When Pleasant Valley Church faces a challenge, members are steadfast in their faith that God will see them through.
- Janelle Atyeo
Those living in rural areas know that in a medical emergency, help can be a long way away. One remote country church in central South Dakota recently brought life saving tools a little closer to home.
- Janelle Atyeo
Polish settlers who came to the Dakota Territory in the 1880s practiced their faith in homes and saw a visiting priest once a month. Today, the congregation of St. Joseph Catholic Church is back to meeting montly, but members find ways to foster a community they've been a part of for generations.
- Janelle Atyeo
Prayers on the Prairie is a regular feature of the Tri-State Neighbor, taking the place of the Crop Watchers report during the winter season. If you have a suggestion for a rural church to feature here, contact editor Janelle Atyeo at janelle.atyeo@lee.net.
- Janelle Atyeo
My father-in-law used to love driving. Whether it was to the corner convenience store for a cup of coffee and a newspaper or to an out-of-the-way truck stop for soup and pie, Dale Hult loved to going out to eat, seeing other regulars at cafes and teasing waitresses with nonstop dad jokes. Th…
- Janelle Atyeo
A year into his role as Komstad Covenant Church pastor, Dan Davey’s focus is relationships. Confirmation classes and an adult Bible study bring people together, he said, and he’s also working to make connections outside the walls of the rural church southwest of Beresford, South Dakota.
- Janelle Atyeo
The story passed among congregation members today is that there was a horse race to Yankton with the first one there able to lay claim to the name Zion Lutheran Church. The southern congregation had the faster horse.
- Janelle Atyeo
Rural church fosters relationships to build following of young families
- Janelle Atyeo
Central to the church’s mission has always been sharing God’s word and creating a welcoming community. And farmers have always been at the core of the small church’s membership, even in its leadership.
- Janelle Atyeo
It's a remote church in cattle country, but young families keep it active and growing
- Janelle Atyeo
“We know each other, we pray for each other, and we care about each other.”
- Janelle Atyeo
There was plenty to deter early settlers along the Minnesota River valley in Nicolette County – from crop losses and scarlet fever to tensions with Native American neighbors. But members of Immanuel Lutheran made the church and Christian education a priority.
- Janelle Atyeo
The Covey Church in northwest Iowa hasn’t held weekly church services since 1959, but the 140-year-old building and small cemetery remain as lasting reminders of the homestead days and the trials settlers from that era faced.
- Janelle Atyeo
Camaraderie and community support make Union Creek Lutheran Church what it is. It’s been that way for 150 years.
- Janelle Atyeo
Churchgoers at Preston Christian Church are used to sitting in chairs that overflow into the fellowship hall, but they will have new accommodations this spring.
- Janelle Atyeo
“You get the sense that the church is not just about me today, it’s people who have been there a long time ago.”
- Janelle Atyeo
From atop a hill 11 miles due south of Beresford, South Dakota, Roseni Lutheran Church is a monument to history, dating back to the Norwegian settlers who founded the congregation more than 150 years ago.
- Janelle Atyeo
A church with Swedish heritage sits just off a curving county road, overlooking one of Minnesota’s 10,000 lakes.
- Janelle Atyeo
The ties between the two Cottonwood County churches go back to 1869. That’s when people of Norwegian descent began to hold services in homes along Highwater and Dutch Charlie creeks.
- Janelle Atyeo
Recent years have put a focus on behavioral health in farm communities. A new training offered by the South Dakota Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources aims to help some of the people commonly in contact with farmers and rancher spot signs of trouble.
- Janelle Atyeo
A block off of Main Street sits one of Groton, South Dakota’s oldest buildings, the first church built after the city was founded in 1881.
- Janelle Atyeo
The members of Templeton United Church of Christ like being together. That’s evident in the way they laugh as they share memories about growing up in the small rural church that sits between farm fields west of Wessington Springs, South Dakota.
- Janelle Atyeo
“Something about their church can live on and have a new life, kind of a resurrection."
- Janelle Atyeo
Sitting on the countryside of eastern Kingsbury County, South Dakota, the Lake Whitewood Church looks much the same as it did in photographs from its 1906 dedication. The landscape, however, changed significantly in just the last year.
- Janelle Atyeo
Having come – through wind storms, economic hardships, world wars and declining rural populations – members are preparing to celebrate 140 years of history at Storla Lutheran Church this summer.
Recently Listed
