This is the reader board as it appears June 2009.

The newly expanded sanctuary of Lutheran Church of the Cross comes to life with the addition of two beautiful windows. The windows, which are a combination of stained glass and hand-painted glass, were given by the former North LaMoure Lutheran Church, located near Litchville, North Dakota.

A brief history of the windows:
Told by Clara (Rocksvold) Smedshammer

The windows were purchased in 1915 from a Minneapolis company and shipped by train to Hastings, North Dakota. Clara's father, Per Rocksvold, and Christopher Smedshammer (the uncle of Clara's future husband, Jacob Smedshammer), drove their horse-drawn hay wagons about seven miles to Hastings where they loaded the windows and brought them to their home in North LaMoure Lutheran Church.

Per was quite well-known in the area for his team of Belgrian Percheran horses named Fly and Dan. Clara would have been 10 years old at the time. Today, According to Clara, the windows were purchased by the Young Ladies Aide Society for $500. In 1951 some restoration work was done on the windows.

Historic windows find a new home:
Pastor Bill Thompson learned of these windows from Pastor Randy Schlect, assistant to the Bishop, after inquiring about historical church artifacts that may be available for our new sanctuary. Pastor Bill, David Hetland of Hetland Ltd. and Terry Lee, member of LCC, met with Curtis Smedshammer and inspected the windows. It was recommended and agreed upon that these windows be incorporated into our new sanctuary.

David Hetland recommended Michael Orchard Studio for the restoration of the windows. Michael removed the stained glass panels and took them to his studio in Fargo where they were cleaned, re-leaded, re-banded and reinforced with crossbeams. With the help of Roers' Construction, Pastor Bill, Paul Anderson, Bobcat and Michael Orchard removed and transported the windows that now grace our sanctuary.

Michael is of the opinion that there is probably no one of this old-world skill still painting windows today. In addition to the beautiful stained glass, these windows also display some of the finest glass painting every applied to church stained glass windows.