Church Goes On in Hallam

By: Risa Avila

Updated: Fri 6:59 PM, May 28, 2004

For Robert Stimple of Hallam, church will never be the same.

“I’ve gone there basically all my life, I was born and raised here.” says Stimple of his church.

He is just one of the many residents who attended the churches of Hallam. Pastor Lorri Kentner of the United Methodist Church in Hallam says they are going back to its roots.

“We are going to continue having worship services. We will probably start having them in people’s homes, go back to the beginning of the Methodist tradition,” says Kentner.

Finding the church bell amidst the rubble was important for the pastor.

“The bell actually came from one of the two country churches that came together to create this church in 1917.” says Kentner.

She hopes to bring that bell into the new church building when it is finished.

“It was like the resurrection, it was pulled out of there and it was hope for people who have been hopeless for several days,” says Kentner.

Both the Hallam United Methodist Church and the United Church of Christ plan to meet on Sunday at the United Methodist Church in Martell at 10:30 a.m. Despite all the destruction, pastor Lorri still looks for the positive.

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