Sprague and District Historical Museum to hold fundraiser to preserve church
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The Sprague and District Historical Museum is holding a fundraiser to collect funds for the repair of one its buildings, the Full Gospel Church.
“The siding on it is falling away – it’s brittle and we have birds pecking at them and there’s holes all over and it has to be redone. It was put in there in 1934 when it was built,” said museum chair Doris Hovorka.
The history of the church began in 1933 when evangelist Hjordis Rambo came to Golden Branch to hold Gospel meetings. Golden Branch was about five miles north of Sprague. On March 16, 1934, Rambo’s daughter married Gundro Ludwig Simensen who built a church at Golden Branch and became pastor. In 1955, his wife became his assistant pastor. When Simensen died, his wife became pastor. Over the years new churches were built in the village of Sprague and the Golden Branch church was not being used except for special occasions. In time, the church became abandoned and vandalized.
In 2011 and 2012, Alton Milne, a resident of Sprague and a past member of the Full Gospel Church, approached the Sprague and District Historical Museum board on numerous occasions to move the building to the museum site and renovate it as vandalism was leading to the destruction of the church.
In 2014, the church was moved to the museum with restoration to be completed in four phases. Phase 1 was building the foundation and moving the building on site; Phase 2 was repairing the outside, adding a new roof, new windows and doors; Phase three was completing the inside and access of the building, including flooring, electrical, wheelchair access, and sidewalk. Now, the final phase is to replace the cedar shingles on the outside walls.
“It’s important to a lot of people because it was their first church,” said Hovorka.
The Sprague museum board have applied for grants and are fundraising to raise $20,000 to complete the project this summer. So far the museum has raised $11,000 in grant money and is trying to get the RM to designate the church as a heritage building in order to get more grants.
To further raise money, the board is holding a luncheon at the Sprague Hall on April 27 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sandwiches, salad, soup, and pie will be served. There will also be a raffle.
