A God-Sized Vision: Louise Cochrane

Harwood and I went to church at Tabernacle the day after we were married by Dr. Aubrey Williams.  That was Easter Sunday, April 1, 1934.

The following October I was baptized by immersion in the very baptistery we use today.  I had been baptized as a young girl in the Methodist church by sprinkling, but in the mid-30s we thought it was important to follow that up with full immersion baptism.  I still like to think that full immersion is best, but if others want to do it differently, that’s okay.  That’s a good thing about this church, people can believe differently about some things and it’s not a problem.  My three children were also baptized at Tabernacle.

Tabernacle’s been our church all these years, and we’ve had great times with many folks.  There have been lean times with few in the pew, but we survived.  Throughout the 80 years we’ve been here, Tabernacle has been a hodge-podge of people: not all young, not all old, some well off, some not.  Once we were part of that young group, now look at us … is there anyone older than we are?

I see God at work in the wonderful way that He has filled the church once again with children.

It would be great to see Tabernacle ‘keep on keeping on’ … do what we’ve been doing.  I am glad that we have the vision and plans to provide accommodation for visiting missionaries and visiting mission groups like we used to do through the WMU.  WMU was a wonderful group of women focusing on our interest in missions and helping to raise funds for missions.  It would be nice to see something like that come back to Tabernacle.

I would say that we should keep missions as a focus of our prayers … how do we stay in touch with the world at large and how do we support missions from our home base?

We need to keep our strong emphasis on music in worship … great music really boosts our spirits.  It is great to experience our children and youth leading in worship and playing their guitars.  I like it that our worship songs and specials are sung in other languages.  Even if we don’t understand it all, God does.

– Louise Cochrane

My Prayer for Tabernacle

Lord, help us keep missions a primary focus of Tabernacle as we try to stay in touch with your world and respond to needs we are made aware of.  Give us wisdom to know how to support missions from our home base.

Thank you, God, for great music.  It lifts our spirits as we worship you in song and with various instruments.  Thank you for Tabernacle’s strong emphasis in music in worship and thank you that our children and youth share in leading us musically.

We are blessed with a church family who speak and sing many languages that express love for each other and for you.

AMEN