d
WE ARE a
community
of faith.
4
TINY FAIRFIELD, BIG IMPACT
Stroll through tiny Fairfield,
Washington’s (pop. 608) quiet
Rosewood Cemetery, about 3
miles out of town on the edge of
the Palouse, and you read on the
headstones a veritable history of
Lutherhaven families. Bleisner
and Brinken; Leitz and Loeffler;
Reifenberger; Scheele; Treede
and Zehm. Solid German and
Danish Lutheran names, nearly
all connected to Lutherhaven
in some way or another:
founder, builder, volunteer,
donor, counselor, camper, Board
member, benefactor.
In 1945, for instance, when the
camp purchased (for $500) its
first eight buildings from a 1930’s
Civilian Conservation Corps
camp up beyond Avery, Idaho,
the structures had to be cut into
pieces, moved 150 miles, and
reassembled at Lutherhaven.
Up stepped Fairfield. A logging
contractor and six stalwart 18
year-olds from Zion Lutheran –
Paul and Jerry Haas, Leonard and
Ervin Leitz, “Tiny” Entman and
Butch Brinken – labored through
the snowy winter of 1945-46 to
clear roads, move buildings, and
do ground work.
One day, as Tiny, Butch and Ervin
came down the slick Lutherhaven
hill in their loaded truck, it slid out
of control and came to a jarring
stop—one wheel hanging over
the edge, nothing but the ravine
below. The pool table they’d
loaded on board: it never made it
to Lutherhaven! Yet by the time
spring came, the Fairfield boys
had great quantities of lumber,
logs, fixtures, and sections of
framed buildings piled high on the
hillside overlooking Mica Bay.
In the 1940’s, Lutherhaven’s
formative years, the association
had 39 founding congregations.
Fairfield’s “little” Zion Lutheran
was not merely among them,
it led the charge in leadership,
donations and volunteer support.
In ’49, 103 members of Zion
were Lutherhaven donors; the
congregation gave $316 that year,
equivalent to over $4,000 today;
77 Fairfield-ites came to the 1949
Annual Meeting; Henry Treede,
president of the Bank of Fairfield,
served the ministry’s Board of
Directors and Development
Committee.
In 1954, a $5,700 loan from
Zion Lutheran was used to
start construction on the new
Lutherhaven Chapel. (Total cost:
$19,000!) Fairfield’s investment,
plus all the volunteer hours they
contributed toward construction,
still gives thousands upon
thousands of campers of all ages
opportunity to hear about Jesus’s
love, ‘midst the beauty of God’s
creation.
For years Zion, Fairfield’s set goal
we are 265 congregations served and serving (Donors, Campers, *Members) Community Presbyterian, Post Falls, ID | Community
United Methodist, Coeur d’Alene, ID | *Concordia Lutheran, Pullman, WA | Cornerstone Baptist, Hayden, ID | Cornerstone Community Church, Spokane,
WA | Covenant Christian, Spokane, WA | Crimson Covenant Ministries, Deer Park, WA | Crossover, Spokane, WA | Davenport-Edwall United Methodist, WA |
Eagle Christian Church, Eagle, ID | Eastpoint, Spokane Valley, WA | Edge of Glory Worship Center, Spokane Valley, WA | Ellensburg Foursquare, WA | Emanuel
Lutheran, Ritzville, WA | Emmanuel Baptist, Lewiston, ID | Emmanuel Baptist, Pullman, WA | Emmanuel Lutheran, Cheney, WA | *Emmanuel Lutheran,
Moscow, ID | Emmanuel Lutheran, Reardan, WA | Emmanuel Lutheran, Tacoma, WA | Emmanuel Lutheran, Walla Walla, WA | Endicott Community Bible
Church, WA | *Fairfield Community Church, Fairfield, WA | Faith Church, Onaway, ID | Faith Lutheran, Deer Park, WA | Faith Lutheran, Hamilton, MT | First
Alliance Church, Calgary, AB | First Baptist, Colfax, WA | First Christian Church, Hamilton, MT | First Christian Church, Sandpoint | First Lutharen, Pasco, WA | First
Lutheran, Bothell, WA | First Lutheran, Bozeman, MT | First Lutheran, Kennewick, WA | First Lutheran, Sandpoint, ID | First Presbyterian Church of Bellevue,
WA | First Presbyterian of Moses Lake, ID | First Presbyterian, Coeur d’Alene, ID | First Presbyterian, Kent, WA | First Presbyterian, Moscow, ID | First United
Methodist, Moscow, ID | First United Methodist, Wichita Falls, TX | Foursquare, Stanwood,WA | Garden Christian Assembly, Kennewick, WA | Good Hope
Lutheran, Lenore, ID | Good Shepherd Lutheran, Boardman, OR | Grace Lutheran, Wenatchee, WA | Heart of the City, Coeur d’ Alene, ID | Heritage Baptist,
Post Falls, ID | Highland Park Presbyterian, Dallas, TX | Highland Park United Methodist, Spokane, WA | Hillyard Baptist, Spokane, WA | His Place, Post Falls, ID
| *Holy Cross Lutheran, Spokane, WA | Holy Family Catholic, Brentwood, TN | Holy Name Catholic, Ketchikan, AK | Holy Trinity Lutheran, Spokane WA | Hope
Lutheran, Spokane Valley, WA | Immaculate Conception Church, Post Falls, ID | Immanuel Baptist, Spokane, WA | *Immanuel Lutheran, Moses Lake, WA | Jesus
is the Answer, Spokane, WA | Journey Church, Spokane, WA | Kalispell Christian Center | Kroc Church, Coeur d’Alene, ID | Lake City Community Church, Coeur
D Alene, ID | Life Center Foursquare, Spokane, WA | Life Center North, Spokane, WA | Life Center, Tacoma, WA | Light of Christ Lutheran, Federal Way, WA |