Dozens renew vows at annual Little Brown Church Marriage Reunion

By Bob Fenske, editor@nhtrib.com

Carol and Bernard Juliar returned to the church where they said “I do” so many years ago and found it beyond uplifting.

The couple from Surprise, Arizona, were married at the Little Brown Church 62½ years ago – “the half is important,” Carol said with a smile – and on Sunday, they joined couples from around the country for the famed church’s annual Marriage Reunion.

“I wasn’t quite sure what to expect,” Bernard said, “but it exceeded all expectations. It was really a wonderful, beautiful service. Obviously, the vow renewal was wonderful, but the message here, that was even better for us.”

That message, delivered by Little Brown Church Pastor Drew McHolm, was simple. Marriage may have taken “a dent” in recent years in the eyes of some, but it is still an institution God wants us to celebrate.

Just as the Little Brown Church building itself was “refreshed” in recent years, so, too, can be marriages, he said, urging couples to renew their marriages along with renewing their vows.

“Good couples are the ones who say, ‘OK, tell me, because I can make those adjustments and I will because it’s more important that I please you than myself,’” McHolm said. “That’s marriage.”

If you don’t know where to start improving your relationship with your spouse, ask God.

“He’ll set the way for you,” McHolm said. “It’s going to take sacrifice, but let me tell you, it’s worth it – no matter whether you’ve been married for 10 years or 68 years. … The end result will be the same marriage, with the same two people … but a new and refreshed beautiful relationship.”

For Carol Juliar, that made the trip back to Nashua worth every penny.

“It was an amazing message to hear,” she said. “I think every one of us in the service realized that marriage is worth the work the pastor said we have to do, that we can make our marriages even stronger.”

McHolm flashed his sense of humor during the service, which was followed by lunch and live music by Sugar & Spice, and plenty of fellowship among couples who traveled near and far to attend the reunion.

McHolm said that his wife, Jesse Boatright, recently spent a couple of weeks in Texas, and when she returned home, she asked the pastor what he missed the most while she was gone.

“‘I miss holding your hand,’ I told her, and she asked me why that was so important to me,” McHolm said. “I said, ‘As long as I’m holding your hand, you’re not shopping.’ There’s a lesson for all you guys out there.”

He also shared nuggets like the one from Agatha Christie, who once said an archaeologist is the best husband a woman can have — the older she gets, the more interested he is in her.

But his favorite one was this gem.

“If you forget all the other ones, you remember this one,” he said with a mischievous smile forming, “Remember if your wife says, ‘Honey, I don’t need a gift,’ guys it’s a trap.”

McHolm is a believer in the institution of marriage. When it comes to his church where 75,000 weddings have been performed and its annual reunion, he is adamant that the reunion is not just for those who had their ceremony in the vale.

Just ask Robert and Judith Wise of Cedar Falls and their daughter, Julie, and Julie’s husband, John Nystrom, of Palmer, Alaska.

The Wises were married 64 years ago at the Little Brown Church; the Nystroms were married in 2009 but somewhere else.

That didn’t matter when they stood next to each other and renewed their vows on Sunday.

“It was one of the most special moments of my life,” Julie Nystrom said. “Not only to be renewing my vows with John, but to be able to see my parents doing the same thing, it was priceless. It was so worth making the trip from Alaska for those few minutes. To share that with them, it’ll be something I’ll remember for the rest of my life.”