A memorable final sermon at Wilton Church

As I sat in church Sunday morning the bells of Wilton Church rang, and to me, felt as if they were doing so for the final time. Saturday evening Deb invited me to join her for Pastor Larry Sipe’s final service in Wilton. His actual last service for the parishes will be Sunday at First Lutheran in Waldorf. For more than a decade, Pastor Sipe has served the Wilton Parish. He is moving on to Immanuel Lutheran Church and School in Plainview at the end of the month. 

 

Pastor Sipe was the first regular pastor I listened to following the closure of the First Congregational Church in New Richland. The only church I have ever called home. Pastor Pamela was the only pastor I really knew before Sipe. 

 

His sermons helped support and strengthen my faith journey. I appreciated the thoughts he shared, and I enjoyed the services. The music, the Bible verses, the company in church, all of it. As I did with the First Congregational, I wish I had attended more regularly. Sometimes a person doesn’t know how good something is until it is gone. Other times, in my case, I was aware, but did not properly prioritize it in my life. 

 

Pastor Sipe was teary eyed only once during Sunday’s service. His sermon felt longer than others, but in a good way. He talked of sowing good seed, and using proper judgment. His interpretation of the parable of the sower was different from others I have heard. The point was rather simple: sow the seed of God’s love liberally so that when it falls on suitable soil it can grow. Since you have no way of knowing which hearts the seed will take root in, put it in every heart. 

 

My friend Mikhail and I continued with another regular lunch this week and part of the conversation diverted to faith and life and such. He asked me how I could be so confident in my life, how I can believe so strongly that my business decisions will work. I was really puzzled by the question. 

 

I credited my faith and lifelong dedication to the businesses which I run. Newspapers have surrounded me my entire life. Collectibles and cards, since the age of four. (I do own a game store.) My dad bought and sold sports memorabilia, cards, collectibles, etc. to help supplement his income during my youth. He was a single father of three. From the time I opened Yu-Gi-Oh cards at the age of four, my dad had me “sleeving” (putting in protective cases) and taking care of them. I own those cards to this day. They are proudly displayed at my game store. 

 

But really, I told Mikhail, God likes to yell in my general direction whenever I need to do something in life. It isn’t always yelling, but the message is clear nonetheless. 

 

When I was 15 or 16, I overheard our production manager at the time, Reed Waller, tell my mother that he could not put the newspaper together in my dad’s absence the next time Dad was in the hospital and unable to do so. At that time I decided I would have to do it next time Dad got sick. 

 

Well that happened when I was 19 years old. I was not asked to do it, but I knew it was my responsibility. Without telling anyone what I was planning, I waited until everyone went home that Friday evening and proceeded to spend the entire weekend putting together a newspaper. I needed to do it well enough that no one could argue I wasn’t the right man for the job. 

 

Three years later when my dad, in a fit of anger, offered to sell me the business, I accepted on the spot. At that time, I had been doing all the work of running the business for a year; my only frustration was always having to explain and justify my decisions to my dad. We had just finished having an argument about the Star Eagle’s budget–a set of important planning and operational guidelines my dad had never created while he ran the place. He said if there was money in the account, he could pay himself. That was what the argument was about. I had money budgeted for everything, including all of his bills. We could not afford to write him the check he wanted at that time. This didn’t make him happy, so he told me if I knew better then I should buy the place from him. 

 

So I did. 

 

Now I don’t know if that was God yelling at me, but it felt pretty loud at the time. The next two examples I have felt even more obvious to me.

 

Before starting a newspaper in Waseca, my two best friends Kyle and Anastasiia asked me to help them start a newspaper in Austin. After lots and lots of work, they told me they weren’t willing to do the work necessary to run a newspaper. During that process I had done a lot of groundwork to start a paper. Using that experience, plus the knowledge gained from helping my mother start her newspaper, the Janesville Journal, I decided to start the Waseca County Pioneer. During this entire process, my dad was by my side, insisting we start a newspaper in Waseca. If he said it once, he said it 100 times. 

 

He was right. 

 

When I acquired the game store, it happened only after I decided I wasn’t going to purchase it from my two best friends, Kyle and Anastasiia. They had already closed and re-opened the store and it wasn't doing well. I had agreed to purchase the store from Kyle but decided it was too much work. Kyle and I kept talking because we were friends. We didn’t speak about me purchasing the store again. About a month later, Kyle decided he wasn’t going to close the store regardless whether it made money or not. It was too important to the community. 

 

Really, I think he was just going to keep it open for me. The game store, an island of misfit toys as some have called it, is really a gathering place for nerds who have no one else and nowhere else to share their hobbies. 

 

It was during this conversation that Kyle declared (and I quote), “Eli, you can just have the thing.” 

 

He said he was serious.

 

I wasn’t willing to invest any money to purchase the game store as it felt like a frivolous investment in a project that would be fruitless financially. But “just having” the store felt risk free. 

 

And that was how I ended up fulfilling another childhood dream. 

 

We moved the entire store, all of its inventory and shelves, in one day. Not one person other than my best friend Jake and our one employee volunteered to help us move. I was so busy with the newspapers at the time, after looking at a calendar, I determined that the first Saturday in April 2024, was the only day I could dedicate to moving and setting up in our new location. 

 

That day felt like something out of a movie. We started packing up to move and before an hour had passed, half a dozen people, many of whom I didn’t even know, were helping move the store. Within two hours, I was no longer moving anything, I was directing volunteers and riding in the back of a pickup or on top of a 100-pound display case being rolled down Austin’s Main Street, accompanied by many people I had never met before. 

 

My friend Mark spent the entire day saying, “It is not possible to move the store in a day.

 

”There is no way you’re going to get all of this moved.”

 

After we arrived at the new location his litany changed to, ”There’s no way you’re going to get these lights to work.”

 

Jared was going to school to be an electrician.

 

He got the lights to work. 

 

Mark changed to saying, ”There’s no way all of this is getting done today.” 

 

Before it was dark, we had a table set up in the front with people I had never met before playing cards. That day I saw the final sale at Kyle’s register and first sale at Play It Forward Games. 

 

We moved an entire game store in one day and did not even close the store to do so. 

 

Mikhail asked me why I can be so confident. During our previous lunch I had told him my favorite bible verse, which I believe serves as an answer.

 

First John 5:14 says “This is the confidence we have in approaching God that if we ask anything according to His will, he hears us.” 

 

I just have faith that everything will be okay. If I weren’t supposed to own a game store or run the newspapers, they would have failed. 

 

As Pastor Sipe said in church Sunday, farmers in ancient times had to throw their seed down before learning whether the soil was good beneath it. 

 

I am grateful for good soil. 

 

Thank you, Pastor Sipe, for your years of service, I wish you nothing but the best as you move forward.

 

"But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown." — Matthew 13:23

 

Cribbage score update

Three games were played this week, with Dad taking home the series advantage two to one. 

 

Lifetime tally (since 2016): Dad 458, 70  skunks; Eli 406, 41 skunks, 1 double skunk

2026 totals. Eli 69, two skunks, Dad, 47, 8 skunks