Tucked into the south eastern corner of Alberta you will find this gem of city. According to the official City of Medicine Hat Website, “Medicine Hat boasts more days of sunshine per year (330!) than any other city in Canada.” City of Medicine Hat
This probably lends to the sunny disposition of its residents, past and present. It also lends itself to the warm greeting you’ll receive when you enter the Medicine Hat Adventist church, no matter what time of year you come to visit.
The Provincial Adventist Archives date members in the area as far back as 1891, with Alexander Eby and his wife Hagar. By 1902 August and Eva Boschee had settled in Medicine Hat and Rudolph Dentman in Irvine. Times were tough with the sunny weather, dustbowl conditions in the summer and the brutal winter of 1908 made permanent settlement hard in the area.
Elder Harry and Latonia Niergarth arrived in Medicine Hat from Edmonton in 1913 and stayed in the area until 1921, travelling throughout the Hawksdale-Whitlaw-Thelma district. For most of the early Adventist settlers services and meetings were held in each other’s homes. By 1916 The Banks home was the place for most Sabbath services for the Medicine Hat residents. Early records showed the attendees included the Boschee family, Mr. and Mrs. Banks, Mrs. Bishop, Mrs. Lind and her children, Mrs. Wutch and Mr. G. E. Johnson. On February 27, 1926 the Medicine Hat Adventist church was organized with 19 charter members. As their numbers grew they met in a one-room building on Montreal street, then in a small building on South railway. In 1942 they built a church on 22n Street that served the congregation until the present building on Dunmore Rd was built in 1964-65.
At one time a small church school was held in the Neumann home; another operated in the basement of the Josephburg Church from 1915-1918.
During the Depression years when Medicine Hat area was without a pastor, church leadership fell to lay members including Karl Otto, Brother Bay, Brother Ritz and family, Alex Herman, John Rube, and others. This indelible sense of family has continued throughout the years in the Medicine Hat church to keep it going strong and through every phase it has gone through. Every member is willing to put forth the effort necessary to see the church grow, whether it is in the building of the church, the church school or in the membership itself. As Pastor Tyler often says,
In Medicine Hat church the first time you are a visitor, the second time you’re family.
The Medicine Hat church celebrated its 80th Anniversary on Sabbath, May 27, 2006. Among those attending were descendants of the early Adventist pioneers including Edgar Boschee, Violet Cooper, Dr. Albert Soklofske, Ben Otto, Allister Otto and Bertha Rube.
Medicine Hat Pastors
- H.A. Niergarth (1913-21)
- Ben Reile
- George W. Rader
- John Neufeld
- R.C. Sharman
- Levern Krenzler
- Harold Reimche
- Dieter Hain
- Harold Schultz
- Larry Milliken
- Ben Kuhn
- Peter Parker
- Gerry Karst
- David Yancey
- Wadi Arag
- Dennis Braun
- Al Reimche
- Les Sayler
- Allan Robertson
- Norman Manweiler
- Gary Hodder
- Steve Little Victor Schulz
- Evert Potgieter
- Virgil Covel (2008-2013)
- Tyler Rosengren (2014-2020)
- Ryan Reeves ( 2020- present)
Source: A Celebration of the Lord’s Leading; Alberta Adventist Memories
This is only the beginning of our journey to rediscover our history. If you have any pictures or additional information that we can add to our history page, we would greatly appreciate it. Please send it to Andrea c/o info@medicinehatadventist.ca