This document is not in as bad a shape as it looks. Dad's family were members of the Mennonite Brethren Church. This "sect" was a little more liberal than the "old" Mennonites, but not much. My Grandfather's name was John Barkman Dick. He was known as J.B. Dick. (His name is written on the front of the report.) Grandpa was a minister of the gospel in the church. He never had a church of his own, I think, but rather was an evangalist that they brought in for crusades. I understand he was an Elmer Gantry type with fire and brimstone in his words. The problem for Grandpa was that he only preached in German. This means that when they migrated to California, there were still a few German services, but now mostly everything was in English. This means that Grandpa was out of the preaching line. He had nother other skills, probably finished the 4th grade so he became a farm laborer. However, he was able to develop enough skills at his job that there was basically work for him most of the year so he did not have to follow the crops. They landed in Reedley and that's where they stayed. Grandpa did, however, I think, stay pretty involved with the inner-workings of the MB Church in Reedley which was a huge church and would probably have attended these Annual Business Meetings. This one was from 1957. It is about 50 pages long.
1 comment:
In the deep recesses of my memory as a very young child, I remember being taken by Grandpa, I think, to a service in the old church before the new church was built. If my memory is true, it seems like we sat upstairs somewhere, it was very hot with everyone handfanning themselves, and, I think, the service was interactive with contention, though I am not sure.
Maybe the service was one of those business meetings held in the 1940's. I remember hating it, especially because it was held in German.
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