My Church

Let me start off by saying I have only ever attended one church in all my 68 years.

As children, my sisters and I enjoyed going to church and Sunday School. We did not attend every Sunday back then, but were there as much as Mom and Dad could take us. Not only my two sisters and our parents went to my church, but my grandma (Dad's mom) and her three sisters and my cousin. My Grandpa (Mom's daddy) also attend church there and all my Mom's sisters, although my Aunts didn't attend regularly, they all went there as young children.

Actually, we grew up thinking all the "old people" there were our relatives. They had all also grown up in my church. It really was one big happy family. We were stunned to learn in later years, these people were not blood relatives, but Mom told us they were our church family.

I also raised my boys and grandkids in my church. If they wanted friends to spend the night on any given Saturday, they knew the only option was to wake up early and attend Sunday School and church, so I also raised several life long friends of my boys in my church. To say I love my church and church family would be an understatement.

Today we are a very small church family, but oh so close to each other. I was overwhelmed with joy in November that we achieved the long process of being designated as a Historical place here in Kennedale. The state of Texas presented us with our Texas Historical Marker which proudly is displayed right beside the front door.

My church was meeting in the late 1800's with a Circuit Rider on my Great Great Grandfathers farm. When many farming families began showing up each prayer meeting, they decided that the need for a permanent church building had come. In 1903 my church was opened for worship and towns folk flooded in. We now have a different church building, built in the 1950's but some of the same founding families still attend today. I am the 5th of 7 generations of my family who call First United Methodist Kennedale, My Church.

L. Sanders