The Tree of Life Prayer Community

 

Most Idaho Falls Churches have regular prayer meetings or prayer services.  Other group prayer activities have been held in Idaho Falls for various periods, such as World Day of Prayer services from 1928 to at least 1998, city-wide Concerts of Prayer in the early to mid-1990s, National Day of Prayer gatherings from 1990 to 2024 (and a few before 1990), the annual Prayer-a-thon from 1994 to 2004, Pilgrimages of Prayer from 1995 to 1999, weeks of prayer observed by some churches as early as 1893, often in January, and various others.

One that I would like to know more about is the Tree of Life Prayer Community. If you were part of this community or know about it, please add comments to this blog or contact me.

The first mention of the Tree of Life Prayer Community in the Post Register is in 1974, when they sponsored an Enchilada dinner to raise funds for charities.  That became an annual event in Idaho Falls for the next 13 years.  The last mention I can find in the Post Register (apart from a few obituaries of members of the Community), announced their sponsorship of an ecumenical prayer service for healing.  For at least 4 years, 1977 to 1980, they held “Life in the Spirit” seminars. The Post Register published announcements of a few other prayer events the Prayer Community sponsored. However, I could find no announcements about weekly or other regular prayer meetings, so I assume they used a different method to communicate these to their members.

The Tree of Life Prayer Community was interdenominational and sponsored by Holy Rosary Catholic Church. 

Enchilada Dinners

Their first community dinner they held raised funds for Tarahumara Indians of Mexico, the SonShine Inn Coffee House in Idaho Falls and the Good News television program.

The Post Register published articles about the plight of the Tarahumara Indians as early as 1966.[1] That year, 10 boxcars full of food, clothing, medicine, tools and other items were donated by residents of Lafayette, Louisiana to help the Tarahumara Indians living in rugged highlands and deep canyons of the Sierra Madre Occidental Mountain Range in the Mexican state of Chihuahua, but the train was denied permission to enter Mexico by the Mexican government.  Evidently the needs of the Indians persisted and the attitude of the Mexico government changed by 1974.   

The SonShine Inn was a nondenominational Christian coffee house sponsored by the Idaho Falls Assembly of God church.  In the early 1970’s they held youth events, music concerts, prayer meetings, Bible studies, rummage sales, and provided a place for mostly youth to hang out.  Prior to 1974 they were known as the Upper Room Coffee House. They met in two different locations on First Street before relocating to the basement of the Assembly of God Church in 1975.

All of these enchilada dinners were held in the Parish Hall of Holy Rosary Church at Ninth Street and Lee Avenue, from noon to 5 pm or noon to 6 pm.  The first dinner under the direction of Robb Keller. An Idaho Falls native, Robb Keller had worked as a Post Register reporter, served three years in the Peace Corps in Panama, then a salesman for the Brown and Gesas clothing store, (known as the “The Happy Haberdashers”), and then from 1969 to 1974 as the senior personnel manager at Argonne National Laboratory in Idaho Falls. A few years later he attended seminary and became part of pastoral teams in Pocatello, Rupert, Twin Falls and Buhl.

The Post Register’s announcement for the second dinner included:

The idea of a dinner came about, a spokesman for the prayer community said, in order to raise funds to meet the expense of shipping the large quantities of clothing collected here for the Indians. Post-Register stories on the plight of the Tarahumaras and information from other journals prompted the group to help by sending the clothing. Over 2,000 pounds of clothes were shipped from Idaho Falls to Mexico last year. The meal itself will be authentic as chef-de-cuisine Roberto Domingues Cantu Villarreal has been brought to provide the necessary knowledge and seasonings for preparation of the food.  Red chili is being brought in from Las Cruces, New Mexico to compliment the enchiladas, burritos, guacamole and other dishes. Villarreal said the New Mexican chili has more flavor than that from Texas or Arizona.[2]

The article announcing the 1976 dinner explained that 50,000 Trahumara Indians lived at 7,000 feet elevation in a remote part of Mexico where there was no industry and the climate was too cold for agriculture.  A language professor at the College of Idaho, Melitta Buzzard, learned of their needs when he visited them to study their language and upon his return to Idaho formed a nonprofit organization “Friends of Tarahumara Indians.”[3]  

Sufficient funds were raised in these dinners to support other causes as well. In 1977, as in 1974, some of the money raised went to support the Good News television program, broadcast on KIFI-TV channel 8 and presented by the Idaho Falls Chapter of the Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship International. This program aired on Sundays from 1973 to 1977.

In 1979, the Post Register published recipes used to prepare the tamale dough, tamales and “fiery hot” chili sauce served at the Prayer Community’s dinners, noting that the dinners also included burritos, chili, Spanish rice, refried beans and enchiladas.[4] In 1982, the price for a large combination plate with all of the entrees was $3.85 and a small combination plate was $3.[5]  Recipients of funds from the 1985 dinner included the Tarahumara Indians, a mission in Cali, Columbia and the Idaho Falls Food Bank.[6] The last Tree of Life sponsored dinner mentioned in the Post Register was in 1986.

Seminars

The Life in the Spirit seminars were also held in the Holy Rosary Parish Hall. The seminars were “intended to help a person find or deepen a personal relationship with Christ,”[7] or according to another spokesperson, “It is basically a renewal of our commitment to Christ through prayer and through the working of the Spirit through our daily life.”[8] In Idaho Falls, the seminars were presented on a Saturday[9] from 9 am to 6 pm in 1979 and 1980 and as an eight-week series on Monday evenings in three other years.[10]

Other Activities

Announcements in the Post Register of activities of the Tree of Life Prayer Community include:

1. Hosting an interdenominational charismatic prayer meeting to observe the National Day of Prayer called for by President Ford on July 24, 1977[11]

2. Providing a speaker for the Idaho Charismatic Conference held in Idaho Falls in 1977.  The conference began with a prayer and praise service. “Mrs. Marjorie Krueger, a member of the First Christian Church in Idaho Falls and a member of Tree of Life Prayer Community’s teaching ministry will also be a speaker”[12]

3. Presenting music programs at the Idaho Falls Senior Citizen’s Center[13]

4. Co-sponsoring, with the Idaho Falls chapter of the Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship, services led by Dick Mills from Melodyland Christian Center in Anaheim, California and Father Patrick Cowley, the provincial superior for the Western United States Province of Sacred Heart Fathers[14]

5. Sponsoring a “Telephone Prayer and Share Service” for those who “needed prayer, want to share experiences, read the Bible or who are lonely.” Originally started by Mrs. Barbara Traxler and Mrs. George Foster Jr. in 1978,[15] men and women from several Idaho Falls churches joined the telephone answering service when the Tree of Life Prayer Community took on sponsorship[16]

6. Sponsoring potluck lunches on Pentecost Sunday[17]

7. Holding retreats[18] and

8. Sponsoring ecumenical prayer services for healing.[19]

Comments

I think we sometimes view prayer as playing a supporting role for ministries and causes.  Shouldn’t our churches all be “prayer communities,” in which prayer is foundational, out of which flow acts of love and witness, like the fund-raising dinners, seminars and other activities of the Tree of Life Prayer Community? 

I found six obituaries in which the deceased was mentioned as being a member of the Tree of Life Prayer Community in Idaho Falls. That this membership was recorded in an obituary suggests to me that family members acknowledged that the Tree of Life Prayer Community had had a significant impact in that person’s life.  While the stories of all six are interesting, I will close with a brief summary and a few quotations from just one.

James H. Goettsche was born in Burley. When he was a baby on his mother’s lap, a minister prophesied that he would grow up to be a minister.  A girl he met at a Presbyterian Youth Camp, MaryDee Stark, he remembered when as a freshman at the College of Idaho he saw her, and they began dating.  Four years later they were married at the First Presbyterian Church in Idaho Falls.  His long career working for INL contractors was put on pause when his National Guard Unit was called up to go to Vietnam. “From his time in Vietnam, Jim remembered an Easter communion service where through the sacrament, he felt one with all Christian peoples throughout the world.”

Upon returning from that service to his country, “He devoted himself to his family, his community and his God.” He and his family became members of the First Christian Church in Idaho Falls, where Jim was able to preach occasionally in his capacity as a deacon. “He also became involved with the Full Gospel Businessmen's Fellowship, the Gideons, Bible studies and an interdenominational prayer group that later became the Tree of Life Prayer group at Holy Rosary Church. Soon he was asked by the pastor at Holy Rosary to teach the Bible study there - although he was not even Catholic.”

“In June of 1973, their miracle baby Michael David was born - through tremendous prayer and the grace of God, he survived a very serious illness that same summer.”  By 1979 Jim’s involvement at Holy Rosary plus Scripture on his wife’s heart led him and his wife to join the Roman Catholic Church and also to begin training for the diaconate. He was ordained in 1984 and “loved his role as a deacon - proclaiming God's word and serving God’s people. He and his homilies will be remembered for their passion, their embrace and their humor.”[20]

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[1] The Post-Register, Sept 23, 1966, p. 2, “Mexico Declines Assistance For Starving Indians”; October 4, 1966, p. 8, “Indian Supplies Still On Track”; October 7, 1966, “ Mexico Reaffirms No Supplies To Indians”; October 11. 1966, p. 1, “Goods Unloaded.”

[2] The Post-Register, April 4, 1975, p. C-2, “Mexican Dinner Due to Assist Indian Tribe.”

[3] The Post-Register, May 16, 1976, p. C-3, “Catholics to Raise Money to Aid Tarahumara Indians.”

[4] The Post-Register, March 21, 1977, p. D-1, “Homemade Tamales a Special Treat …Anytime”

[5] The Post-Register, March 5, 1982, p. B-6, Benefit Enchilada Dinner.”

[6] The Post-Register, May 3, 1985, p. A-8, “Church Plans Dinner.”

[7] The Post-Register, March 31, 1978, p. C-9, “Holy Rosary Sets Seminar on “Life in the Spirit.”

[8] The Post-Register, October 5, 1979, p. A-12.

[9] The Post-Register, April 10, 1980, p. A-5 & October 5, 1979, p. A-12.

[10] The Post-Register, September 16, 1977, p. A-12; March 31, 1978, p. C-9; & October 3, 1980, p. A-12.

[11] The Post-Register, July 18, 1975, p. A-8, “Charismatic Prayer Meeting Set.” 

[12] The Post-Register, June 17, 1977, p. A-10.

[13] The Post-Register, January 9, 1978, p. A-7; “Rose Mauo presented a program of music ministry of the Tree of Life Prayer Community at the meeting of the AARP at the Senior Citizens Center with 60 members present.”

[14] The Post-Register, June 1, 1979, p. A-12, “Mills-Crowley team conduct Miracle Services.”

[15] The Post-Register, November 17, 1978, p. B-8, Telephone Prayer, Share Proves Godsend to People.”

[16] The Post-Register, April 17, 1981, p. A-13, “Phone Prayer Share Service.”

[17] The Post-Register, May 20, 1988, p. A-10. 

[18] The Post Register, May 30, 1990, p. B-3.

[19] The Post Register, October 30, 1992, p C-4.  

[20] See The Post-Register, March 6, 1999 for the full version of Jim’s obituary and https://www.buckmurphy.com/obituaries/marydee-goettsche for his wife’s.