Christian Confidence

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.  ~ John 3:16

Sometimes on the weekends, John and I will take drives to the country.

I really enjoy it. Our little “escapes” sometimes leads us to a place that feels like we’re in the middle of nowhere. This day was such an occasion, except, we passed a church. In the middle of all that nothing, there was a church. We pulled in to investigate.

At first look, for Australian standards, it looked pretty old.

We looked at it from all angles. We saw no houses, who built this, does anyone still go here?

I carefully climbed the steps and saw it was St Saviour’s Church Katrine

Like most old country churches, there was a small cemetery next to it.

We looked at the markers as if we were looking at a piece of Australia history. Names like Bostock, Cooke, Hill, Hughes, Middleton, Russell, Sinclair, Slade, and Viveash, and a lot of Wilkersons.

But one caught my attention, and my heart…

This woman, Jane Elizabeth Wilkerson, departed this life in Christian Confidence…

How I wished I had this phrase to put on mom’s own marker. Mom knew where she was going without any doubt, and so did Jame Elizabeth Wilkerson.

While many walk this earth not sure where they go after they die, Jane Elizabeth Wilkerson KNEW.

My mom knew.

Do you know?

Turns out later I learned a few things about this church:

The land for St Saviour’s Church was donated to the Anglican Church in 1861 by Simeon Viveash, and the church was built by John Sewell using local stone. The church was consecrated by Rev Matthew Hale, the first Bishop of Perth in 1862 . In the 1890’s the front porch was added and the roof shingles replaced with tin.

Local legend has it that the contractor was a Mr Sewell Junior and that the stonemasons were mostly ‘ticket of leave’ men.
The St Saviour’s Church and Cemetery is located on Katrine Road, near the intersection of Katrine Road and the Northam-Toodyay Road, 14km from Northam.

Or, the middle of nowhere. 🙂

Loved this little surprise in the country.