| History |
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In the latter part of 1996, Bishop Howie Wennes and Pastor Paul Halvorson, Mission Director, of the Grand Canyon Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, approached Pastor Tim Selbo.
With the new elementary school opening at Grayhawk in the fall of 1998, a place of worship was secured at the school. However, there was a small group ready to begin worship and so it was agreed that this group would begin at the Terravita Activity Center, about eight miles north of the school, until the school was open.
The first worship service was held on Christmas Eve, 1997, with 81 people in attendance. The first Sunday morning worship was on January 3, 1998, with 85 people present, including twenty members of the Prince of Peace choir. In October of 1998 Living Water moved into Grayhawk elementary school, more centrally located amidst the new housing developments. The Charter for membership was opened on March 7, 1999, and closed in the year 2000 with a total of 150 names. A strong word of thanksgiving goes out to Mt. Olivet Lutheran Church in Minneapolis. Mt. Olivet was the Mission Founder congregation for Living Water, providing salary support for the first few years in order to help get this new congregation off the ground. A wonderful relationship has been established between these two congregations and we look forward to many more years together. Mission Partner congregations, St. Timothy’s in San Jose, and Prince of Peace in Phoenix, have also provided financial support as needed in these first years. Living Water could not have had its fine beginnings without the support of all these congregations.
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