I have spent some time this week looking at old pictures. Baby pictures if you will.
Not of some chubby cheeked infant, but of a baby church.
Valley Baptist Church constituted as a church in 1962. Looking at aerial photos that predate VBC (the internet is great for this stuff) what you see is...nothing. Well, empty fields with an odd house or barn sprinkled here and there.
The next available photo is two years later, and two things immediately catch your eye. The first is Hwy 41! It didn't exist and then it did. The second thing is...baby Valley right there off that Richmond Street exit. That original building makes up the church office and multipurpose room today.
It turns out this section of Hwy 41 and Valley were born the exact same year.
I don't know if those first members were that forward thinking -- or if God was simply at work in placing Valley at such a key location. (I would say it is likely both are true.) I will tell you from looking at these photos, look all the way around the Hwy 41 curve...Valley was the first strategic building on the highway. Before any banks, hotels, gas stations (even Kwik Trip!), grocery stores or even any other churches. When Vince Lombardi, Paul Hornung, Bart Starr and the rest of the Packers rode from Appleton to Lambeau for home games...they drove right past Valley Baptist Church.
Why do I mention that?
1. I like history.
2. It is a reminder of how we have been connected with Hwy 41 from the very start, so we will survive the growing pains of the next year or two.
3. It is reminder that God has placed our church in one of the most visible places in all the Fox Valley because He has work for us to do.
We are the embodiment of Matthew 5.14-16.
"You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven."
We are to be a light for the entire Valley! That's a pretty big deal.
Your pastor,
Tim
