MONTE VISTA— This June marked the 100th anniversary of the Sargent Community Church north of Monte Vista. The historic date was celebrated on Sunday, June 24 with the normal 10:30 a.m. church service, followed by lunch, music, memory sharing and refreshments such as ice cream and cookies. About 90 people attended, some traveling from as far as Denver, Oregon, Tennessee and Texas.

It was only the second sermon delivered by Reverend Lester Huseby since a car accident left him with a head injury in February. His wife Jo assisted him in his duties throughout the service, and the anniversary celebration went smoothly. “It’s amazing that he’s here and doing as well as he is,” said his wife Jo Huseby. “We love this church and are so glad we could be part of this celebration.”

Church members made flower arrangements and historical story boards for the church’s reception areas. A video with old and new photos of members during church events played on a loop in one room that also had on display different-styled hats once worn by parishioners. A book of poems by original church member Ruth Mathias told about life in Sargent and her school mates. As Mathias grew older, her poems shifted to her students---she had become a teacher at her alma mater. The displays captivated folks attending the celebration, bringing both smiles and tears.

The Sargent community began services inside the Sargent Consolidated School in late 1917. The actual organization of the community church began in June 1918 and the first reverend, Dr. Elmer Nourse, lived with his family in tents on the church property. That fall, however, the tents caught fire and burned to the ground from overheated wood stoves. But church members rallied to collect enough money to build a parsonage.

The church met for several decades in the Sargent school building until the present-day church was dedicated on Aug. 16, 1959 after construction. Since then, the church has had 28 pastors, including four women. The church has always been nondenominational— and back in the early days membership was in the hundreds. These days, membership has waned. Some days, the congregation only reaches about 20. “It’s such a sweet church with a wonderful history,” says longtime church member Harriet DeFreece. “It would be nice if we could build up the congregation, you know, get more young people.”

The anniversary lunch was a simple serving of salad, shredded beef on a hamburger bun and Valley-produced potatoes roasted by the church’s administrator board vice-chair Carla Worley, who also chaired the 100th anniversary event. Then everyone adjourned to the worship hall again for music and memory sharing by members, former members and former pastors who’d come to celebrate the anniversary.

Art Jones talked about how his grandfather drove his prized Studebaker to Sunday service every morning. Jones drove that very same, spit-shined Studebaker to the anniversary celebration. “Our family has celebrated births, graduations and marriages of family and friends here in this church,” said Jones, “and we’ve mourned the deaths of loved ones.”

The church’s oldest living member, Martha Oliver, 91, remembered the church during WWII, when around 100 German POWs were brought to Monte Vista from Trinidad to fulfill the farm-labor shortage. “The girls from the church went to the Monte Vista armory to sing Christmas songs to the German POWs on Christmas Day,” said Oliver. “These were just boys who had been with Rommel’s troops (Erwin Rommel was implicated assassinate plot against Adolph Hitler), and I remember one of those young men sitting on the stairs as we sang Silent Night with tears streaming down his face. I realized then that we are all Christians, no matter where we live, if we have Jesus in our hearts.”

People also had fun memories to share, like one former member now living in Idaho who remembered the church choir ladies falling backwards as they sat in the onstage pew. The congregation’s worried gasps turned to giggles as everyone realized the ladies were unharmed. “It was just so funny, their legs sticking up in the air,” said the former member. Another parishioner remembered jelly beans rolling down the aisle during Easter, hiding behind the curtains backstage as a kid and the “amazing hot pools and fireflies at church camp,” which were held at Valley View well before its clothing-optional days.

For former church pastor Tom Janoski, the church member’s commitment to helping those in need is nothing short of amazing. “When my daughter and her family lost everything after a hurricane wiped out their home in Virginia, our church found out and began collecting goods,” remembered Janoski, who drove with his wife to where their daughter and family were staying in North Carolina to deliver those relief goods from the church. “I will never forget it. That’s where the rubber meets the road with Christianity.”

For more information on the Sargent Community Church, visit sargentcommunitychurch.com.