Mennonite Weekly Review

MANSON, Iowa — Seven-year-old Matt and his younger siblings first wandered into Manson Mennonite Church after finding the doors open, sometimes during Sunday potlucks, when people gave them food.

From right, Bonnie Oswald, Ross Simpson, Haley Oswald and Donnie Zeka lead worship at Manson Mennonite Church. — Photo by Laurie Oswald Robinson/MC USA

Thirteen years later, last June, Pastor Curt Kuhns conducted Matt’s funeral at the church after Matt died in a grain bin accident.

The congregation has ministered to Matt’s extended family for years in many ways. Kuhns had also developed a relationship with Matt’s grandfather, Gary, at Golden Meadows, a local retirement community, where he helped to conduct Gary’s funeral in spring 2007.

None of the family members has joined the church, but that isn’t Manson Mennonite’s biggest concern, Kuhns said. Members believe in sharing God’s love, even if their efforts don’t yield fruit quickly, or in ways traditionally considered successful.

After their first visits to the 150-member congregation — many of whom farm or work at small businesses in this rural community of 2,000 people — Matt and his siblings returned.

“They came to our Pioneer Club on Wednesday nights, a ministry to the community, which reaches out to a lot of unchurched kids,” Kuhns said. “That led to some participation in junior high Sunday school and later on, youth group.”

After attending junior high Sunday school, Matt got heavily involved in skateboarding and stopped coming to Manson Mennonite. Kuhns lost track of him but reconnected with the family again after ministering to Matt’s grandfather.

“I remember Matt being very open and sensitive as a junior higher,” Kuhns said. “I’d be surprised if he hadn’t made some kind of significant connection with God as a result of the exposure he received.

“I got an inkling of that during the funeral sharing time. Many of his friends told about how generous Matt was. One of his friends told how he took that grain bin job to help his mother pay for the mortgage on her house so she wouldn’t lose it.”

Many stories like these came from people who reflected Matt’s skateboarding life.