Elmbrook Church and Wyn Couchman

December 1971

Shortly before Cindy started going to bible study, Wyn Couchman's son began bringing all of his friends home - all the time. So Wyn and her husband Bob began a bible study for them that grew and grew and grew some more. Eventually these bible studies were filling her living room and other rooms in the house with 50 to 100 kids (Senior High and College age). The groups continued for 10 to 15 years.

Cindy started when the study was young so she was close to the kids of the mom who started the whole thing, Wyn. Furthermore, the people of these groups all went to a growing Non-Denominational (Elmbrook Church) church that had just hired a new pastor from England (Stuart Briscoe).

As Cindy started attending Elmbrook she noticed that our cousins were there. They (5kids and both parents) had all recently become born again Christians and were fellowshiping at Elmbrook.

On Leave I attended Elmbrook and loved it. The pastor was incredibly good and the people were wonderful. I fell in love with it.

Elmbrook Church and the Couchman's bible study taught me early on that God worked outside Pentecostal circles just as much as he does inside. It was also at Elmbrook several years later that I ran into the 2 Jesus Freaks who were at my High School (see Mr. Gunderson and the Jesus Freaks below). I told them how I was there listening to them at the auditorium of my High School in 1970 while they witnessed to us. One of the guys told me he was embarrassed by that episode because they were so young and all.

I don't know... Sure they were young and inexperienced and all, but how many people do you know that stand before several hundred people sharing their faith in a public school? And yeah they were over the top and all, as I definately was during my first time home with my family, but despite all my foolishness, overzealousness, weirdness and all... unbelievable things were about to happen with my brothers and sisters in part as a result of my visit.