I have over 32 years of fond St. Luke’s memories.  The beginning of my St. Luke’s experience was marrying my wife, Anne in the chapel in 1989, which seems like just a few years ago. Hard to believe I have lived more of my life since that day than prior, boy how time flies when you are having fun with marriage, kids, career, life.  Once we had our son and daughter, Kevin and Ellen who are now respectively 28 and 26 our St. Luke’s life really took off.  Because the church provides so many avenues for families to participate in a safe, nurturing, Christian environment we were hooked from the start.  First, the kids were christened then they were enrolled in the day school.  Kevin was a toddler when they were building the new wing of the day school and gym, and classes were held in temporary buildings in the parking [...]

It was the summer of 1957. My Mom and Dad had heard about an organist/teacher by the name of Bob Bennett. He was the organist at St. Luke’s Methodist Church. They contacted him and Mom drove me to the church on a Saturday morning for my first organ lesson. The Sanctuary was what is now the Fellowship Hall. The organ was a small Hammond electronic organ. I was so excited to sit down at that organ for my first lesson. I had taken piano lessons for several years, but this was an all-new experience for this 13-year old kid! Two keyboards and foot pedals too! Wow! I studied hard and fortunately, playing the organ came naturally to me. One Saturday, Mr. Bennett walked me over to the construction site for the new Sanctuary. It was exciting to see the steel girders and new concrete being put into place. After a long [...]

In 1988 I moved from Austin to Houston to join Vinson & Elkins ("V&E") as an associate. You could say I found my church home at St. Luke's through V&E.  While I was a summer associate there, Randy and Ann Smith brought me to their St. Luke's Sunday School class.  Judy Bolling, a long time St. Luke's member, conducted orientation for V&E's new associates. When I first met with her I expressed an interest in St. Luke’s and she also invited me to come to Sunday school. Because Christian community was, and is, central to all the members of the Gene Decker Study Class, I was welcomed warmly and immediately felt at home.  Through this amazing class and its yearly week-long visits to Mo Ranch, my husband Bob and I have been blessed with lifelong, loving friends.  When Bob and I started dating in 1992, although he would come to Sunday school parties [...]

I remember the Sunday forty-five years ago that I became a member of St. Luke's.  We sat on the second row, and Dr. Shamblin asked for those who wanted to join to come forward.  Although I had grown up in the Presbyterian church in Waco, I was sure St. Luke's United Methodist was where I belonged.  I vowed to uphold the church with my prayers, presence, gifts and service.  After church I went into the chapel parlor and felt welcomed by Dr. and Mrs. Shamblin.  It was a special occasion. You see, there was a young man named Tom Wier - my new husband - with me that day.  Tom was already a member.  We had met through a colleague from work, and I was grateful to know that we would worship together as we started our marriage.  Both of us had Methodist ministers in our family background. We joined the Friendship [...]

I was made aware of St. Luke’s Church when I met Joe Blanton, my husband to be. The St. Luke’s family was holding services in the auditorium of Lamar Senior High School. On one of our dates, I accompanied Joe to Lamar High School where St. Luke’s was having a church conference and Joe was scheduled to attend. I met many new members of St. Luke’s who invited me to join. I attended Sunday services and later joined the St. Luke’s choir as a gift surprise to Joe’s parents. Some months later I joined St. Luke’s and Joe and I were married in St. Paul’s Methodist Church since St. Luke’s did not yet have a church sanctuary. From that date, February 7, 1948, Joe and I together chose the beautiful relationship with the St. Luke’s family until his death in 2006. During the years from 1948 on, Joe organized the St. [...]