Bill Shine and his wife Kathy have lived in Gladstone since 1974. After serving as a Corpsman in the Navy for three years, Bill started out with various jobs. He eventually landed with the State Police, which took the Shine Family from Cheboygan, Michigan, back to the Upper Peninsula.
Bill and Kathy joined the Lutheran Church because they had been members of a Lutheran Church downstate, and it made sense to do the same here. On the weekends, Bill was often working or coaching little league, American Legion Ball, fast and slow pitches, and even hockey! You wouldn’t see him in the pews every Sunday. There was hunting too, of course!
What you can know about Bill and his faith life is that it happens in nature. Proof can be found in the menagerie of animals waiting for handouts at the Shine residence each morning: deer, squirrels, turkeys, and other birds wait impatiently for snacks. The sacredness of being with animals and creation alike connects with both the Shines.
Bill and Kathy found friends for life at First Lutheran Church. From hunting buddies, anniversary/birthday buddies, and neighbors to the breakfast club and dinner companions, there was even a Super Bowl Party group and work friends as well. Bill has a community, and what that community often has in common with one another is the First Lutheran Church.
In the good times and the bad, and in sickness and health, we need one another. After being a Magistrate in Delta County for fourteen years and presiding at over 1,000 weddings, Bill knows something about that kind of union! How wonderful is it that church can be a place where we make friends that we can worship with and head out to deer camp with too?!?
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