Gorden & Florence As interviewed by Cyndy

The family attended Redeemer Lutheran Church on East Kellogg before coming to Ascension. Gorden & Florence decided on Ascension because they would have less travel, and they really liked Pastor Robert Kerekes. The family members who transferred were Gorden, Florence, Gary, Candis, Dwight and Bradley.

They moved to west Wichita and still can’t believe how much it has grown. They still live in their same home today. When they first moved, the Wichita city limit was West Street. Wichita Mid-Continent Airport had not even been built yet.

Some of their fondest memories were the church services they had as a congregation in the parsonage basement, which was later purchased by Pastor John and Joyce. When the congregation started meeting, they only had 20 members. They also worked with the mid-week program for several years and are still excited to work with the ministry.

Since Ascension started in 1960, the biggest challenge has been keeping up with the growth of the congregation. New members would create a need for a larger facility. Throughout the years numerous additions have been added to the Tyler Campus and a new facility was built on what is now the Maple Campus. “The biggest thing we see is the amount of talent we now have, how it has grown, and it is all given so freely. Since becoming members, we have really watched our congregation grow.”

In the beginning, today’s paved parking lot on the south side of the Tyler campus was clay dirt. They remember how dirty things got when parking in the lot. At the time when the congregation was trying to raise enough money to put in crushed gravel, Gorden, along with his mom and dad and one other charter member, went to western Kansas to raise money.

Gorden has built many items for our campuses: the cabinets for choir bells, shelves in Pastor Mike’s office, the crosses in all classrooms, and has painted many areas of the church as well. At our Maple Campus, he built the altar, the baptismal font and the lectern.

Florence made the Nativity set, complete with the holy family, wise men, and shepherds that has been on display near the altar and in the narthex at the Tyler campus. These days Florence can be found working on beautiful quilts for LWML.
Florence shared an additional memory she had: she once taught a small Vacation Bible School class that had three boys named Michael, four named David and one named David Michael in it!