22 Sep Friends of St Paul Newsletter – Sept 2023

In this newsletter, you’ll read about Don Stork’s St. Paul story and dig deeper into the history of the middle 50 years of St Paul Lutheran Church and School.

“For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.” – Psalm 100:5

Reminiscing on St. Paul – Don Storck

Don recalled helping in the family business at only 5 years old.  By the time he was 12, he was big enough and had enough stamina to dig a complete grave himself by hand. Don’s grandfather owned the floral shop there as well, and his dad helped to manage that, too. There was a church bell at the cemetery, and Don shared how he got to ring the bell whenever there was a procession coming onto the grounds.

Don was always employed, maintaining the grounds, or working in the floral shop.  He always had a job.   He remembered his first wage was a nickel an hour, 40 cents per day. Don’s uncles and brother worked there as well. Don continued to work there even through college and until the time he moved to Michigan. Being a part of a faithful, hardworking community was simply all Don had experienced prior to college and marriage. 

Don met Ethel at Lutheran High School there in St. Louis and started to date as Freshman. They dated through high school, and they both attended school at Washington University in St. Louis. Don earned a degree in engineering, and Ethel earned her degree in teaching. Ethel returned to her Lutheran high school as a teacher and Don started to work for General Motors. Shortly after college and after 9 years of dating, they married in 1959.

They moved to Michigan in 1964 when Don was offered a new position with General Motors as an engineer. Don and Ethel found a home, the home they still live in today, right here in Royal Oak. When it came time to find a church, there were two that were close, and the Storks spent time at both of them. Our Shepherd was closer to their home, but St. Paul made an impact on their hearts. Reverend Bekemeyer was the pastor at St. Paul when the Storcks joined. Norm Johnson was the first person who left a lasting impression with Don. He was such a friendly guy and greeted everybody. He was a ‘Mr. Greater’. “He was instrumental in us becoming members at St. Paul.” The Lichtenbergs were a family they became close with, and Cliff Van Nest was another dear friend. The Storks became friends with many people at St. Paul over the years. In fact, Don reflected enthusiastically about the times he, Norm, and Cliff would drive around the city and collect newspapers for the paper drive, which at the time was a huge fundraiser for the church. The paper drives continued into the early 80’s.

Don happily recounted another tradition that started with the new church building back in the early 70’s. Ed Frincke would always secure the super big Christmas trees by canvassing the congregation to see who had a tree to donate. You never really knew what you were going to get. The very first year they were unloading the tree near the firehouse and a couple of firemen came out to see what was going on. They made sure that Don, Ed, Norm, Cliff, and the 3 to 4 other folks it took to haul the tree into the church fireproofed it by spraying it with fire retardant. He remembered how the first time they brought the tree in, they knocked one of the doors off its hinges. They accidentally relocated one of the south side rear pews as they shoe-horned the tree into the Sanctuary. One year the tree was so dry, on Christmas morning, you could hear the needles falling during the Christmas morning service. 

Ethel and Don talked about their son Bradley attending St. Paul as well. They appreciated Mr. Gefke and Mr. Pittman as the 8^th grade teacher. They also fondly remembered Mrs. Butala as the Kindergarten teacher. Brad graduated 8^th grade and was confirmed in 1980, and he attended Kimball High after. 

Don described the nearly 60 years of membership as ‘very active’. Don was in the choir and Men’s Chorus, and they both were involved in many Bible Studies and classes. Don was a trustee with Norm and Cliff for a long time. He also served as an elder. He couldn’t stop talking about Norm Johnson and Cliff Van Nest. He elaborated on their times playing softball, going to Camp Arcadia, attending Bible class, and serving as trustees together. Don summarized their membership at St. Paul by sharing, ”The greatness of St. Paul is the members who we’ve been friends with over the years. God certainly works through this place and put good men and women in our lives to support us and who we enjoyed working with to love and support the church.

Our House, His Throne Update

We are excited to share the progress of the significant efforts we all have been making behind the scenes for Our St. Paul Church and School through the Our House His Throne campaign. Most encouraging is your sacrificial giving, with the journey being just over 1 year into our 3-Year campaign we are progressing extremely well to our $510,000 committed goal with gifts received of $303,303 (as of 8/13/2023) and are trending to exceed our $600,000 overall campaign goal. Truly, OUTSTANDING! WELL, DONE ST. PAUL. Thank you for your continued commitment and support in passing along a legacy to the next generation.

As your gifts continue to come in, we are accelerating through the project planning stage where things are starting to become a bit more real. During this planning and pre-construction strategy focus we have been working closely with our construction management consulting firm Frank Rewold and Sons. A great company with a long history of collaborating with, and guiding churches like ours in meeting their unique goals. To date they have provided us with a conservative estimate for all the projects we would like to accomplish, totaling $1.6M, more than our best guess outlined last year, with each project ranging from $50,000 to $350,000.

The Projects and Executive Teams have reviewed these estimates and deem them to be reasonable. Based on these estimates we have prioritized our attention on the critical needs that have been on many of our hearts to address for decades, focusing on the foundational structural elements of our facilities; like the south wall brick window extensions and the Church and School window water intrusion issues before addressing the interior elements like renovating bathrooms or reconfiguring office spaces. Before final project selections are decided, further discussions on project details and funding methods are still required with the campaign and church leadership along with voters’ approval.

We are targeting full project work to begin next summer 2024. Please continue to pray and support this campaign and look forward to seeing God’s abundant provision revitalize HIS HOUSE this time next year.

“He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.” – 2 Samuel 7:13

What’s coming up at St. Paul

St. Paul continues to celebrate 150 years as a congregation in Royal Oak by having guest pastors preach to us each month. Former St. Paul pastors, vicars, teachers, and LCMS leaders will all share God’s message, recognizing God’s work through this special congregation. The guest preachers also offer a great opportunity for other friends and former members to visit St. Paul in person.

Introducing the next guest pastors:

Rev. Bruce Kischnick, a former 6th Grade Home Room Teacher, Science Teacher, Youth Director at St. Paul will be the final guest preacher commemorating the 150th Anniversary for St. Paul on Sunday September 24th. 

Finally, on Sunday October 1st, St. Paul will formally celebrate the 150th Anniversary of this historical congregation. St. Paul is the oldest Lutheran Congregation in Oakland County, Michigan. In recognition of this milestone, this site will be recognized as a historical site in the State of Michigan and the formal unveiling of the plaques will be publicly revealed and displayed for future generations. Please check out the church’s news and notes on the website for more information as this memorable day approaches.

Heavenly Father, thank You that we are celebrating the 150th anniversary for St. Paul. We thank You that we are all One in Christ, and we pray that as members of Your body, Your Holy Spirit would knit us closer together in the bonds of fellowship, unity, and love.

Lord, You have promised that You are the One that would build Your Church and we ask that You would continue to equip each of us, both individually and as a church family, with the talents and gifts that may be used to Your praise and glory and for sharing the good news of salvation through you with our community and beyond.

Protect us from the cunning of the enemy who seeks to destroy and cause divisions among Your body. Help us to be generous, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, and gentle towards each other. Let us not be motivated by selfishness but in humility may we seek to regard the needs and necessities of others before our own.

Give wisdom to our congregational leaders and give wisdom to those that teach and a teachable spirit to those that listen. And may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of the Father and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all this day and forever.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

What Story is Next?

For all who subscribe to this newsletter, we encourage you to become an active part of this outreach opportunity! Please invite anyone you may know through St. Paul who may not be regularly engaged with St. Paul to subscribe. We also encourage feedback and ideas on what content works and what you would like to learn about.

If you have anyone (even yourself) who has a story to share or a picture or a memory, send us an email. We would welcome any historic pictures of events, baptisms, marriages, plays, retreats, or anything to bolster our historic picture album.