Most of the district conferences of the Mennonite Church have published a history of the beginning and the development of the congregations in their area. Until this work was finished, the South Central Mennonite Conference had not done so. Melvin Gingerich, of the Mennonite General Conference Historical Committee, urged the conference to consider the preparation of a conference history.... This task has been for me a labor of love - telling the story of the people, the places, the churches that I have been interested in throughout the years. My prayer is that this history may be both a memorial to the past and a guide and inspiration to the present and the future. From the Preface by author Paul Erb