From Darlene Sorstokke

 One of the most significant influences growing up was the little church we attended and which my parents helped to start.  Grace Baptist Church was “born” about the same time I was.  Pastor and Mrs. Wheeler came while I was still very young.  I remember Pastor Wheeler as being sweet and kind, and not above stooping down to talk to a small child.  By the time Pastor Baker and Virginia came, I was probably seven or eight.  Wes will remember those details better than me!  Pastor Baker’s oldest daughter Becky is two years older than me, and we became fast friends.  She was a wonderful pianist and would often accompany Wes singing during the service.  Marsha, two years young than me, rounded off the family.  Wes and I, and Mom as well, became close to the entire family.  Pastor Baker was not just our pastor, but our youth leader, choir director, and male adult role model friend.  Virginia was always warm and welcoming, opening her home to Becky and Marsha’s friends and the entire youth group.  Wes and I both took vacations with Bakers at different times, and he traveled with them to compete in Talents for Christ, in voice, along with Becky, who competed in piano.  I went camping with Bakers at least once, and it was often Pastor Baker who drove the old green “carryall” to Youth Rallies everywhere, with Wes and I tagging along.  

When I won the local Talents for Christ competition one year -- in Bible knowledge– I went back to compete for the finals.  After visiting with the cousins in Arkansas, I flew to Missouri to meet up with Bakers, who were visiting their relatives as well.  We all drove to Kansas City, Missouri.  Bakers took me under their wing and I stayed in the hotel room with their family.

Pastor Baker preached more than one sermon based on something one of us kids asked him.  He had a “question box” in which we could drop our inquiries.  I remember well him preaching a whole sermon on my “Why did God make spiders?”  Another time, he stopped in the middle of his sermon and said, “and Dar– there they ruminate”– because he had used in his sermon a word I’d asked him about.  At other times he would notice the whispering and passing of notes going on between Becky and me and put an end to it.  In the wintertime we kids preferred to sit at the back of the church– there was a three-foot transom where the heat came up!

I always wanted Pastor Baker to officiate at my wedding.  Because by then Dave and I had an Oregon church we were involved in, we agreed to have our Oregon pastor give the sermonette but have Pastor Baker do the vows.  He got a zillion points when, at the wedding rehearsal, he boldly announced “now if any of you have any problems with how things are done you talk to me and I’ll talk to Darlene”.  Apparently he had been at plenty of weddings with pushy people– not a problem at mine, but I appreciated his protectiveness anyway.