Oh, how many pleasures there are in thinking back over 150 years of God's faithfulness to

this church.

For example, the pleasure of looking through the 125th anniversary book at this particular

page, which has the pictures of 20 of the 23 founding members, 14 women and 9 men, and

noticing in particular, down here in this corner, right there, which you can't see.

The name August Momston, who is the grand father of Marles Ayronson, who is sitting right

there with Carl and Alice, her children.

So there's a direct link of blood, I mean grandfather, that's yesterday.

So Marles, we honor you and your line all the way back.

Wave at us so they know who you are, wave at it, there you go.

That's one of the pleasures.

Another pleasure is to remember that there were 61,000 Swedish immigrants in this 14-year-old

state in 1871, 20 Swedish-speaking churches outstate servicing those 61,000 Swedish immigrants

in Minnesota.

There were 1200 of them in Minneapolis with one Swedish-speaking church, which happened

to be Augustana Lutheran, which now houses one of our church plants, isn't that cool?

Therefore, there was a need for the Baptists, and it was August Momston, who had the idea.

We probably would not be here, were it not, for Marles' grandfather.

Another pleasure.

John Ring, the first pastor of the church, had been imprisoned in Sweden for his Baptist

faith, which is a great legacy for us to remember.

Another pleasure.

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