Sherri Hamilton-Beech has fond memories from her childhood of days spent with her sister pretending to officiate marriages and services in the old church across the field from the farm where she grew up.
The Langmeade Church, originally built in 1908, had fallen into disrepair long before Hamilton-Beech and her sister were children.
In the years since, members of the surrounding community grew concerned about the building's foundation.
"We were told there was a chance that it would collapse," says Hamilton-Beech.
Then, more than a year ago, the church's secretary Jack Higgins put the wheels in motion on the Langmeade Church project.
"He's the one who initiated a meeting about the church," says Hamilton-Beech.
Higgins explained he was too old to continue on as secretary and a decision would have to be made whether to move the church to a new foundation or tear it down. The majority of the people at the meeting raised their hand to save the church, says Hamilton-Beech, but that wasn't enough to get the church project off the ground.
"It was put off. Last year it didn't get moved because of weather."
In October of this year, Higgins became suddenly ill. The project was all but stalled and he became concerned the foundation wouldn't hold through another prairie winter.
"He ended up in the hospital, he was really sick and I went to visit him," recalls Hamilton-Beech. "When everyone talked to him before the end, he felt like the church wasn't going to get moved. Too much time had passed and he thought it was going to fall, so that's what initiated [the move]."
After Higgins passed away, Steven Garelle, who bolstered the supports in order to get married in the Langmeade Church in the summer of 2014, began the preparation and planning to move the church to its new foundation.
"He would have been so proud. He never stopped asking about it. The last while when you talked to Jack the biggest thing for him was 'I sure hope that church gets moved.'"
Higgins is buried in the churchyard and one of his sons was there when the church was finally moved to its new foundation Nov. 29.
Hamilton-Beech says there are now plans to continue to restore the church for future generations.
