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By Andrea Dujardin-Flexhaug
 | | A trailer with a wooden cross (right) was a key part of the parade as Osoyoos Baptist
Church officially transferred to an Elks Hall early last month. |
MEMORIES were plentiful at Osoyoos Baptist Church (OCB)
on the first Sunday of March, as the congregation held its last service in
the church it had worshipped in for the past 33 years.
“We come together today to celebrate what God has
done in us and in our church family,” said pastor Phil Johnson.
“He also said ‘take up your cross and
follow me,’ and that’s what we’re going to do,” he
added. And with that, a wooden cross was hoisted onto a trailer – and
led a parade, complete with horses, up Main Street to the new church home
across town.
The new church is not exactly a new building, though.
OCB now inhabits the former Elks Hall, thanks to a swap of buildings.
With its membership dwindling, the Elks group had a
need to downsize; and with its 100-plus members, the church needed room to
expand.
After the parade, garbed in their purple uniforms, the
Osoyoos Elks greeted the congregation at the door of the hall, with
handshakes and smiles, and a welcoming reception inside. “And we hope
you flourish and prosper in this place as much as you guys have in your
other home,” was the sentiment offered by an Elks spokesperson.
The idea of a switch in buildings first came up in the
1990s, and Johnson spoke to the recent completion of the project.
“It’s just a real testimony to our
community, as to the graciousness of both groups, that this transaction has
gone so smoothly. I think people have been amazed that both sides would
agree to unanimously . . . enter into such a trade.”
OCB had a modest beginning in the 1950s,
meeting in a four room building with white siding just off Main
Street. Despite its small size, during the summer visitor months it often
attracted more than 100 people.
“It had about five or six benches and each bench
had about five or six people,” recalled longtime regular churchgoer
Doreen Elenko.
“And there was a little extended closet in the
back which was called the Sunday school room.”
In 1975, the congregation moved into their new
volunteer-built facility several blocks away. An active seniors group
flourished, as did a Sunday school, which was held before church, with
20-plus kids.
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“It was an outreach that we did; we had a bus
that went to pick them up,” said Elenko, who was the superintendent
at the time.
“I have seen many of the children grow up. Over
these years they’ve gone on to school, to college, to university and
got married,” recalled senior churchgoer Jan Blackie.
“And so it is a continuing change – and I
know that, for many of us, the memories we have here we will always
have.”
Former OCB pastor Paul Mohninger and his wife Barb were
present for the recent move to the Elks building. “My heart is filled
with many memories too,” he said. “I think of all the people
who prayed to come to know Jesus in that very office [at OBC], how many
people were baptized and how many weddings and all of those things . . . my
memories here will be always sacred.”
Early congregation member Bernie Rosin, who met his
future wife Angie through the church, spoke of a quote that aptly describes
Osoyoos Baptist Church.
“Our church is like a jellyfish. We just go
around with the Lord and if we follow in his current, exciting things are
going to be happening,” he says. “It’s going to be scary
– but it’s going to be great.”
April 2009
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