WHERE'S MURDO?

GRANDMA RITA’S RAMBLINGS

WHERE’S MURDO?

June/July, 2008

To my grandkids with love,

In telling you about Murdo I need to give you both past history and things that have been happening just this summer. In looking back, our experiences as a family were some of our most memorable times. But first let’s give you the setting.

We need to answer the question, “Where’s Murdo” in the context of 1958 to 1963. We are going to be driving on Highway 16. Even before we get to Rapid City, South Dakota we are seeing the familiar billboards advertising WALL DRUG. Now, they are more frequent and larger. This means we are in the middle of the state between Rapid City and Sioux Falls. One of the big things that caught our attention was their offer of FREE ICE WATER.

There was no doubt we would stop for at least ice water and an ice cream cone for it was hot and there was no air conditioning in the car.. Ramona, Howard, Jonathan and Rachel are all putting the pressure on dad. All your grandpa Lynn could say was that it was a giant sized tourist trap.

On down the road we are near Kadoka and more big billboards--”SEE THE WORLD’S LARGEST REPTILE COLLECTION”. No stopping this time! Moving on to Okaton, we finally saw signs for Murdo, South Dakota-the home of the FAMOUS PIONEER AUTO MUSEUM!”

It was August, 1958 when the Manlove family finally arrived. This seemingly sleepy little town in the middle of the state was to be their home. But, alas, it was not such a sleepy little place after all. It seemed to be a good overnight stopping place for tourists either coming or going to the Badlands, Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone National Park or elsewhere. The thriving businesses were motels and restaurants. Surrounding the town for many miles were farmers and ranchers. It is also the County Seat of Jones County.

None of these things attracted us at the moment as we had other reasons for being there. We had been invited to be involved in starting a new church there. Grandpa Lynn was to be the first pastor.


And now, I want to fast forward you to June 27,28, 2008, fifty years later. I found myself to be on the road again to Murdo but taking a different route we didn’t see our famous billboards. However, I learned they are still there, only on Interstate 90 which comes a bit south of the town. I think there was one off-ramp to Murdo.

Ramona and Jonathan and I were going for the week-end to the 50th Anniversary of the Community Bible Church. It was also the 65th Wedding Anniversary for two couples who were in on the beginnings of the church which you will read about later in the information below.

What a great time of celebrating and reminiscing! So many had come for these occasions from different parts of the country. reconnecting with those who were grade school and up and now are fifty-five and beyond. It was such a joyous time.

Our time together that Saturday night was spent mostly in praise singing and many relating how the church had contributed to their lives. That is when I gave this below that I wrote. Please be sure to read it even though it is quite lengthy. I tried to give the beginnings of the church from my perspective. Here it is--

FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF

THE COMMUNITY BIBLE CHURCH
June 28,and 29th, 2008
Murdo, South Dakota


In the very beginning pages of our Bible the work of the Holy Spirit is introduced. We read, “the Spirit of God was moving, (hovering, brooding,) over the face of the waters”. Often we will see or hear of an area or nation or culture of people and it is obvious that the Spirit of God is at work in a special way.

When the Spirit of God began to move in a significant way on Murdo, South Dakota, a small ranching community in the middle of the state, He chose certain people and situations to be a part of His plan. Before any of us were aware, God was preparing those He wished to use to fulfill His purposes.

God saw a people and their offspring whom He chose to be in His Kingdom and was at work to make this happen. Often the way He moves is far different than what we might orchestrate. In this case it was ordinary lives obediently touching the lives of others. A chain reaction.

Take for instance John and Virginia Parker who were a couple of thousand miles from Murdo. They lived in California. John grew up in Murdo. He went to school there from 4th grade through his senior year at Murdo High School.

His brother, George Parker, a few years older than he, was an excellent student and successful leader at Whittier College in California. Because the family background was Quaker, the parents wanted both of their boys to attend Whittier.

It was on George’s success that John was accepted at the College. However, much to everyone’s dismay, John proved not to be acceptable “material” for college and he flunked out after a short time! Although he was not so good at book learning he proved later what a gifted man he was in many other ways.

After his marriage to his wife Virginia, John decided to buy a grocery store in Yorba Linda to support the two of them. He seemed to have enough business ability to know that they needed to become known in the community that they wished to serve. What better way to draw customers than to get in to a church? There were at that time two churches in the area-the Methodist Church and the Friends (Quaker) Church.

They decided to try both of them. Not particularly for spiritual reasons, but after all “it might help our new business”. They would try the Friends Church first. As God would have it they never got to the second church. They went on a Sunday morning and were strangely drawn to the sincerity of the people. They sensed that this was more than a place to socialize. They decided to go back that Sunday evening and then were invited to the Wednesday evening service.

Soon they realized that the answer to the void in their lives was obvious as they studied the Bible with these God-centered Christians. They were pointed to Jesus and came to desire a relationship with the One who said, “ I am the Way, the Truth and the Life“

It is necessary to give you this background to show you how God had been preparing this couple for a ministry in Murdo years before.

Now that they had received Christ as their Savior, they had new priorities. Their business was secondary. To know Christ became a passion. Then he and Virginia had a desire to bring others in to the Kingdom. Unknown to John just why, he began to think back to his hometown of Murdo South Dakota where he grew up.
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Quite unexpectedly they received a phone call from the owner of a Hardware Store in Murdo. Art, a relative of John’s, wanted to know if John would be interested in coming to Murdo to run his store for two weeks while his family went on vacation.

By this time John’s grocery store had failed to provide for them and he had bought a Hardware Store in Yorba Linda which was also in trouble. Yes! Let’s go to Murdo for two weeks!

The call of God seemed to be on him and he and his family packed up and drove to Murdo. The year was 1951 and when they arrived John made contact with Harold and Pat Thune. Harold was an old schoolmate that John knew. He had not had any communication with him for years.

After high school Harold had gone to the University of Minnesota on a basketball scholarship and became well known both in sports and scholastically. After college he received honors as an officer in the Air Corp in WWII. The town took pride in the fact that he had returned back to Murdo, choosing to help his dad in the Hardware Store, turning down a very comfortable salary in the service.

He had married Pat when he was in Minnesota. By then they had several children. When these two couples got together (the Parkers and Thunes) they found some striking similarities in their lives. Not realizing it, they had married the same month and the same year and their children were similar in age.

As these two couples got together John opened up the Scriptures, planting seeds of thought. The Holy Spirit caused the Thunes to realize they had a deep spiritual need. The more they learned, the hungrier and thirstier they became for truth.


Harold and Pat were very popular in the community, having a good business, leaders in the church. They were popular and accepted in the desirable social circle of friends. You might say they were living on the fast track, but when they came face to face with the reality of God’s Word they realized how destitute they were and wanted to know more.

Eventually, with John and Virginia’s persistent sowing of the Word, they invited Jesus Christ to enter their lives, and to take charge. Jesus came in in a significant way and immediately the Holy Spirit did some rearranging of their priorities. Soon they were touching others in the community. But as is usually the case, some received the truth of the Scriptures with gladness and others strongly opposed it.

The Parkers were supposed to stay for two weeks and it turned out that they had charge of the store for 6 weeks. God had sent the Parkers on a mission and the primary purpose was not to run the store! They were sowing the seed and letting their light shine in that community.

They returned to California and the Thunes started a Bible Study in their home in Murdo. This group grew. John and Virginia would continue to come each summer to encourage and to “fish” as I remember hearing John say. Most Californians were content to go to the beach for a summer vacation. The Parkers chose to return to Murdo for they sensed that God was at work and they were to be involved mentoring and encouraging this small group of believers.

Other ways the Spirit was moving was via radio-- providing a means through the Back to the Bible Broadcast in Lincoln, NE and Theodore Epp who challenged them to live godly lives. It was through Back to the Bible that they learned about Maranatha Bible Camp near North Platte, NE. In the year of 1958 they shared their burden and concern to Ivan Olson, the founder of Maranatha and the Berean Churches that they needed a pastor to shepherd them.

They put this group from Murdo in touch with Lynn Manlove, a pastor of a church in Torrington, WY. When Lynn and Rita visited on a given Sunday to discern if this might be God’s Spirit leading them, there were less than a dozen people who met at the Thune’s home. Inwardly, as the day progressed I could sense my husband’s enthusiasm for this new group of believers. What might have looked to some as a dismal beginning of a church, he saw as a great potential for the area. As we heard their stories we could see that the Spirit of God was indeed moving, hovering, brooding to tie this whole thing together!

We spent from August, 1958-May, 1963 in Murdo, always sensing in so many ways God’s hand on this new church called “Community Bible
Church”. After outgrowing the meeting space in the Thune’s home we fixed up an abandoned store building on Main Street. Smaller meetings were often held either at Thunes or the Manloves.

We were growing- but where? Some of the families that were coming were: Leroy Hoke family, Zella Esmay, Eldon and Margaret Esmay, Chip and Phyllis Peters family, Ellis and Doris Beckwith family, Mary Beckwith, the Broecher family, Everett and Pauline Boyle, and Grace McKillips. Before long others followed.


(All of the family but Howard. He must have been taking the picture)
We as a family were barely making it with a small salary per month for a family of four children. To supplement, ranchers and farmers in the church would bring us eggs, cream, milk, chickens, and stuff from the garden. Lynn would sometimes work for a farmer for a day and I gave piano and accordion lessons.

We learned so much from this precious group. They tenaciously supported us in every way they could. John and Virginia continued to show up at one time or another each summer. It was like this was their baby and they encouraged us and gave us eyes of faith that someday we would have a church building out on Highway 16. At that time it was the main highway through the center of the state.

Before long, John got his friends from his church in Yorba Linda excited about helping to build. Eventually he brought out a whole crew. It was in about June or July of 1960, the work was begun. Volunteers did a large percentage of it. Yes, Pastor Lynn was one of them. I remember well the day he fell off the roof and crushed his heel and had to be taken to Sioux Falls for surgery. But the work went on!


First services in the new building were held in October 1960 and the Dedication Services were held the following Spring, 1961. Ord Morrow from Back to the Bible came to be our speaker. It was truly a time of rejoicing.

Besides drawing families in from the surrounding communities, we often had visitors stop on their way through the state, going to the Black Hills, Mt. Rushmore, Yellowstone National Park or elsewhere. We always had thriving, inspiring Sunday Evening Services with lots of music, vocal and instrumental in worship. Often friends from the Reformed Church in Okaton would attend. Many of the Daums and Roghair families came.

From this small church God put his hand on an amazing number of young people who went out to Christian colleges and elsewhere to ultimately serve the Lord as pastors, teachers and missionaries, Christian businessmen, as well as John Thune, the present State Senator in our nation‘s capitol. Yes, they continue lifting up Christ in various places.

Just as any church, the church has experienced ups and downs but God continues to hover and brood over this body of believers and the church will be triumphant. Why? Because it is God’s work and not man’s!

HAPPY 50TH ANNIVERSARY AND MAY YOU HAVE MANY MORE YEARS OF FRUITFULNESS “UNTIL HE COMES“. HAPPY 65TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY TO THE PARKERS AND THUNES. WHAT A JOYOUS CELEBRATION THIS IS!

Sincerely, Rita Manlove