Leaving Iola bittersweet for pastors

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May 29, 2015 - 12:00 AM

Two Iola pastors whose tenures will end in June had tribulations associated with their arrivals.
Trudy Kenyon Anderson took reins at Wesley United Methodist in 2006. Within a year she dealt with members who were affected by July 2007’s huge flood, then in November a fire ravaged the church.
Gene McIntosh, pastor at Calvary Methodist Church, came in July 2007, moving here after a May 4 massive tornado devastated his previous home of Greensburg.
Both have found an inviting and refreshing stop on their pastoral journeys in Iola.
Kenyon Anderson, and husband Russell Anderson, “enjoyed watching the girls mature and graduate” from Iola High School, Claire in 2010 and Chelsea in 2008. “In nine years you put down roots,” she said. She has been a pastor since 2001, with previous stops in Denton and Fredonia.
The next appointment is Grand Island, Neb., where she and her husband will do ministry work together for the first time. He has been pastor of churches in Neosho Falls and Yates Center.
The Nebraska assignment also will give them more opportunities to see their daughters.
Chelsea manages a Buckle clothing store in Los Angeles, Calif., area after getting her start in Salina following graduation from Bethany College, Lindsborg. Buckle flies managers to its national headquarters in Kearney, Neb., three times a year, just a hop, skip and jump from Grand Island. “How cool is that,” Kenyon Anderson gushed.
Claire also will be closer. She earned a degree from the University of Wyoming in anthropology and is working in archeology in Wyoming. She will be out of pocket two months this summer for a dig in Peru.

McINTOSH will move to Emporia, where he plans to do volunteer work for Emporia State University, where his and wife Judy’s son, Tyler, will be a sophomore. Another son, Brian, just completed his fifth year as ESU Lady Hornets assistant basketball coach.
Judy is an elementary counselor at Lincoln and McKinley schools. She intends to spend at least one more year in Iola, helping with the transition from neighborhood schools to grade-level attendance centers. “She loves elementary counseling and kids,” McIntosh said. “She’s like a grandma to many of the kids. She cares about those who need to be cared about.”
Being in Emporia also will put McIntosh closer to family in Melvern.
He began church work as a part-time pastor at Williamsburg and completed seminary at St. Paul’s in Kansas City, while serving in Lyndon. Then there were six years at Plainville and four in Greensburg ahead of Iola.
He and his family quickly assimilated to Iola.
“It has been a wonderful place for Tyler,” he recalled. “The first Sunday we were here Tyler got in some sixth-grade football practice and quickly made friends.” At IHS he quarterbacked the Mustangs football team and went to state in basketball and with Iola High’s 4×800 relay team.
The Bowlus Fine Arts Center was a magnet for the McIntosh’s daughter, Katarina. Her interests in art and drama were embellished by the Bowlus. In order not to be a starving artist, “she works at Chanute Walmart as a customer service manager and displays her art every chance she gets,” he said.
In conclusion, “I can’t say enough good about Iola,” McIntosh declared.

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