Ancestor of the Week: [Not a person this week] Del Norte Baptist Church – Tucson, Arizona
Prompt of the Week: At Worship
This week I’m writing about the church that I grew up in until age 12. My parents attended Del Norte with their families at least since the late 1960s or early 1970s. In fact, my parents met there as teens in the youth group, and my dad’s siblings met their spouses there as well. My grandmother was the pianist for decades and my grandfather taught adult Sunday School for just as long. Their social circle really seemed to revolve around the people there as well. My mom’s family was also very involved. My maternal grandfather help to build the main worship center auditorium through his construction business. It was the site of several family weddings, funerals, performances, and more. We will all fondly remember the stained glass, octagonal ceiling, and rust-orange carpet. The church changed its name to New Life Baptist Fellowship around the late 1990s, but by then most of us had moved on to other churches. In later high school, my brother and I attended some of their youth group events when school friends invited us. It was a little strange going back after several years. They didn’t know it, but I had attended that church longer than most of the kids there at the time. The Fellowship Hall – location of my parents’ wedding reception, family funeral luncheons, and more – was now the youth room. When my wife and I were planning our wedding a few years later, our first choice was to have the ceremony at this church (we thanked Jesus the carpet had been replaced), since the church we attended was too small. It felt right going back and standing on the same stage where my parents said their vows 26 years before, where I performed in plays and stood as a ring-bearer as a kid, where my great-grandmothers were eulogized, and more.
Since then, the church property was sold to another church, and about a year ago, a friend posted on Facebook that several of the buildings on the campus were being demolished. I decided to drive by a couple days ago and see for myself. All that remains is the main auditorium building – which may still be in use, as a couple cars were parked outside. The old Fellowship Hall, Sunday School buildings, etc. are all gone. (New Life as a church actually still exists, is now called New Life Bible Fellowship, and has a newer building not far from my home.)
My Family Finds 