IMPERIAL (SNR) – Bonnie and Brendon Barger are faithful members of St. Patrick Parish in Imperial. While visiting on the family’s farm during the Christmas season, a daughter and granddaughter told Grandpa and Grandma, “we need a Catholic Church in our home.”
The idea wasn’t completely out of the blue – the Bargers have a reputation for building large dollhouses and giving them to their grandchildren as gifts, but they had never built a church before.
The designs of a doll house and a church are very different, of course, so the doting grandparents scoured the internet for a church. They found only one constructed model church, but the Florida builder would not ship all the way to Nebraska.
Undeterred, they decided to build it themselves, from scratch. The church has a steeple and stained-glass window. A shingled roof covers the interior ceiling beams. There is a confessional opposite the main altar, topped with a crucifix. Stairs lead to the choir loft and organ, complete with pipes.
The Bargers recently stopped by St. Patrick Parish with the creation, to have it blessed before presenting it to the daughter and granddaughter who had the idea in the first place. Pastor Father Lothar Gilde blessed the church.
Sister Rochelle Kerkhof and Sister Michael Ann O’Donnell, OSF, who serve St. Patrick Church and youth ministry for all the parishes in the Grant Deanery, marveled at the structure.
Sister Rochelle pointed out the kneelers, which are operational.
“You can pull the kneelers down to the floor and put them back up again—quietly!"
The project went relatively quickly, given all the detailed work, and the family aptly named the church “St. Joseph,” since Pope Francis declared the current “Year of St. Joseph.”
“Passing on the faith to the next generation is powerfully wonderful work and joy,” Sister Rochelle said.
