spare room.

With me so far? OK, then. Hang on.

I’m chatting with Packrat via email and he mentions he’s in Lutheran seminary in Fort Wayne.

It rings a bell. A faint one. Then a louder one. I tell him about the journal but I can’t really remember the contents, just that it was Lutheran and in Fort Wayne…maybe. He’s interested (understandly, I think). I tell him I’ll look.

And now, two weeks after I first mention it to him I find it in Lady Chance’s antique desk upstairs. I open and read it. Then email the Packrat.

He calls and we discuss the history of the Lutheran Church in Fort Wayne. There isn’t an English Lutheran Church of the Redeemer still open in Fort Wayne but he’s got some leads.

I’m sending it to him tomorrow. I really hope that it will provide some light to some people in Fort Wayne on the history of their church and the development of their faith in the city.

I feel remarkably good right now.

2

That is so cool.

It’s so cool, it has it’s own level of coolness.

3

What Payton’s Servant said.

4

That is awesome, Jonathan! It feels so good when you can make the connection that helps people – I know how you must feel!

Congratulations on a job well done – even though you had no idea you were ever going to do it!

5

*Pats JC on the back *

Good work! Especially eerie since you’re Jewish, aren’t you? So I wonder what possessed you to pick that one out? BTW, Vermeldungen means “Reports” or “Reporting” in German, AFAIK. It’s also interesting to me that somebody would have brought a report journal from Germany to record stuff in Fort Wayne.

6

Now thats just plain cool as hell.

7

Thanks, all. I’m still on cloud nine.

Oddly, though the cover and title page on the book are in German it was printed in St Louis. I just sort of assumed it was a Lutheran thing.

Yes, I’m a Jew. That does make it funnier, doesn’t it?

8

Will you let us know what your friend finds out?

9

Jonathan Chance

Really really cool

Bitchin’ cool

Pretty cool

Moderately cool

Tepid

10

Typical guy!

Isn’t it nice when things like that seem to cosmically come together? Maybe the church in question merged with another church in a hostile takeover.

11

My Jesus can kick your Jesus’s ass.

12

I’ll take Moses and the points.

Update:

Packrat found them!

They had a fire in 1922 and ended up sharing a church with some other denomination for a while (Christians are weird). But Packrat called around and spoke with some jr guy at an English Redeemer Church and some of the data in my (his…their!) book matches with their records of the age. Same number of baptisms, deaths, marriages for 1910. That’d do it for my history advisor way back when…it works for me now!

The guy Packrat spoke with couldn’t take it much further (he didn’t know much more) but the Pastor at the church is supposed to call him later this week.

13

That is really cool. Keep us updated, JC.