I hope that you have your registration in and have plans underway to visit us Oct. 25-27.  We have made some wonderful arrangements for stellar presentations, entertainment, food, and an awesome custom coach fieldtrip.  Visit the “Conference” tab on the website menu for a more detailed syllabus.  Remember, there are NO registrations at the door.  We are full for all intents and purposes, but if you want to see if we can squeeze you in, please call 573-824-6070 and ask the staff for my cell phone number.  We have some space remaining for the banquet  (no ticket sales at the door).  Please call me for that reservation as well.

I am so excited to hear presentations on: the outmigration of Perry Co. Lutherans to Oklahoma, a diary discovered in Alsace-Lorraine that relates to this immigration story, how to relate your family history to children, how to research your “Urban German” and SO much more.  The musical entertainment will be superb, and we have plans for great music each day–everything from a world-class pipe organ concert to an Americana band that will knock your socks off named, Docsology.  Their concert on Saturday evening will chronicle the music of the Mississippi River:  blues, blue grass, and gospel.

Dr. Frank Nickell, celebrated regional historian and raconteur will be providing the keynote address at the banquet on Sat. the 27th.  He will be exploring the juxtaposition of cultures-Saxon and Cherokee on the Mississippi River in 1839.

An Autumn farm-to-table feast will crown the evening of the banquet, but the food all weekend will be amazing.  Regional chef and sausage maker, Christian Voigt (from Saxony Germany) will be preparing a sausage on a homemade bun luncheon with a yummy potato/apple salad from his family tradition in Germany.  We will enjoy beer from the Saxony Hills Brewery at the traditional “Altenburg Fish Fry” on Friday evening, complete with the tunes of Dan Brown’s German Band.  Friday luncheon will be served by our friends, the Concordia Guild of St. Paul Lutheran, Jackson, Missouri.

This year’s conference will be dedicated in memory of my friend, and the descendant multi-great granddaughter of Pastor Loeber, Carol Lamm.  Her husband and children will be joining us to celebrate her life with a pipe organ concert by Matthew Palisch, the planting of greenery in our Lutheran Heritage Center landscape, and a memorial tribute at the banquet.

Here we go, folks!  It’s going to be a joyful time of reunions, making new friends, and celebrating:  our stories of faith, the courage to immigrate to a new land, the survival of trails of tears, and our own unique early American history.

Take care, Carla L. Jordan