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Marquette
District
Detroit Annual Conference
Pastor: |
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Rev. Sandi
Kolder |
Sunday
Worship : |
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11:00 am |
CONTENTS
Gallery
News
History
GALLERY
NEWS top
ANNUAL BIRDERS' PASTY DINNER
In April the “Birders” flock back to Paradise
for the annual migration of birds and the program at the
Whitefish Point Bird Observatory. It was a perfect opportunity
for the Paradise UMC to show off their famous pasties! The
Birder’s was held on April 25th from 5:00 p.m. to
7:30 p.m.
SURF'S UP! VACATION BIBLE
SCHOOL
Vacation Bible School is coming quickly for the Paradise
UMC. It will be held July 20 through July 24, from 5 p.m.
to 8 p.m. This year we are using the Cokesbury VBS –
“Beach Party-Surfin’ Through the Scripture.”
YOUNG YOUTH
Our Young Youth program will continue through the summer.
We have plans of doing mission work right here in Paradise.
This program is for “Tweens” – those going
into the 5th grade through 8th grade. We had a lot of fun
through the winter months so are looking forward to continuing.
ABUSE PREVENTION TRAINING
Abuse Prevention Training will be held at the Paradise UMC
on Wednesday, May 7 at 12:30 p.m. Anyone wishing to work
with children and/or youth and has not had the training
should participate. It will take approximately three hours.
Katie Peterson, Church and Community Worker for the GCCP
will be leading the training. Childcare will be provided.
PARADISE BLUEBERRY FESTIVAL
Here is another opportunity to try the famous pasties made
by the Paradise UMC! There are two pasty dinners for those
attending the Blueberry Festival, which is held August 15th,
16th and 17th. The first dinner is held on Friday, August
15 and the second on Saturday, August 16. (Times to be announced.)
There is also a bake sale going on at the church both Friday
and Saturday where you can get just about any kind of baked
goods with blueberries in them!
KIDS'
CLUB
Kid’s Club has again started at the Paradise UMC.
We are going into our
5th year of this after school program for Preschoolers through
5th graders.
With God’s grace this program has grown from two adults
volunteers to
nine! And, we have not had less than sixteen children since
it began! This is
an witness to the Paradise Community reaching many un-churched
children. Through
this program two families have begun attending church regularly.
This program
has shown that small churches can make a difference in their
communities!
D.R.E.A.M. TEAM IN PARADISE
The D.R.E.A.M. Team came on November 7th to the Whitefish
Township Schools!
This is an after school, faith-based program for 6th thru
12th graders. After
much praying about how to meet the needs of the older children
who have
grown too old for Kid’s Club, this program was begun!
Our church was
approached by the school to provide a program for students
during the time between
school dismissal and when they went to sports programs.
The D.R.E.A.M. Team
shows God’s hand at work through the community. This
will be a mentoring
program where these youth may receive help with homework,
find partners to play
games, and to be filled with the love of God through these
activities. Please
keep the D.R.E.A.M. Team in your prayers as this program
grows and develops.
WOMEN'S ECUMENICAL BIBLE STUDY - CIRCLE OF FRIENDS
The women of the Paradise Community will again be meeting
at the Berry Patch
Bakery and Gifts in “downtown” Paradise for
Bible Study. We meet
every Thursday night at 7 p.m. The first few weeks, our
study will be on The
Purpose Driven Life. This is an ecumenical program and all
women of the community
are invited.
HISTORY
top
ORIGIN OF THE UNITED METHODIST
CHURCH OF PARADISE, MICHIGAN
as written by Jan Huetenstine
On April 7, 1959, a busy mother of
six children, ages 4 - 15, wrote a letter that ignited the
desire for a Methodist church in the tiny Upper Peninsula
town of Paradise, Michigan. Ione Thompson's letter to Rev.
Gonser, the Superintendent of the Marquette District of
the Methodist Church, was answered just three days after
it was received, expressing interest and sending information
for Sunday school materials.
On July 5, 1959, the first service
was held in the Whitefish Township Hall, and 28 faithful
attended. The church was officially organized on November
7 under the supervision of Rev. Gonser; by June of 1960,
four children had been baptized.
By August of 1962, a plot of approximately
three acres, south of Whitefish Township School, was purchased
from the Michigan Conservation Department for $360. On November
1, Rev. Oswald was appointed the official minister. Another
month later, the ground-breaking ceremony was held, with
Rev. Gonser officiating.
Ione Thompson was instrumental in
organizing the first MYF (Methodist Youth Fellowship), and
there were over 39 members by July of 1963. That same summer,
twenty-two MYF'ers from the Detroit Central Methodist Church
came to volunteer their services for the construction of
the church. They were featured in the July, 1964 edition
of Together, "Work Camp in Paradise,"
accompanied by many photos of them inside the church and
on the shores of Lake Superior for Sunday vespers.
On January 17, 1964, Rev. Seymour
had to abandon his plans to conduct an evening service in
Paradise, after walking 3 miles in a raging blizzard. He
spent the night at the Pomeroy's, south of town.
In 1964, plans for a church cornerstone
and its contents were in the making. These plans and the
contents are part of the church archives.
An interesting detail pertaining
to the financial needs of the church occurred when Lady
Margaret Rameden of London, England, learned of the church's
needs. She was the aunt of Jack Withey, a resident of Paradise.
She sent a bank draft for 50 pounds sterling on May 5, 1964.
This would have been a considerable sum at the time, and
records of the transaction are still in the church records.
Just 20 months after its ground-breaking,
on August 18, 1964, the Paradise United Methodist Church
opened its doors to 72 people for an evening service.
The last event celebrating the advent
of the United Methodist Church of Paradise occurred on August
14, 1983.
In 1985, eight stained glass windows
had been created by Lori and Gilbert Kiper, relatives of
Leo Zantop, a founder of the church.
HISTORY OF THE TOWER BELL
The bell, as far as anyone can remember, was made in England
and was originally installed in the Methodist Indian
Mission Church in Brimley, Michigan. Before 1910, it
was in an old, weather-beaten, unpainted building where
church members met. Mr. Joseph Dibley, only 18 years old,
came from England in 1909 and was appointed to the church
in that year. He was the pastor there for only one year
before he left for New Jersey to attend seminary.
Also in 1909, a new mission was built;
it was dedicated in 1910 and it was in this church that
the bell was installed. Three of the members were native
Americans. Mr. Bill Waiskey was a very old man then but
Andrew and John Waiskey were still very active in the church
at that time. At some point, the church burned down and
was abandoned. Somehow, the bell was saved but sat unused
for quite some time.
Robert and Ione Thompson and Leo
and Inez Zantop began the Paradise Methodist Mission Church
in 1959 for the benefit of their families. They began meeting
in the original Whitefish Township Community Building. In
1959, the Marquette District of the United Methodist Church
gave the bell to the newly organized church as its first
gift. Bill Bedell, Mike Thompson (for whom the tower was
built), and his father, Robert "Kelly" Thompson
went to Brimley to bring the bell to Paradise. Soon after
that, they acquired the property where the current church
was built and dedicated in 1962.
Private Mike Thompson graduated from
the army's basic training facility in Fort Knox, Kentucky,
in 1966. In June of 1968, the day before Mike went to Vietnam,
he hid the bell in a safe, wooded spot behind the church.
He served in Vietnam as a helicopter pilot and died there
in 1969, a first lieutenant. Posthumously, he was promoted
to the rank of captain.
The bell sat in the woods unused
and still safely hidden. After Mike's death, one of his
friends, Loren House of Paradise, found it and retrieved
it from the woods. Mike's parents, Ione and Kelly Thompson,
were charter members of the church and, together, initiated
construction of the tower. Pat Thompson, Mike's brother,
designed the tower. Kelly Thompson is now deceased but Ione
is still active in the church. The tower has the shape of
a cross with a redwood beam as its center. The apex of the
tower is shaped to form a cross, though this can be discerned
only from the air.
In 1970 or 71, Howard Nodurft, Clarence
Lazenby, Guy Haynes, and "Smokey" Nodurf, all
of Paradise, constructed the tower. The community, as well
as friends and family, contributed generously to the tower's
construction. It was dedicated on Memorial Day, May 31 of
1971 as a tribute to Captain Michael Kelly Thompson and
to all the other young men who had given their lives for
their country while serving in Vietnam.
Now the bell rings again, calling
men and women to the worship of the one true God.
AN ORGAN USED AT PARADISE
UMC
A circuit rider organ was given to the Paradise United Methodist
Church during the early 1960s. Rev. Ralph Kelley, the pastor
of the Metamora, Ohio United Methodist Church was the donor.
This small organ was used for fellowship for many years.
It is no longer being played but remains as a relic of the
past and may be seen in the archives on the campus of Adrian
College.
Paradise United Methodist
Church
7087 N. M-123
Box 198
Paradise, MI 49768
(906) 492-3585
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