Why Your History is Important (continued from page 1)
by Jane Mills Burk, Plains Presbyterian Church, Zachary, LA

is strengthened.  How they loved their Lord and Maker, and how I am grateful to those past historians who wrote about them...else it would all have been lost.  There are 154 years of History [this was originally written in 1986] serving from this church and I am proud to be able to keep the records of what the present will mean to the future generations, and I thank God that I have been chosen for this task in His Kingdom.
With these facts settled in my mind, I will attempt to tell you how our church has used the past history and what the ongoing program is now.
The Historian's records have over the years been used for a number of things.  All the women's secretary books are kept and filed going back to 1890.  There are a number of statistics recorded such as births, baptisms, etc.  In 1982, we cele

brated our sesquicentennial and a past historian, Mrs. Aileen Wilkinson Johnston, wrote a historical program "Living Pictures from Pages of Yesterday"...This same faithful lady has also recently given to the Heritage Room a large scrapbook dating back to 1832 which she has lovingly kept for many years.  It will certainly be an asset to the church history in the future since her father was one of the early ministers who was pastor of the church for nearly 40 years. 
I will have to admit that many of our records have been carelessly destroyed through neglect, cleaning out, etc.  A room [has now been provided in memory of] my mother, Mrs. Maggie McKowen Mills.   It is a great necessity for the new small churches to start keeping their history.  Some will some day be large and records kept on their early beginning will be invaluable.  They will show how God works through

people and will be a witness to their future generations.  Plains Church dates back to 1832 with records showing possibly an early date of 1823.
We recently had quite a find concerning our early church.  The home of one of our older members was robbed.  When his family went into his house to help put things in order, the original old diary of Elizabeth Townsend Young was found.  Mrs. Young, in her 90's, had been asked to write what she could remember about the church.  This had been read from copies at the dedication of the new 1890 building (2 previous buildings had burned)...You can imagine our delight to find the original diary.  Without this gracious, kind Christian lady, this past history would have been lost to us, and we would not have known the faithfulness of those who served their Lord at that time." 

Library Construction Begins at Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis: 
PCA Historical Center to Gain New Facility as a Result

Early in October construction began on the renovation and expansion of the J. Oliver Buswell, Jr. Library at Covenant Seminary.   This is significant for us because the Historical Center, housed in the Library, will gain an entirely new facility area as a result of the construction.  When finished, the PCA Historical Center  will move into an area comprising just over 1500 square feet.
The PCA Historical Center began in 1985, but it had a predecessor in the archival efforts of the RPCES, headed up by Edward Steele and Albert "Bud" Moginot.  Since the RPCES archive was already located on the campus of Covenant Theological Seminary, the location of the PCA Historical Center somewhat naturally came to remain here, following the Joining and Receiving of 1982. 
Being located in a Seminary library has been a convenient arrangement for the     

that the Historical Center will occupy next September must be equipped with shelving and furniture.  Our collection is growing at the rate of 100 cubic feet per year and to remain in this facility for any length of time, the shelving must be of the moveable or compacting type.  Installation of such shelving will cost roughly $100,000.  While this amounts to less than $100 per PCA church, your prayers and support in this effort are greatly needed.
Our new space in the Library will be more accessible to the public--we will have a more prominent place on the Covenant campus--and hopefully our facility will be better equipped to serve the people of the PCA and the many researchers who use the Center each year.  We exist to preserve your life-testimony to God's grace, but to do that we must have your prayers & help.