Touching Testimony in Response to a Steadfast Lutherans of the Past Story

(Editor’s Note: I woke this morning to find this wonderful gift of a comment on the  website  – posted at 1:38 AM – and figured it was worth everyone’s attention. It is a comment on a post archived on the Regular Columns page  Walt Otten’s column “Steadfast Lutherans of the Past.”)

Only by a fluke did I discover this site and the existence of The Brothers of John the Steadfast. Reading the article “Steadfast Brothers of the 60s” brought tears to my eyes and vivid memories to my mind.

It was a time of such tumult, and most will never know the incredible efforts of relatively few men that God used to “save” Missouri. My dad (and my mother, by the way) worked tirelessly and at great personal sacrifice in that effort. Most Missourians today have no clue what that struggle was all about. More’s the pity. We could learn many lessons from events of that time.

My sister and I watch with great sadness what is happening to our beloved synod under current leadership. If the president succeeds in his efforts to restructure LCMS and consolidate power in his office, in all likelihood we will leave. A painful decision when our family has sent 10 men into LCMS ministry and we have prayed for Missouri for so many years.

My deep gratitude to the writer (whose name I well recall from those days) for acknowledging my Dad. That someone even remembers warms my heart. Thanks also to the gentleman who remembers Dad’s classes; he loved teaching and put his heart into them. We have kept a number of Dad’s writings, among them I believe are his notes on that course.

Charlotte Gebauer Koelling

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