The Bolich Cemetery Association of Albany Township, Kempton, recently dedicated a monument in honor of the former Bolich Church along Hawk Mt. Road in the township.

Past church members, former students of the Bolich Church School, now the Kinder Hawk Vacation Rental, and members of the community came out May 19 to revisit and honor a bit of their own history.

Pastor Scott Shay of Jacob’s Church, Jacksonville, Lynn Township, who presented a history of the church and school, was often joined at the lectern by those who wanted to share their own memories.

Shay noted the church originally belonged to the Evangelical United Brethren (EUB) denomination, which later merged with the United Methodists.

He explained how Billy Markell of Slatedale, spoke to him over a year before the dedication about having the dedication service.

The pastor also thanked Cheryl and Jim Robertson, who own the Kinder Hawk Vacation Rental, and care for the cemetery, for their willingness to be “adopted” into the Bolich Family.

Shay also told everyone attending the service that the pulpit, which had once been inside Bolich Church, is now preserved and protected at Jacob’s Church.

“You need three good men and a boy to lift it,” Shay said, offering the pulpit to a good home.

Shay then told the story of the Lord commanding Joshua to tell 12 men, one from each tribe of Israel, to take 12 stones from the middle of the Jordan River, as the water flow was cut off.

“When your children ask in time to come, ‘What do those stones mean to you?’ then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial forever,” the Lord told Joshua.

“I believe what we are doing is honorable, right and good,” Shay said. “What we are doing here today is symbolism ... dedicating a stone ... What we are doing here is fitting and good.”