The primary mission for the center is to create a relaxing and peaceful atmosphere where professional church workers can rest and reconnect with God and family.

Mission: "To create a relaxing and peaceful atmosphere where LCMS professional workers can rest and reconnect with God and their family."

The Kansas District-LCMS Board of Directors (BOD)has long realized the need for healthy professional church workers and has maintained a retreat center for them to use as a place to renew, rejuvenate and rest both physically and spiritually. For a long time, the District maintained two retreats -- one in Arkansas and one on Tuttle Creek Reservoir in Manhattan, Kansas -- both were gifts to the Kansas District.

In January, 2006, the BOD decided to dispose of both properties because of distance and inaccessibility. Since the need was so great, it was decided to use the proceeds from the sales topurchase land and build a new more centrally located facility. The center will be the result of the survey conducted at the Professional Church Workers Conference (PCWC) on October 9-11, 2005.

Garry Niehoff, the Planned Giving Counselor for the Kansas District LCMS, was given the charge to seek out a location. He found a nine-acre tract adjacent to Herington City Lake with has been purchased with the proceeds from the sales of both properties and gifted monies.

The 3,000 square foot building has nine bedrooms, many bathrooms, a great room, prayer room, kitchen, dining area and study on the main floor with a large meeting room in the basement. It is also handicapped accessible.

Priority will be given to professional LCMS church workers and their families with contingent plans to use the meeting room for such events as circuit elders conferences and confirmand retreats.

His Workmanship by Rev. Hathaway ..... The prayer kneeler and cross in this room were made from lumber harvested in the Walnut Valley near Winfield, Kansas. At first glance the weather-stained, dusty wood showed little evidence of it's potential beauty or usefulness. There was, however, a lesson to learn in the wood. It has a story to tell . . . an illustration for life and living.

As the rough milled lumber was cut to size and run through a surface planer, the beauty of the burl and grain began to emerge with more definition. The wood began to reveal characteristics of grain, color and pattern that made it unique and special to the construction of a prayer kneeler and cross.

As one board was being sawed to a proper length and width, a lead bullet and the jagged wound it had made in the rings of the tree was revealed. Another of the boards had an overgrown walnut shell incased in a fork between the joint of two branches. Still another of the boards showed signs of being burned and scorched in the heat of a fire.

One of the boards showed color and grain patterns indicative of piercing and exposure to rusting iron. Most likely fence wire had been stapled or nailed to the tree and it had grown over the metal. There was evidence that some of the timber had been scarred by a lightning strike. Insects had also found a home in these trees and left their tell-tale bores.

The lumber had a story to tell as it was cut, sanded, fashioned and shaped into its final form. All of the trials and tests of time, weather, and natural forces had made unique contributions to the wood as it grew in resilience, beauty, and usefulness.

So, too, with God's redeemed. The trials, tests, and storms of life become useful in the hands and purposes of the LORD to bring out the strength and resilience of the faith He has worked in us by His life-giving Gospel.

He knows the story of your life. He knows what you have been through, what you face, and how to use His Word to surround and comfort you with the peace and grace of the Gospel. Jesus promises that He will not leave you or forsake you.

“The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7 ( ESV )

It has been said that when we feel too weak to stand any longer, it is time to kneel. Jesus was a man of prayer. He talked to His father about everything. He teaches His disciples, then and now, to do likewise. May this cross and kneeler serve His purposes and plans in your life. You are His beloved workmanship. The LORD bless!

To the Glory of God – March 2009.