The Lutheran Heritage Center and Museum serves the East Perry County community and a much larger community in many ways. We are a museum dedicated to the Lutheran Immigration of the 1800s and our community’s history. Our research library serves as a reference for many families from the original immigration and beyond. We offer a place for local artisans to share their handiwork alongside other meaningfully selected gift offerings in our gift shop. We are a multi-faceted facility!

In this past week, among our varied activities, we had the pleasure of hosting our first school group tour in over a year. It felt so good to share the story of the Immigration and our community with the students from St. John Lutheran in Red Bud, IL. We also had the pleasure of having visitors from Portland, OR. They were Manning descendants. John Manning was an owner of a parcel of land what is now known as Wittenberg. It is believed that John Manning is the only Revolutionary War veteran buried in Perry County. His great-great-great-great grandson visited from Oregon in search of the stone commemorating John Manning’s life here in Perry County. We also had the extreme pleasure of accepting a baptismal font accession from Linda (Davis) Palm. Linda and her husband, Phil, brought this wonderful font that was made by her great grandfather, Herman William Lange, and served as a font at St Peter’s Lutheran Church in Campbell Hill, IL. As you can see, the stories we hear and get to tell are varied!

This week at the Museum wouldn’t be complete unless we shared that our Immigration Conference planning for October 28-30 is well underway and letters and emails are going out! Please consider joining us for the Immigration Conference in October.

Also new to the Museum this week are items that help to commemorate and celebrate Missouri’s Bicentennial and the importance of Perry County and its part of the great “Show Me State!” Please stop by the Museum to pick up your Perry County, Missouri Bicentennial commemorative gear!

I had the opportunity to visit with Warren Schmidt, the Perry County Lutheran Historical Society’s President, this week about our focus and biblically what our focus is and always will be. I asked his opinion as to which Bible verse most applies to our mission here at the Museum. His answer was one that I love. Psalm 78: 1-4 reads as follows…”O my people, hear my teaching; listen to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter hidden things, things, from of old – what we have heard and known, what our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD, his power, and the wonders he has done.”

It’s about the Story. It’s about stories. The good and the sometimes not so pleasant. We ask that you join us in prayer that our mission at the Museum will continue to be blessed and focused on people’s stories and most of all, the STORY of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ and His work!

Hope to see you at the Museum soon! We’d love to hear your story!