Photographs Country Church near West Des Moines

Barbarian

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I believe that is Maple Grove United Methodist Church. I was raised in a rural Methodist Church of about that size in upstate New York.

There is another UMC church in Iowa I've had some connection to, an older urban church in Cedar Rapids, Salem United Methodist Church. In June of 2008 my wife and I were at a family gathering in Cedars Rapids on the occasion of her grandfather's death and funeral. As we were driving through downtown on our way home we passed by Salem UMC and I thought to myself I'd like to come back and worship in that church someday. I never got the chance for that because the skies opened up as we passed and started raining heavily. It was the beginning of one of the worst floods the state ever experienced.

About a week later I was back in Cedar Rapids as part of a Methodist Volunteers in Mission group helping to clean up the mess, part of the time in that urban Methodist church. So, I did return to Salem, but not under the pleasant circumstances I had hoped for.


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The summer after I graduated from college, I was about to be drafted, so I got a job as a machine operator on the Milwaukee Road. Pat and I got an apartment in C.R. not too far from that church. We spent the summer nights looking around the town, on the weekends, in a park, listening to Sousa concerts, and generally ignoring the rest of the world. I love that town.

(Barbarian checks)
It is Maple Grove United Methodist Church.
 
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