Two weeks ago this Church family recognized Patty and I for 40 years of ministry here. Thank you once again for this. This led me to do a great deal of historical thinking of this journey. So last week I decided to do a walk down memory lane by writing out the people who stand out to us over those 40 years. Essentially… our story here at this church and the significant people who stand out to us in this journey. As I said last week, most of these names will mean nothing to you, but I think it needs to be recorded as missions history. Because there are so many I am going to write out a few weeks of articles. Remember this… most of you will not recognize most of these names. However this story will lead up to you and I right here right now and our part of God’s story here at LifeWay. Here is this week’s walk down memory lane and how God orchestrated this journey by using common people.
Andy and Doris Seago: Yes indeed, Patty and I moved here officially in July 1984 and helped plant what we then called “The Church at Palisades.” But it’s significant that we started right here on this 5 acres, the property we sit on right now. Normally in Church planting physical church property is much further down the road if ever. But this 5 acres where our church building is on was actually part of a Church that had existed before that they called “Palisades Baptist Church.” Palisades is actually a neighborhood designation (which is why the park next door is called “Palisades Park.”) And the church that originally purchased this 5 acres did so in 1963. In those days there was no Twin Lakes neighborhood at all. 320th street ended at 21st Ave and the only way down this direction was via Dash Point Road (State Hwy 509). In the early 60’s a very small group felt led to plant a church here for the NE Tacoma and the emerging Federal Way (that was not a city in those days). This early church actually met for a couple of years in a small community center building that is now the Palisades Park property next to us. But they found this acreage we now have, paid $15,000 for it. As for the a building to meet in, they found a small building somewhere in town that was actually a barber shop. They bought it, put in on a trailer under it and moved it down Dash Point Road to this property. That little house was jacked up one story and they built a concrete block wall under to make it a 2-story building. That building today is what we know of as the Annex! (Yes the upstairs of the annex at one time long ago was a barber shop in the early 1960’s). One of the earliest Pastors (and very possibly the first pastor) was a gentleman by the name of Andy Seago and his wife Doris. I knew them quite well in our early days here. They have both passed away a few years ago but were used by God to not only be part of what was Palisades Baptist Church in the 60’s and early 70’s, but many other churches in the region. Thank you God for Andy and Doris.
Palisades Baptist Church was always very small during those 20 years… and even though they had a plan to build a more traditional building, that never took place. The annex was the church meeting place building. During those many years even though the congregation was about 20 people max, they even had a coop school that met in the downstairs of the annex. They had a pastor in the early 1980’s that employed by Boeing and helped lead this small congregation until he moved away to Colorado in 1983. With the church severely depleted, and a debt they couldn’t seem to pay (a $25,000 debt that our new church inherited) this little Palisades Baptist Church on this 5 acres on Dash Point Road in the summer and fall of 1983 had essentially dwindled down to one single older librarian lady….
Lottie Hornbeck: During the summer of 1983 everyone who had been part of the small Palisades Baptist Church had either moved or drifted away, all except one lady, Lottie Hornbeck. Lottie was a single and a bit shy and growing older but didn’t want to give up on this little church she had known for several years. Over the course of the summer of 1983 she would show up to the property completely by herself on Sunday mornings in the annex building downstairs. Lottie would bring a cassette tape player and a sermon tape from a well-known preacher (she would tell me that most of the sermon tapes she played were from Chuck Swindoll). But she would meet by herself and listen to that sermon just in case someone else showed up. By the fall of 1983 nothing had changed and she was still the only person around. She went to visit the office of the Puget Sound Baptist Association to ask what to do. In last weeks article I wrote about Charles Jolly who served at the PSBA in those days. This is the juncture where Charles got involved. His recommendation was to figure out how to just start over again as a new church. It was also in that same November of 1983 that Patty and I met Charles which began the process of starting a new church again in 1984. I thank God for Lottie Hornbeck and her faithfulness to God’s leading even when she was the tiny remnant left. Lottie was part of the Church at Palisades we started here and was faithful all those years. She passed away more than 20 years ago now. I still reflect on that story occasionally when I walk around the Annex building.
For my own enjoyment of reflecting on the years, there is still more to come next week.
