Category Archives: Inspired Sunday

InSPIREd Sunday – Sioux Valley Baptist Church

Sioux Valley Baptist Church is a small clapboard church sitting on a dirt road a few miles from Trent, South Dakota and right across the Big Sioux River from my Great Great Grandfather’s original homestead. He donated the land the church sits on. The church was dedicated in 1888 and has been in service ever since. It is a tradition in my Dad’s family that they attend services in connection with the annual reunion. It is pretty cool to see the church still holding services and knowing that my ancestors had a hand in getting it started.

The service is simple and heartfelt. The music is great. The prayers and praises concern thankfulness for a safe rodeo season and livestock showings at the County Fair, concerns about illnesses. Somehow the pastor, Rita Webber remembers everything and mentions it during the prayers. The sermon is likewise great.

Somehow this is all accomplished without powerpoint slides, amplified guitars, video segments and all that. Totally Old School and relaxing.

InSPIREd Sunday

InSPIREed Sunday – Tulsa Bible Baptist Temple

I’ve been meaning to stop and take a few pics of the Bible Baptist Temple on Apache Street close to Tulsa’s Airport for a while. I waited until it was raining to do so.

What has always attracted me to it is the unique A Frame structure. You might see A Frames in Brighton, Utah or Aspen, Colorao but not too many of them are in Tulsa. There is also no windows, at least that one can see from the street. They have a web site and a facebook site with a little bit of information (I love how they incorporated “aframe” into their web address). So I really don’t have much information about what they are about.

The grounds and parking lot are kept in pretty good shape at least.

Do you have any “A Frame” style churches near where you live?

InSPIRed Sunday

InSPIREd Sunday – The Church of Saint Mary

(I love that big massive cross. Didn’t use to but it has grown on me. My various lomography cameras throw the guys at Walgreens off sometimes. I don’t know why these images are reversed.)

The Church of Saint Mary is a Catholic Church located just off Peoria in the Brookside area of Tulsa. It is close to the rec center where son has done his improv comedy workshops the last couple years or so. So I have scoured the park, the church grounds, and the surrounding neighborhood with my camera while he is in his class.

(I can’t wait for Spring when everything will be lush and green.)

The grounds of the church and associated school are quite extensive and well landscaped and has a lot of interesting things to see and photograph.

Of course my favorites are the statue of Saint Mary and the bas relief carved into the bricks of one of the the walls. I also like the massive concrete cross at the front of the church.

(Double exposure, fisheye. I’ve posted this before.)

Plus the school has a very colorful playground.

(I’ve posted this before. Note the shadow selfie.)

I’ve never got tired photographing it. I’ll probably be doing it for a couple more years.

Do you have an area that you return to many times to photograph?

InSPIREd Sunday

InSPIRed Sunday – The Forbidden Photographs of Tulsa’s Holy Family Cathedral

Tulsa’s Holy Family Cathedral is a block away from the office. I walk by it two or three times a week during my noon time walks. I love taking pictures of it. The above is an archway at the side of the Cathedral on a walkway from the street to a parking lot at the back of the Cathedral. I love arches. I don’t know why, I just do.

I take lots of photos of the building and have posted many of them on Yogi’s Den. I photograph them for two reasons, first it is a beautiful building and second because I have been forbidden to photograph the building. Yep, you read that right.

You see one day about two or three years ago at noon I was on the sidewalk in front of the church leaning back taking pictures of the spires of the church and I heard a sharp voice, “May I ask what you are doing?” I looked around and there was a grumpy looking woman looking at me. I said “Well Ma’am I’m taking pictures of this church.” She said, “You know it is illegal to take pictures of a church without permission.” I was like, “Is that right?” “Yes, unless you have permission.” I said, “From who?” She said “From a member of the church.” I said, “Well then I’m good.” She said, “so you have permission?” I said, “Sure do.” “From who?” She asked. I said “He didn’t give his name but I asked him and he said go ahead.” She said when was that? I said last year some time.

So after some more back and forth she said that she was going to report me. I said okay. I have never seen her again but I always take lots of pictures whenever I get anywhere close to the Cathedral.

True confession: I lied to her I never got permission from anybody to take photographs of the Cathedral.

These are forbidden photographs. I’m not even sure that it is legal for you to view them. Do you think less of me? I have a feeling that the church doesn’t care if I take pictures of it or not. I probably shouldn’t aggravate certain members though.

The church was completed in 1914 so 2014 will be the 100th Anniversary of its completion. That is old for Oklahoma.

InSPIRed Sunday

Inspired Sunday – Kansas City LDS Temple

A couple weeks ago while driving through Kansas City on my way from Tulsa to South Dakota I saw a very striking building next to the freeway. I took the next exit and made my way to it.

Turns out that the building was a brand spanking new Mormon (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) Temple. Ground had been broken in 2010 and it was dedicated in May 2012.

The thing about the LDS Temples is that once they are dedicated they are not open to the public at all. Beforehand though they offer tours to the general public. I toured the Oklahoma City Temple in 2000 before it was dedicated. The exterior was not as spectactular as this one in Kansas City but I was struck by the exquisiteness and craftsmanship of interior in both the building and the furnishings. Here is a link to a chuch site that explains the purpose of temples among other information.

Here is another site that has a lot of information about the this temple in particular and temples in general. Turns out that the LDS Church dedicated two other sites in Missouri back in the 1830’s before the church and is members were driven out of the state so the temples never got built. So the dedication of this temple was especially meaningful to members of the church.

Inspired Sunday

Inspired Sunday – Sioux Valley Baptist Church

Last week I wasn’t blogging, I drove to South Dakota to attend the family reunion of my Dad’s side of the family.

A traditional part of the reunion is to attend the service at Sioux Valley Baptist Church near Del Rapids. The church is a humble very honest and impeccably maintained building on a dirt road. The first service was held Thanksgiving Day 1888 and it has been going strong ever since.

(Photo from ancestry.com)

The church was built by a group of Scandanavian Immigrants. The man pictured above, my Great Great Grandfather Nels Norgaard donated the acre of land that the church is built on. And that is why the Norgaard clain attends church service at the church before the picnic in Del Rapids.

The service was well attended and the hospitality was warm. The pastor, Rita Weber introduced herself and welcomed everybody individually before the service. I got the impression that she does that every service. Turns out that there was a man in the church and a member of the familiy who grew in Bartlesville, Oklahoma and he and his daughter, and her boyfriend also from Oklahoma attending the University of Central Oklahoma. Pastor Brown said during the service that the church had never had so many Oklahomans in the building ever. I felt like saying “Rita, we are Okies, not Oklahomans” but I was doing my best to behave myself.

The service was very warm with great singing and Pastor Webb delivered a great sermon. The whole experience was very warm, welcoming, and encouraging. I love the Bible verse on the plaque above. I think that a small country church that has been hanging in there doing the good work for 125 years deserves that verse.

Here is my sister and fellow blogger Ellen. She posted about the church and our family here. She has a great photograph of She, our brother, father, and me on the post.

Inspired Sunday

Pastor Rita Weber’s web site. Check it out, she is quite the woman and a great pastor.

If you are geocaching minded, there is no geocache on the grounds but the church has been listed as a waypoint on the geocaching offshoot site waypoint dot com here.

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