I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.
July 13, 1997
By Devlyn Brooks
Staff Writer
GUTHRIE -- Malvik Lutheran Church near here is celebrating its 100 anniversary this weekend, providing for many an opportunity for a homecoming and for others the opportunity for a pilgrimage.
In addition to the many descendants of Malvik Church pioneers who have come from Iowa, Montana, North Dakota, Saskatchewan and Manitoba to see where their grandparents and maybe even great-grandparents worshipped, 37 Norwegians from the town of Malvik, Norway, are here to celebrate with them.
The church, organized by immigrants from Malvik in 1897, was also named for their hometown, and several Malvik pioneers are even buried in the church's cemetery.
The relationship between the residents of Malvik, Norway, and the congregation of Guthrie's Malvik Lutheran Church began in the early 1980s when the town's historical society wrote the church a letter asking for more information about descendants from there. Ever since the town's people and the church's congregation have kept in contact.
Church members have even traveled to Norway several times to take part in festivities there, including the celebration of the community's church turning 150 years old a few years ago.
"So we've become very good friends, and we've exchanged a lot of information," said Nora Stevens a church member and centennial committee leader.
Among the group that traveled to the United States, are Malvik's mayor, local pastor and the president of its historical society, all of whom received financial help from the Malvik community to get here. That is how important the event was to the community, said group organizer Terje Hansen.
"We feel we need to meet the people who came from Malvik. (The church members) have been over to meet us, so we decided to come over here," said Hansen, who lived and worked in Minneapolis from 1963-67, but now lives in Malvik. "It's important to get the people together who are related."
The trip was even more special for Malvik Mayor Asbjorn Nustmo, who was able to visit Saturday with some of his distant relatives who live in Montana.
"He found out he has relatives in Montana and North Dakota, and he asked them if they could come visit," Hansen said, translating for the mayor. "They had to come 600 miles. For us 600 miles is a long way. When he asked them if they could drive to visit us, they said, 'It's no problem.'"
Malvik Lutheran Church was organized in 1897 by a group of nine charter families who lived in the Guthrie area. The first service was held by the Rev. L.O. Opesta July 4, 1897, and from then on services and activities were held at the Paulson school until the congregation's church was built.
Between 1900-05, the church lost many members because they moved north into Canada where new land had been opened up by the Canadian government. While it depleted the church's congregation, the remaining members continued to build the new church on property donated by Severin and Mary Olson, but the church wasn't completed until about 1910.
It was dedicated on Thanksgiving Day in 1912 by the Rev. Carl Amundson, and the Norwegian language was still used in sermons and the instruction of children.
"They have taken care of the building nicely in the 100 years," the mayor said.
The celebration continues today with a worship service that begins at 9:30 a.m.
"Sometimes small churches don't think they do much in the world, but when people come back from around the world (for such a celebration) it's a good affirmation of their ministries," Malvik's pastor, Michael Fiske, who is becoming a professional at church anniversaries, said of the celebration.
This is his third 100th anniversary church celebration in seven years, and he also was involved in a 75th anniversary last year for another church.
"I'm just about anniversaried out," he said. "But it's a very festive occasion, and I'm glad to be a part of it."
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