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History of Ridgeway Mennonite Church (A Light on the Hill) In the fall of 1939, Moses Slabaugh and the Young People's Christian Association from Eastern Mennonite School, began to hold street meetings on Reservoir Street on Red Hill. The Red Hill community was poor and consisted of around 35-40 small houses. The streets were not paved and there were no sidewalks. The homes also had no sewer line because the city of Harrisonburg said that it was not possible to run a sewer line to the hill. In 1944, the Virginia Mission Board purchased two sites for $1,256.20 on the corner of Reservoir and Hawkins Streets. In January 1945, the Virginia Mission Board appointed Paul Peachey as an associate to Moses Slabaugh for the Red Hill community and gave Paul permission to preach when no ordained person was available. In May, Lewis Martin, Clayton Shank, Moses Slabaugh, and Paul Peachey were chosen to study plans for a building. By August 29, 1945 Lewis Martin obtained a building permit for $4 to build a "28 X 32 one story, cement block House of Worship." The labor was provided by volunteers from the community, different Mennonite churches and Eastern Mennonite School students. Moses Slabaugh had a small pony and a two door Chevrolet. He would put the pony in between the back and the front seat and take him to help with the digging. The diggers would fill a scoop to which the pony was hitched and the pony would pull it out. The work times were often followed by bonfires, weiner roasts and fellowship. One night, Lizzie Dean's 3 year old daughter Juanita, who had been so pleased about the building of a place to go to Sunday School ran to Lizzie crying, "They're burning down my church!" A building fund was started in November 1945. By August 1946, the building was finished enough to be used for Bible School and afternoon Sunday School. The building was called the Red Hill Mission. Dan Smucker was the Superintendent and Lydia Slabaugh, Maude Lantz, Mary Baugher, and Ethel Swartz were the teachers. Jacob Shenk, President of the Mission Board, drove to Richmond, VA to buy 40 wooden folding chairs for the Red Hill Mission. Benches were later puchased for $440. Jacob Shenk asked Dan and Frances Smucker if they would be willing to work at Red Hill Mission on January 5, 1946. Dan Smucker was licensed in July 1946. The Smuckers started regular Church services at the new Church building and began recruiting people to help them. Mary Zimmerman and Elsie Gehman taught the Sunday School. Sunday School followed the Sunday morning service. The first evening service began February 23, 1947. A consistent expense was fixing the glass windows in the basement. Saturday nights, people would break the basement windows of the Red Hill Mission building. Dan Smucker began keeping watch on Saturday nights to try to prevent more windows from being broken. On February 29, 1948, Ridgeway was officially dedicated. The name was changed from the Red Hill Mission to Ridgeway Mennonite Church. Frances Smucker suggested the name because "you go past there to go to what they call 'The Ridge.' " That same day, Aaron Shenk led revival services and ten people were saved including Catherine Gentry, Blanche Shifflet, and Charles, and Della Shirkey. Christmas baskets were given to people in the community in 1946. Since Ridgeway Mennonite was the only agency giving Christmas baskets to the Red Hill Community, the gifts were greatly appreciated. There was always a Christmas program for the community to come and attend in which apples and oranges were given out. A Christmas dinner was served in 1948 to the community and many people came and ate, and talked while the children played outside. Ridgeway Mennonite Church began a practice of celebrating birthdays by having children put money in a bank account. The children put in a penny for every year. June 1948, the birthday money was used to begin a library. They used the $7.91 to buy a cupboard with glass doors to keep books. In the spring of 1952, Dan Smucker felt the Lord calling him to serve the Lord on a full time basis. (He had been working at Hartman's Body Shop). Frances Smucker said at the Women's Fellowship and Prayer Meeting on February 25, 1954, "At first every pay day I was sick- Friday, no pay check from Hartman's Body Shop. Surely we will starve-what will we eat? My faith is so weak. But as you know-we didn't starve. God has provided. God does answer prayer-not always as we ask but he knows our need before we ask." They got many gifts of money from people they didn't even know! During this time, Dan Smucker gave many revival services in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and West Virginia. Attendance at Ridgeway averaged about 40 a Sunday in 1952. In October 1952, Dan Smucker's salary increased from $50 to $100 monthly because the Virginia Mission Board saw Dan giving a lot to Ridgeway Mennonite Church. They also paid to have gravel put on the parking lot of the Church that year. Ruth Miller, a single college student, was a visitation worker for Ridgeway Mennonite. The Virginia Mission Board gave her a car to use for helping her visit people. She named the car Timothy because it helped her with the Lord's work. Often Ruth Miller, Dan and Frances Smucker would visit people weekly for prayer and visitation. As a result of their visitation, Grover Baugher became a Christian. Before long, Grover and Ruth Miller were married. Ruth and Grover lived on Red Hill, near the Church. People were surprised Mennonites would live there but Ruth and Grover felt they would be better witnesses if they lived in the community near the Church. Grover witnessed to people by handing out tracts and putting Gospel signs in his cab that he drove for Shorty's Cab in Harrisonburg. Betty and Truman Brunk Jr. came to be assistant pastors at Ridgeway in the March of 1954 until January 1955. Truman served as an assistant pastor while he was attending Eastern Mennonite College. Eugene and Naomi Hostetler were active in Ridgeway's youth activities and Sunday School. Every summer, they organized camping trips for the Ridgeway boys. They boys would bring food and warm blankets to sleep under. Massanutten Peak was a favorite place to camp for the boys. The girls wanted to go camping too. Ridgeway Mennonite decided to have a Church campout every year starting in 1961. In October 1952, the Church made some improvements. First, the basement was sheetrocked and 4 tables were built for the Sunday School rooms. The supplies for these 4 tables cost $80.07. The coal furnace was replaced with an oil burner furnace in 1955. In 1957 and 1958, walls, doors and even a garage door was put in the basement to keep the sound out between classrooms. On of the problems was transporting people to church. Those with cars would pick up others. Jean Smucker Fisher remembers when a 1950 Buick was filled with 18 children! In 1956, Annie Weaver provided a bus for Ridgeway in remembrance of her husband, Marion R. Weaver. Dan Smucker and other church members sanded and painted the bus light green. The bus was used for many church events as well as Sunday mornings to pick up people for church. In 1955, Young People's Christian Association (YPCA) reorganized its outreach to Churches. A YPCA group of students committed to attending Ridgeway for a year. Many of the YPCAers and other members later became missionaries. In order to keep in touch with its missionaries, the Church created a bulletin board displaying the countries with pictures of the missionaries. The women of Ridgeway started a Women's Sewing Circle in 1955. The women met monthly in a home to sew and have Bible Studies. The women chose their group to be named, "Women's Bible Fellowship' in April of that year. The following year, the women's group joined the Virginia Conference Women's Missionary and Service Auxiliary (WMSA). The women were known for making dresses, infant clothes, comforters and Christmas baskets for the community as well as for Jamaica and Italy. The Women also collected 200 pounds of clothing and furniture for Goodwill industries. The first church council was started in the fall of 1959. Daniel Smucker, Daniel Lehman, Eugene Hostetler, Chester Leaman, and Leonard McDorman made up the church council. Usually, church council was held on Sunday afternoons, and sometimes went until almost supper time. March 20, 1961, Ridgeway bought a lot to the northeast that included a house on it. Eugene and Naomi Hostetler family decided to reside in the house. Since the Church didn't have enough space for Sunday School classes, Eugene and Naomi Hostetler offered their house to the young adults. Every Sunday, the young adults would walk to the Hostetler's house and have their Sunday School. In 1960, the church council decided that Ridgeway should take an additional offering up to go towards improving Ridgeway's building particularly the kitchen and bathroom facilities. February 1960, was the beginning of a building fund. On February 2, 1965, Ridgeway received its building permit. The Mission Board did help Ridgeway out with its building cost by sending $17,000 to help pay for the new building. Ridgeway decided not to get air-conditioning due to the expense as well as not to get cushioned pews, and only get wooden benches. Ridgeway moved to the new Church on October 9, 1966. On November 6, 1966 Ridgeway had an all-day dedication service for the new church. The new church could hold 180 people, had five Sunday School rooms, a pastor study, lobby, assembly room, sanctuary, and an unfinished kitchen. Ridgeway worked hard to repay its debt for the new building. Lewis Martin gave $1000 to help pay for the debt and Chicago Avenue and Park View Mennonite Church also pledged $5000 to help Ridgeway with its building debt even though both of these churches had building debts of their own! In 1973, Ridgeway began for the first time to give money to Virginia Mennonite Board. Ridgeway's budget that year was $35 a member to give towards missions. Dan and Frances Smucker decided to do missionary work in Botswana, Africa, so they asked Ridgeway for a 2 year leave of absence. Dwight Roth would take over as pastor while they were away. Dan had kept a lot of the administration and job descriptions in his head. Since he would be gone, Ridgeway decided it was time to begin recording information. In 1975, Ridgeway wrote and approved a Church constitution. On the way back home, Dan and Frances Smucker stopped in Sicily, Italy. Willard Eberly, one of the missionaries told the Smuckers how much a tent was needed in Italy for evangelistic meetings. When the Smuckers returned, Ridgeway and Dayton Mennonite raised the money for the tent for Italy. October 1979, Ridgeway voted 95% approval to boat people from Southeast Asia through the Mennonite Central Committee. The following year, Phan Chi Vien and Tran Bich Lien who didn't speak English came to the USA supported by Ridgeway. Ridgeway members helped the couple find employment, learn English, buy a car etc. Phan Chi Vien and Tran Bich Lien later moved to Los Angeles to be closer to family. Lloy and Elizabeth Kniss began a James Madison Bible Study that met once a week until Lloy became sick and couldn't lead it. An average of about 25 members would attend and participate in the Bible Studies. Today, Ridgeway has about 175 in attendance on an average Sunday. Ridgeway is known as a praying church that loves, cares and cherishes its pastors, members, and community. We also are dedicated to giving generously to our community as well as to mission overseas. Bibliography: |
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