Friday, April 4, 5:30 to 8 p.m. Youth Hangout at St. John’s. Fourth graders through high school. Devotions, snacks, games, craft. Please bring friends!
Sunday, April 6. Holy Communion will be offered in the 10 a.m. service.
Wednesday, April 9. Confirmation class, 5:30 p.m., followed by Lenten worship at 7 p.m., with pot luck meal after the service.
Thursday, April 10, 2 p.m. Devotional service for residents of Golden Manor, Steele. And at 7 p.m., WELS Women’s Ministry will be streaming a webinar, “The Power of Connecting Women in Christ.” Please see further information on wels.net. This can be viewed from home, but if there is interest, Pastor will run the program on the large screen in the fellowship hall.
Saturday, April 12, 10 a.m. St. John’s Easter egg hunt for the children of the community. Volunteers are needed! We have plenty of plastic eggs, but we would still appreciate donations of candy and goodies of the right size to put inside them. We plan on getting everything ready on Wednesday evening, April 9, following the Lenten service. Please stay and help on Wednesday evening, if you can! We would also appreciate helpers on Saturday morning, during the Easter egg hunt. Please let Beth Leier, Kris Stroh, or Pastor know if you are willing to help. Thank you!
Sunday, April 13. Palm Sunday! Our Sunday School students will sing during the 10 a.m. service. During this service, we also plan to welcome Donna Berreth and Derek & Andrea Leier into communicant membership. Church council will meet during the Sunday school hour, so there will be no adult Bible study. Eastern Montana Ministry Program. Pastor will be leaving immediately after the church council meeting, to lead worship at our sister congregations in Circle, Montana in the afternoon, and at Terry, Montana in the evening.
Wednesday, April 16. Confirmation class, 5:30 p.m., followed by Christian Passover Seder at 7 p.m. Please invite friends and family to join you! Holy Communion will be offered to communicant members during the Christian Passover Seder observance.
Friday, April 18, 7 p.m. Good Friday worship.
Easter Sunday, April 20. Easter Dawn worship service at 7:30 a.m., followed by Easter Breakfast, and Easter Festival worship service at 10:00 a.m. We will not have Sunday School and adult Bible study on Easter morning.
Wednesday, April 23. Confirmation class, 5:30 p.m.
Saturday, April 26. LWMS (Lutheran Women’s Missionary Society) Spring Rally, St. Paul’s, Roscoe, SD.
Sunday, April 27. Holy Communion will be offered in the 10 a.m. service. Quarterly voters’ meeting will be held during the Sunday School hour.
Tuesday and Wednesday, April 29 & 30. Pastor will be attending the WELS Dakota-Montana District Spring Conference at Redeemer Lutheran in Mandan. There will be no confirmation class on Wednesday, April 30.
Sunday, May 4. Sunday School picnic during the Sunday School hour, with outdoor activities (weather permitting), and lunch to follow with hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, etc.
Wednesday, May 7. Confirmation class, 5:30 p.m. This class will be with the eighth graders only, a final review before Confirmation. Ladies’ Aid will meet at 7 p.m.
Sunday, May 11, 10 a.m. Youth Confirmation in the divine service, Holy Communion will be offered. This year’s confirmands: Paitynn Bodvig, Brayson Leier, Colter Muller, Elliana Nicholson, Dane Stroh.
Wednesday, May 14. Pastor DeMarce has been invited to preach and lead Bible study at St. Paul’s in Valley City on this evening, when their pastor will be out of town.
In Loving Memory of Duane C. Spooner
On October 19, 2020, Duane Curtis Spooner left his terrestrial binds for the great ethereal hunting plains.
Duane was born April, 19, 1952 in Crosby, ND as the third of six children. His parents Alan and Ethel (Nygaard) Spooner were farmers in Noonan, ND and worked hard to provide for and instill the hard work ethic, integrities, and values that Duane used to carry himself through life. As an adolescent, Duane hunted, played football, and began his love of fast cars, spending hours with his brothers and friends fixing his 56 Chevy only so that he could break it again.
After high school, Duane attended NDSU for a spell before returning home to work on the farm and the body shop, until he became the manager of the elevator in Northgate, ND. While there, he met and fell for the love of his life and wife of 41 years, Kristie Ganskop. In the middle of an April blizzard in 1979, the two wed, which was a fitting start to the whirlwind of their life together. They soon set out to establish roots of their own by moving and renting farmland in McKenzie, ND. While there, in 1980, Duane’s first child Josh was born in October, right in the middle of a harvest and opening pheasant weekend. In August 1982, their small family grew with the birth of Duane’s daughter, Andrea and they purchased a farm in Tappen, ND. In 1984, they welcomed their 2nd son, Eric but by 1986, they could not escape the farm crisis and sold the farm.
Duane entered a new chapter of his life by enrolling in the Colorado School of Trades and began his path as a master gunsmith and custom rifle builder. The family moved to Lakewood, CO while Duane completed his studies. In 1987, the family returned to Tappen, ND and he founded Duane’s Gun Repair. Over the next several years, Duane did double duty as gunsmith and Mr. Mom while Kristie went back to school to earn her degree in Addiction Counseling and Social Work. Duane was very active in his children’s lives, hosting epic NES Tecmo Superbowl football tournaments, coaching their baseball teams, teaching them to shoot and hunt, and always finding time to attend their activities and sporting events no matter the distance or inconvenience.
Being an avid hunter and fisherman, he enjoyed many adventurous family vacations, and traded several custom rifles for once-in-a-lifetime hunting and fishing trips for his family.
In 2003, he began a part time role as the business manager of Tappen Public Schools and shortly after became the full-time business manager. With the consolidation of the county schools, he moved into a new role as Business Manager for the South Central Regional Council.
With joy, he witnessed the marriage of his daughter Andrea in 2007 to Tjaden Sinclair and the marriage of his son Eric in 2016 to Maria Krogen. He welcomed his first grandchild, Jackson in 2009, followed by Brielle (2011), Thornton (2013), Lola (2015) and Everett (2017). His grandchildren were truly the love of his life and he loved nothing better than to spend time with them.
In 2016, at the bequest of his son Joshua, Duane partnered with Josh to move Duane’s Gun Repair to Fargo, ND where he worked until his sudden passing.
Duane loved to engage in conversation about all topics of life, and could strike up a conversation with anyone. Family was always first for him and he always said his best accomplishment in life was his children and how involved he was in their childhood. His kind, generous nature touched many lives and his passing has left a void that cannot be filled.
He is survived by his wife, Kristie; children, Joshua (special friend Ayanna), Moorhead, MN, Andrea (Tjaden) Sinclair with children Jackson, Brielle, Thornton, and Everett, Fargo, ND, Eric (Maria), West Fargo, ND; mother, Ethel, Crosby, ND; sister, Donna Hegle, Bismarck, ND; brothers, Mark (Lori) Spooner, Noonan, ND, Albert (Mae) Spooner, Minneapolis, MN, Todd Spooner, Crosby, ND and many nieces and nephews.
He was preceded in death by his dad, Alan, grandchild, Lola, brother, Keith, brother-in-law, Ken and father-in-law, Art.
Memorial Service: 2:00 P.M. Saturday, October 24, 2020 at St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, Tappen, ND with visitation starting at 1:00 P.M.
The service will be live streamed on Boulger Funeral Home’s website starting at 1:45 P.M. at www.boulgerfuneralhome.com.
This will also be streamed live on our YouTube channel.
Family Prayer Service: Watch the Video
Memorial Service: Watch the Video