By MARJORIE LIERMAN

BUHL — "I like to think of the windows as a true creation of love, honor and glory to God," said Gail Meyer, wife of the principal at Clover School and designer of the stained glass window on the south side of the Lutheran church at Clover.

The idea for making their own windows for the church came up last year one time when Mrs. Meyer and Refina Kniep were having lunch together and they started discussing how nice the church looked after remodeling and painting. "All it needs now is some stained glass windows," one of the two women said. They agreed that would be expensive though and went on to talk of other things. However, Mrs. Meyer said the next day, her friend called and said she and her husband, Martin, had been talking about the windows and Kniep said he would furnish the money for materials if the church members would make their own.

Some of the members had done a little stained glass work but nothing as monumental as church windows. Mrs. Meyer is an artist and teaches tole painting in the Clover community but she had never done any stained glass work. She agreed to draw up some patterns though. She made the patterns on a small scale first, then put a number of lunch tables together in the Clover basement, put large sheets of brown paper on the tables and enlarged the patterns. She admitted it was a tremendous and at times frustrating job, getting everything in just the proper proportions and scale as she wanted.

Jim and Maryann Beikman are proprietors of The Homestead, a crafts and novelty business in Twin Falls, and they agreed to get the materials for the windows and offered the use of part of their building for the work on them. "Everything seemed to just fall together like it was meant to be," said Mrs. Meyer. People who heard about the windows offered their time and help and it was agreed that work meetings would be held every Thursday evening during the winter and spring. The work started in November although Mrs. Meyer began the preliminary drawings in February. The group started on the large window on the south first and worked all winter, hoping to get the window finished by Easter. They worked feverishly at the last when Kniep suffered a heart attack and said he wanted to see the finished window before he died. Since then, he has improved and now is among those helping to make the windows for the other side which all hope to have completed by Easter.

Roger Schroeder installed the window glass when finished, with help from other members of the congregation. The old original opaque glass of the windows was taken out and replaced with clear glass. The congregation was then asked to vote on which glass they preferred — the clear glass or the 70-year old opaque glass. Most said they preferred keeping the old glass so it was replaced over the stained glass sections.

"Everybody had something to contribute although most had never done any work like this before," said Mrs. Meyer. People of all ages came to the Homestead to work — from 10 years of age on through 70 or 80 years. They all found something they could do and, perhaps the greatest blessing was seeing the fellowship and camaraderie which developed. People would talk of things that happened in the past. The older people would remember and speak of events and the younger ones would listen enthralled, hearing of history and people which they had never known.

"People found common bonds and worked together in a way I am sure the Lord would take pleasure in observing," someone remarked. Mrs. Meyer said everyone who helped will never quite know how much their. interest and participation are appreciated.

Besides local people, there are a number of visitors from other states, Washington, Utah and Michigan, among others, who were told of the work on the windows and offered their services to be a small part of the finished pictures.

The south side window portrays the south hills in Idaho, and shows the farmer with his irrigating shovel, the rain drops, the sun and blue sky, the corn fields, all physical blessings of the Lord. A smaller window to the west was finished last fall and shows a

hand, representing God; a rose, the Son of God, and a dove, portraying the Holy Spirit. The larger window has two four-leaf clovers which are doubly appropriate as the clover is a sign of the Trinity and also the name of the community and church.

The new windows on the north, when completed, will show the spiritual gifts of God — the communion service represented by the grape clusters, the wheat for the Bread of Life; a shell for the baptismal font, and a lantern for the Word of God, depicting the Bible passage, "They word shall be a light unto my path and a lamp unto my feet."

Magic Valley Farm Lines