Meet your neighbor, Ralph Deming, pastor of the Raritan Baptist Church.
The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
By Jennifer Dance, Quill Staff
Meet your neighbor, Ralph Deming, pastor of the Raritan Baptist Church.
Ralph grew up in West Chicago the fifth of seven brothers. After high school, he went to Ecuador with the Wycliff Bible Translators for two years where he worked as an aircraft mechanic and a surveyor. The surveyor work he did was to obtain legal titles to the land for the indigenous people so they could not be forced off of their land.
When Pastor Deming came back from Ecuador he met Mary Peterson on a blind date and married her on April 26, 1969. They have a daughter, Amber. She and her husband Jeff have one son, Andrew.
After returning from Ecuador, Pastor Deming attended Moody Bible Institute and graduated in 1974. He did his post-graduate work at the Slidell Baptist Seminary in Louisiana.
He received his first call from the First Baptist Church in Mason City, and moved from there to the First Baptist Church in Sidell. Before coming to Raritan, Pastor Deming also served at the First Baptist Church in Ava.
During the first week of June, Raritan Baptist Church will have Vacation Bible School. The church is also starting to make plans for their 150th anniversary that will take place in 2008.
Pastor Deming enjoys collecting puzzles of all kinds. He has a special interest in metal puzzles which are called "tavern' puzzles. He brings them to nursing homes, and to the schools showing how they are put together and how they are taken apart.
He also enjoys playing the marimba, an instrument made of rosewood, shaped like a xylophone and sounding like a pipe organ.
Services at the Raritan Baptist Church are Sunday School at 9:00 a.m. and Worship service at 10:00 a.m.