History Page of

Word of Life Fellowship

The Schumachers sent me this note so I thought I would include it for now. Frank, I have some info on the beginnings of WOLF. My father interviewed Chuck and Kathy Jeffreys and Mike Bell in the summer of 1971 for the Illinois Baptist. The whole thing started when some Spirit-filled women started witnessing to a hippie commune in Elkville, took them pies, etc., and I think Matt Daub might have been in the commune, but I'm not totally sure, and they got saved!!! Anyway, the Walnut Street Baptist Church gave them space in their church to begin a Jesus People outreach, then it expanded to meeting under a dome for prayer meetings at Campus Lake, (summer 1971). I attended some of the meetings there that summer. By fall, meetings began to be held on campus here and there, and then at the Student Christian Foundation. The space for the Upper Room Coffee House was rented and all the remodeling was done the summer of 1972. A brother named Kelly, did a lot of the design and "nuts and bolts" carpentry work for the tables and benches of the coffee house. I think I first met Jerry the fall of '71, the whole thing grew rapidly and there was so much going on. Bob and Karen Siegel, Neil and Emily, Matt and Barb, and Jerry became the 4 dominant leaders, and then Bob, Neil, Matt and Jerry were appointed the 4 elders officially, but I don't remember when exactly. Initially, Chuck and Kathy Jeffries were the first leaders. I have some newspaper clippings in storage about a Jesus People March we held in Carbondale, published in the St. Louis Post Dispatch. These are my recollections, and all the others can best tell their pieces of the story too. I remember Matt Rendleman, Brad and Kathy Morgenstern, Becky Haley (sp?), Beth Heren, Tooge Piper, Mike and Theresa Bell, Sheila Wells, the prayer meetings in Elkville homes, the most from that earliest time, 1971-72. But there were many, many other beautiful brothers and sisters from that time also, and I can't leave out the Akins and Dean Davis. I'll try to get a copy of the article from the "Illinois Baptist" and find the Post Dispatch article.