A great servant of God, and our dear friend, Rev. Vernon Gundermann has entered eternity with God.  Pastor Gundermann’s life reminds me of
Isaiah 6:8,  “I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

Many of you know my passion for baseball, rooted in my hometown where Mickey Mantle played on the Baxter Whiz Kids, my father was a great Babe Ruth league coach, and my brother, Brian Taylor was quite a ball player.  As a young man, Pastor Gundermann was a great baseball player too, and he had a likely career in professional baseball in front of him, when he was called to the pastorate.  I enjoyed listening to his baseball stories, and I am confident he did not regret his vocation.

In this picture, Pastor was visiting us at the Lutheran Heritage Center with his incredible wife, Betty.  Note, he is wearing our purple Heritage Center shirt.  There is a funny story about that day I will tell you sometime.

“Pastor Gundermann, you loved your flock well.”  Our thoughts and prayers go out to Betty, their family, and the multitude of friends who are celebrating Pastor’s life.