From left, Luke Moore, Hunter Fortenberry, Steve Fortenberry, and Russell Moore are preparing their trebuchets for the competition on April 6. Submitted photo.
On April 6, those passing by Bethel Community Baptist Church on Hwy. 54 saw a group of men and boys together picking up trash.
“We are Troop KS-7777 of Trail Life USA, a ministry of Bethel Community Baptist Church, and are partnered with the national organization,” Troopmaster Josh Gier said. “Trail Life USA is celebrating its tenth year with over 1,100 troops and 50,000 Trailmen nationwide. “
“Trail Life is an easy-to-manage, Christ-centered, boy-focused outdoor adventure program empowering the church to grow boys to become men of character and conviction,” according to the Trail Life website.
There are 19 boys enrolled in Troop 7777, and nine mentors, “mostly dads, grandpas and uncles,” Gier said.
“Our troop is not limited to church members,” he said. “We are open to all.”
“All boys from kindergarten through high school are welcome to join at any time,” Gier said. “Our enrollment focus will be in August at the beginning of our program year.”
They meet every other Monday of the month.
“If anybody would like more information about Trail Life Troop KS-7777, they may contact me through the Find a Troop link on traillifeusa.com,” he said.
From left Russell Moore, Luke Moore, and Josh Gier as the Moores receive the trophy for building the trebuchet with the farthest launch.Submitted photo.
Gier said a total of 101 blue bags of trash were left to be picked up by the Kansas Department of Transportation, which they had made arrangements with.
After that project, the group had a Trebuchet competition.
A trebuchet, taken from the American Association for the Advancement of Science website.
Trebuchets are used as teaching tools in high schools and colleges to learn about load, force, fulcrums, velocity, gravity, and parabolic arcs. They are also used as recruiting tools to lure students into engineering programs. Designing a trebuchet is an assessment of mechanical design and engineering skills. Testing a trebuchet is not only a learning tool, it is also fun, according to https://www.aaas.org/trebuchets-and-their-modern-use
In Troop 7777, six father/son(s) teams were challenged to build their trebuchet to see who could launch a projectile, a golf ball, the farthest.
The winner of the competition was father Russell Moore, with sons Luke and Ben. They launched a golf ball 152.6 inches.
The Mary Queen of Angels Catholic Church following the fire on August 29, 2022. Submitted photo.
Mary Queen of Angels Catholic Church was damaged beyond repair following the lightning event that struck the church on August 29, 2022.
Since then the church members pulled together to design a new building, which is anticipated for completion in December 2024.
Statutes are being restored by an artist
“When I heard about the fire, I immediately contacted Fr. Yancey Burgess ( the parish priest) to offer my help,” Robert Elliot, an artisan specializing in church renovations and statue restoration, said. “Father Yancy …presided over my wife’s funeral mass along with three other priests and this has always meant a great deal to me, so helping him and his community was the only thing to do.”
Elliot’s studio in Wichita. Submitted photo.
He received the Stations of the Cross and other statues last May, he said.
Some of the statues that are being restored. Submitted photo.
“We are restoring the fourteen Stations of the Cross and the following statues: The Corpus Of Christ, Mary Queen of Angels, The Sacred Heart of Jesus, St. Joseph with the Infant Jesus, two angels with ribbons, and one free-standing angel.
Elliot anticipates completion of the statue restoration project in mid-September after 16 months of work, he said.
Elliot started his company in 1995 and is located in Wichita.
The interior of the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception.
After Easter, in April 2024, a group of 17 Catholic Sisters will be moving to a rural Bourbon County property to make their home.
“We Sisters were invited to make our home on a piece of property near St. Martin’s Academy, by Dan Kerr and by the organization Ave Philomena,” said Mother Maria Regina, a spokeswoman for the Sisters “We have obtained the property we will live on to serve as a place to support the spiritual life of the students, faculty, and families at St. Martin’s Academy. If all goes well, we hope to come very soon after Easter.”
Submitted photo.
“Our present convent home is in Minneapolis, Minnesota,” she said. “While we have been grateful to live in Minnesota, we needed a larger place, as we had outgrown our home there. Also, we have longed to live in a more rural area, which is more conducive to our lifestyle.”
The name of the new Catholic establishment is St. Joseph Convent on Hackberry Road, southwest of Fort Scott.
Submitted photo. This photo is the housing for the Sisters, located at St. Joseph Convent, rural Bourbon County. Each cottage is 16 ‘ by 20 ‘ with two sleeping quarters and a shared bathroom in between.
The name of this group of Sisters is Filiae Laboris Mariae, which means “Daughters of the Work of Mary.”
“We are a group of Catholic religious Sisters, who dedicate our lives to prayer and to service,” she said. “We are a rather new community. We were founded in 2017, and most of our Sisters are still rather young–the large majority in their 20s and 30s.”
The 5,300 square-foot chapel is flanked by the Sisters’s cottages on the left in this photo.
“Our primary purpose is to dedicate our lives to prayer and that is the reason that the largest building for our new convent is the chapel,” she said. “We Sisters give our lives entirely to God and live in community: praying together, working together, recreating together each day. In addition to our life of prayer, we also intend to serve the community by organizing events that will foster the spiritual life for various groups of persons. We have heard that there are nursing homes in Fort Scott and would very much like to make regular visits to the residents of the nursing homes.”
Submitted photo of the Sisters.
They are a community of 17 Sisters.
“Nuns is the term for those Sisters who serve the world exclusively by their prayer and sacrifice. Since we also have some external service to others, we are called Sisters,” she said.
“For those who become Sisters, there are stages of formation,” she said. “The first stage is called the postulant and we have one postulant. The next stage is that of the novice (you can tell a novice because she wears a white veil), and we have eight novices. The last stage is that of a Sister who has professed the vows of poverty, chastity, obedience, and total consecration to the Blessed Virgin Mary. The professed Sisters wear a blue veil, and there are eight professed Sisters. “
Submitted photo. The Novice wears a white veil.Submitted photo. A blue veil is worn by a Sister.
About the build
Steve McTavish, Olathe, is the project manager for Ave Philomena, the owner of the project. The 160-acreage was purchased from Delbert and Darla Crays.
“We started last August,” he said. “April 2 is the scheduled move-in.”
The current phase of the build is the 5,300 sq. ft. chapel, 16′ by 20 ‘ residence cottages, a 2,000 sq. ft. community center, a 4,000 sq. ft. dining, kitchen, sewing laundry center, and a small cottage for meetings.
The future phase is for three other buildings for community and additional lodging, and a replica of the House of Loreto with courtyards, McTavish said.
Almost all of the work on the St. Joseph Convent project has been done by local tradesmen.
The people who have helped with the build are Advantage Building and Remodeling-Fort Scott; R2 Construction-Fort Scott; Geiger Plumbing-Fort Scott, H2 Painting-Fort Scott; Wes Davis Drywall, Kelly Electric-Uniontown, 5M Restoration, LLC-Prescot; George Collinge (road and land clearing work); Bar/Rose Custom Wood Designs-Fort Scott; C.D. L. (HVAC); Aegis (fire protection); Rural Water District #2; Heartland Electric Coop; Harris Propane, Invictus Roofing, Mike the Carpet Man (flooring) and Winvent/Extrusions (windows).
Construction work continues on the new Mary Queen of Angels Catholic Church and the new parish rectory, changing the configuration of the church campus.
But the annual fish fry remains the same.
“Not much has changed on our fish fries,” Knights of Columbus Member Calvin Barr said. “As the saying goes, ‘why mess with something that is working?”‘
The annual Knights of Columbus Lenten Fish Fry continues every Friday until March 22 at Kennedy Gym at 7th and Holbrook, on the campus of Mary Queen of Angels Catholic Church, and St. Mary’s Catholic School.
The Kennedy Gym is located at 7th and Holbrook Streets, just behind St. Mary’s Catholic School, and is the site of the annual Knights of Columbus Lenten Fish Fry.
The meal is from 5 to 7 p.m. and includes fried or baked fish, french fries or baked potato, vegetables, spaghetti with sauce, bread, dessert, and drink.
This is a freewill offering meal, but a minimum of $8 is asked for the meal, according to the flyer.
Barr gave an update on Mary Queen of Angels Catholic Church, which the Knights are a part of.
“Fr. Yancy’s new rectory is just about completed,” Carr said. “The workers are finishing up the inside this week.”
The priest’s rectory, located at 720 Holbrook, is nearing completion. Submitted photo.
The concrete pad for Mary Queen of Angels Catholic Church’s new building has been poured.
The foundation for Mary Queen of Angels Catholic Church has been poured. Submitted photo.
The metal frame is up, with the walls going up this week.
The metal frame is going up this week for the Mary Queen of Angels Catholic Church. Submitted photo.
The First Presbyterian Church is located at 308 S. Crawford Street, Fort Scott.
As of February 1, the Fort Scott Presbyterian Church has a new pastor, Reverend Sarah Gengler.
Gengler didn’t start immediately in her current career.
While working at one career, she started volunteering at a Presbyterian Church.
Gengler graduated from Adrian High School (Minnesota) in May 2001 and attended South Dakota State University from Sept. 2001 to Dec. 2004 earning a Bachelor of Arts in journalism and political science.
She began attending a Presbyterian Church in the community she was living in, while working as an education reporter for a daily newspaper.
“The work did not allow me to get to know people, as it had while working for a weekly newspaper, and my boss at the time seemed to thrive off the staff being unhappy,” she said. “I told the youth director I volunteered for at my church that I would love to do what she did, but I did not have the degree and could not afford to go back to school at that time. She told me that sometimes churches didn’t require youth directors to have a formal degree, so I left my journalism career and jumped into ministry with both feet.”
“After only a few months I knew I wanted to further my education in religious studies,” she said. “I began to take seminary classes online, for two years and felt God calling me to fully ordained ministry. I had just missed the cutoff for the fall of 2010 so I continued to work until I could enter seminary full time the summer of 2011.”
Gengler graduated from the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary in May 2014 with a Master of Divinity which focused on small rural ministry.
She was ordained in 2014 and has served Presbyterian churches in Indiana and Nebraska, and the last six months as a contracted pastor to an Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCA) in Minnesota.
“Some of my passions in ministry include preaching, pastoral care/visiting, mission and community work, and mailing greeting cards,” she said.” In my spare time I enjoy spending time with my family, friends, and two dogs (Max and Daisy), reading/listening to audiobooks, cooking, baking, quilting, and anything crafty. I seem to always be busy and truly enjoy helping others.”
Sarah Gengler was born and raised on a dairy farm near Adrian, Minnesota in the southwest corner of the state, as the third of six children.
“They still run the dairy farm with my two younger brothers and milk approximately 400 cows,” she said in a press release. “People are always stunned when I tell them there are 29 people, including me, in my immediate family.”
Pastor Sarah’s hours are Sunday from 9 a.m. – noon; Monday – Wednesday from 8:30 a.m. – noon; and afternoon times by appointment.
Address of the church: 308 S. Crawford (at the corner of 3rd and Crawford Streets)
Service time: Faith Formation classes begin at 9:30 a.m. during the school year. Worship is at 10:30 a.m. Children are welcomed in worship or childcare is available.
The First Missionary Baptist Church of Uniontown has been distributing food baskets at Christmas time for many years,” said Marci Williams, chairperson of the mission board at the church.
“We get our suggestions (for those who might need extra food) from church and community members and the (USD 235) school,” she said.
“Church members donate food,” she said. “(And) Ruritan ( a local community service group) donates $500 to the mission board to purchase groceries.”
And the local school organizes a food drive.
“The students, staff, and W.B.E. families are very supportive and generous,” Jenny Covey, a member of the mission board said. “The sixth-grade class has been organizing a food drive since before I started teaching in Uniontown more than 18 years ago.”
“This is a great way to teach students about giving,” Covey said.
“Our church gets together a few days before Christmas to pack and deliver the boxes,” Williams said. “This year each family received a turkey, sausage, eggs, bread, bag of potatoes, apple juice, sugar, and apples. In addition, the boxes are filled to the brim.”
The architect’s rendition of the future Mary Queen of Angels Catholic Church. Submitted graphic.
The area south and west of St. Mary’s Catholic School is a hub of construction.
The August 2022 lightning-strike fire at Mary Queen of Angels Catholic Church destroyed the structure.
“Fr. Yancey Burgess, the pastor, said the destruction was too great to repair the old church,” according to a news article in https://catholicdioceseofwichita.org/new-church-planned-for-fort-scott/. “The engineers have said it would be cost prohibitive to try to rebuild it because the church would lose its ‘grandfather’ status and would have to meet modern building codes.”
Simpson Construction Services, Wichita, is the general contractor for the new church building and has two employees on site, Howard Thome, superintendent, and Tyler Fox, field engineer.
The new church site is located at 702 Eddy, in approximately the same spot as the old one.
Fox said there are approximately 26 sub-contractors from start to finish on the project.
Construction began in November 2023.
“The church will be a little over 7,000 square feet,” Fox said. “The owner occupancy is expected to be November 2024.”
On December 5, R2 Concrete Construction, Fort Scott, was pouring the footings.
The gate to the construction site of the new Mary Queen of Angels Catholic Church.
“We had to go down to bedrock,” Thome said. “We put in a lean concrete to bring it up to bedding. The footing is on top, so should be stable.”
“We should pour the slab in the next couple of weeks,” Fox said. “Then start erecting steel in late January.”
The project is being funded partly through insurance because the church was struck by lightning in August 2022, according to Bo Casper, a church member and also a sub-contractor on the rectory building.
Above 95 percent of the original stained glass windows was saved from the fire/water damage and will be reinstalled in the new church, according to Mark McCoy, who is on the parish building committee.
It is also being funded by a capital campaign that the church parish is doing, McCoy said.
The church will be ADA-accessible with a zero-entry to the church.
The cost of the church rebuild is approximately $6.5 million, McCoy said.
The banner on the outside fence of the construction site.
“The church was one of those founded by Italian-born Fr. Paul M. Ponziglione who helped establish many churches after he arrived in 1851 at the Osage Mission in Kansas” according to the article https://catholicdioceseofwichita.org/new-church-planned-for-fort-scott/“Because of the Fort Scott fire, St. Francis Church in St. Paul is now the oldest church in the diocese.”
Church Rectory
Looking east from the new church rectory at 720 Holbrook to the construction site of the church. St. Mary’s Catholic School is to the left in the photo.
Casper Enterprises, a local company, was working on the church rectory, at 720 Holbrook, west of the new church building on December 5.
The Catholic Rectory of Mary Queen of Angels Catholic Church is being framed. The location is 720 Holbrook.
Bo Casper said the crew started the framing in November (2023 )of the 1,634 square foot home the church’s priest will live in. It will have three bedrooms, two baths, a large garage and a saferoom.
The rectory should be completed by the end of February 2024 “If the weather cooperates,” Casper said.
The lot where the rectory is being built belonged to the church.
The rectory was torn down and the site moved “because the church was totaled and had to be ADA compliant and needed more parking spaces,” Casper said. “We had to gain footage and tear down the rectory. It was just as old as the church. Bats were coming in through the chimney area. It was a three-story high brick building.”
The new rectory will have a brick facade and regular siding on the rear and sides of the building, Casper said.
The concrete has been poured at the rectory, and the three-man crew is currently framing, which will be done by the end of the week, Casper said.
Bo Casper left, and Frank Casper work on framing the rectory.
The cost of the rectory is approximately $325,000, McCoy said.
On Sunday, October 1, 2023, the Life Chain will be held at the Fort Scott First Southern Baptist Church, located at 1818 S. Main on South 69 Highway.
Life Chain is an annual public witness for life through peaceful prayer that takes place on the first Sunday in October.
Pro-Life Kansans from all across the state will gather in their communities on this day.
This Life Chain, part of the National LIfe Chain, is the largest prayerful, pro-life, public witness in the world. More than 1,500 cities across the United States and Canada are expected to participate.
The event will begin at 1:30 with a memorial service for those babies lost through abortion.
At 1:50, participants will prayerfully line up along Highway 69 to make a peaceful but powerful stance for the preborn.
