Edensburg Evangelical Lutheran Church will no longer be offering a 10:45 am blended worship service beginning immediately.

To: Dorothy Peterson (President Edensburg Evangelical Lutheran Church) Congregational Council members, members and friends of Edensburg Evangelical Lutheran Church

Dear Fellow Servants for Christ:

It is with mixed emotions that I inform you that I have been extended, and have accepted, a call to become the Pastor at Salem Lutheran Church in Wakefield, Nebraska. This letter is intended to serve as formal notification to the Congregational Council and to the congregation at large of my resignation as Pastor of Edensburg Evangelical Lutheran Church. As per the constitution of this church my resignation will be effective 30 days from the date this letter is submitted to the Congregational President.

I have been blessed by God to serve first as your Vicar from November of 2004 until October of 2008 and then as your called pastor from that time until the present. You have taught and nurtured me as I have grown in my faith and hopefully in my ability to lead as an ordained minister of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. For this I am and will always be grateful. It is my hope that I also have taught you and nurtured you as you have grown in your faith and leadership in the church. God has blessed our time together. It is with sadness in my heart, that this relationship as pastor and congregation will end, that I submit this letter to you.

However it is also with great hope, joy, and expectation that I answer this new call from God to take a new position of leadership within our church! I know that as fellow members of the body of Christ together we will continue to do God’s work! I am confident that this transition will be a blessing for each of us as individuals in ways we cannot imagine and also a blessing for Christ’s church.

And so, as I pray for blessings for you as members of the congregation and the community here at Edensburg, I ask your blessings and prayers for Vicki and I, as we move forward into a new chapter in our service to our Lord.

Jesus loves you this I know,

Reverend Darwin D. Garton

Pastor - Edensburg Evangelical Lutheran Church

P.S. I know He loves me too!

cc: Rev. Dr. David L. deFreese

Bishop of The Nebraska Synod, ELCA