History

The Pipe Organ - late 80's

In September 1986, we began a fund drive for a new organ. Roger Koehler, our organist at that time, was a student of Dr. Frank Speller, UT. Dr. Speller was most gracious to our organ committee and gave us much advice and organ demonstrations. After much deliberation, we hired Bob Borchers and Chris Stone of Agape Organs to build a pipe organ suitable for our Sanctuary. They did this with help from Wayne Schultz and members of the congregation who supplied the electrical power and built the casework. Dedication was November 20, 1988, with our present organist, Lisa Klitzky (later Lisa Yanez) and builder, Bob Borchers, playing. On November 27, we had a special evening concert of Thanksgiving and Advent music with Garland Kneten as organist and the church choir and instrumentalist of St. John's Lutheran, Bartlett, joining with our choir. Many other special music programs have been enjoyed at Ascension over the years.
          In January 1989, we established the 'Seminarian-in- Residence' program. It was originally started to help a student from the Lutheran Theological Seminary of the Southwest with a place to live in exchange for an outreach ministry to residents of the surrounding apartment complexes. Later it became an agreement between a student and the congregation for part-time employment within the church. Throughout the years, we have had a number of students who have contributed much to this ministry. Bonnie Claycomb, our first seminarian was followed by Rochelle Anderson, Nancie Reeves*, Kay Meerschheidt, Ann Koopmann**, Denise Foss, Beverly Williams-Hawkins, Dan Hay and Rebecca Sanchez.
          In September 1990, we began sharing our facilities with a Korean congregation. That continued until June 1995, when they were able to purchase a building for themselves.
          January 1991 saw the establishment of our endowment fund, which began with a gift from the estate of Hanna Boehnemann.
           Also in April 1991, we paid off tl1e last of the bonds we had sold to pay for the construction of the Sanctuary .

* The Rev Nancie R Reeves, Holly Trinity, 3325 Morefield Rd, Hermitage, PA 16148, 724-981-2050

** 115 W Driftwood, Fredericksburg, TX 78624