The Steeple Story

In the providence of God, what was an unwelcome turn of events for Bob Peterson, turned into a welcome event of another kind. Bob’s wife, Pat, who was suffering from Alzheimers, had slipped outside into a heavy snowstorm. Fortunately, she was found by neighbors when she knocked on their door and was brought safely back home. It was this experience that led Bob to begin attending our little church on Sunday mornings. He’d always sit on the back row near the door. He listened to the reading of Scripture and the preaching of the Word, and felt the gentle love of God through His people, including those from his own family. The Lord opened Bob’s heart to respond to the message of the gospel in November of 2007. He was baptized the following January and quietly began to do whatever he could to help out at the church or to simply help others. Bob knew that his days were numbered, and he wanted folks to know that it is never too late, so long as you still draw breath, to come to Christ. Bob was in his 77th year. In fact, only several weeks before he passed away on August 8, 2011, he asked me to come up to his house. He said he had something he really wanted to do — something anonymous. So, my dear brother, I hope you’ll forgive me for sharing it, now that you’ve graduated to glory. Bob wanted to donate the amount needed to pay for a steeple to be placed on top of this building — in hopes that it would be a beacon to others so they would know there was a church here in Sedalia — a place where they could come and hear about Jesus. Well, the steeple’s up now, and it has a cross on the top. Our prayer is that it will be, by God’s grace, exactly what Bob had hoped — a signpost to out community, drawing them to Christ, and pointing them in the direction of heaven. May it always be a visible reminder that one can’t make the journey from here to there except through the cross on which Jesus died.