Žohnowane hody (that’s “Merry Christmas” in Upper Sorbian, aka Wendish) from Lee County, Texas!* It’s been a few days since I’ve posted any history, but I’ve been saving this one up for all y’all because it’s seasonally appropriate! (Okay, truth be told I wrote this before Christmas and it’s been just waiting for me to …
I can’t believe we’re just ten days away from Christmas! It doesn’t seem like it was all that long ago that we were driving back to Hutto from spending Christmas with Margie’s family in Alabama, followed by a fun little road trip on our way back that took us through my old home in Chattanooga, …
The school that is now Concordia University Texas has more than a few links back to the churches that can trace their roots to Serbin. One that I found interesting is that when classes began at Lutheran Concordia College of Texas on October 26, 1926, its library included a complete set of Lehre und Wehre …
Wishing I was in Texas so I could attend the Warda Church Picnic today! Won’t be arriving back in Austin until far too late, though. Check this out though… on this page you can see a scan (and the German text and English translation) of Pr. Gottfried Buchschacher’s call to Holy Cross (at that time …
Pr. Gottfried Buchschacher’s Divine Call to Holy Cross Warda Read More »
Morning in Warda, Texas, y’all! In some ways, I’d rather be there than where I am (waiting for my connecting flight to Spartanburg, South Carolina at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Can We Add More Words to Make the Official Name Longer Please International Airport). This morning while I was waiting for my flight out of Austin, …
After Pastor Stiemke accepted the call to Trinity Lutheran Church in Houston in 1879, Holy Cross had no pastor for about two years. During this time, the congregation was served by the Rev. Carl Ludwig Geyer of St. Peter’s in Serbin until the vacancy was filled by the Rev. Gottfried Buchschacher. Buchschacher was born in …
“Rejoice with me; for I have found the [that] which I had lost.” Read More »
Pastor Stiemke of Holy Cross was certainly aware of the interpersonal conflicts that had resulted in the separation of Holy Cross as well as St. Peter’s in Serbin from Kilian’s congregation in Serbin. That’s why I find this tidbit from a letter from Pr. Kilian wrote to the Rev. F. J. Biltz in Concordia, Missouri …
“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” Read More »
The Rev. Timotheus Stiemke was in a difficult situation. He’d been assigned to a new Lutheran congregation in the little town of New Start (a few miles south of Serbin), where he was installed on the fourth Sunday in Advent in 1874. Stiemke was the second pastor to serve the congregation, which had only been …
“And unto the Wends I became as a Wend, that I might gain the Wends…” Read More »
One thing that caught my attention when I was reading about the history of Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Warda is that they were briefly served by a licensed ministerial candidate who is just listed as “F. Jesse.” From 1959-63, the Rev. Albert Jesse, who was also pastor at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Austin …
Holy Cross Warda’s Link to a Past President of the LCMS Texas District Read More »
Imagine this… it’s 1873. You’ve just graduated from the Pilgrim Mission Training School in St. Chrischona, Switzerland, and you’ve received your first assignment. It’s to a tiny new congregation in very rural (and undeveloped) Texas. That’s the situation the Rev. Johann Christian Eduard Zapf found himself in. He was assigned to Holy Cross Lutheran Church …
Rev. Johann Christian Eduard Zapf – Lutheran Pastor Read More »