To the editor,
By all standards, CityServe was a wonderful service event last Saturday.
Three local congregations, Faith Evangelical Free Church, Freedom Church, and University Lutheran Church, came together to work at Viking Elementary. Walls, cupboards, shelves, desks, tables, chairs and window sills, were cleaned throughout the school, and the playground side parking lot was resealed.
Mike Dahlen, from Faith Evangelical, was inspired to do this after he learned about a similar effort in Grand Junction, Colo., called ShareFest. He called on Pastor Josh Hoeckle, from Freedom Church, and myself, from University Lutheran, to make plans for a first year. It was our hope that Christian people of all "flavors" would come together as one body to serve the surrounding community. So, we collaborated with the Grand Forks School District, which gladly identified work which needed to be done at Viking School.
I never meant to write such a letter for the newspaper, because we never desired publicity in the first place. However, the Herald must have heard about CityServe through some means, since there was a reporter at Viking School on Saturday. While we thank the newspaper for its coverage, unfortunately, there were a couple of errors in the article. As already mentioned, it was Mike Dahlen (not Pahlen) who first envisioned CityServe, and the third church involved was University Lutheran (not United).
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The good news is that next year we hope to organize a much larger event, now that we have one year of experience. Then if publicity is necessary, United Lutheran, and many other churches, if they decide to join us, can also be listed as participants.
Tom Colenso, pastor
University Lutheran Church
Grand Forks
