Christ Community Covenant Church

Martha Schrock

When you see her in church her gait may be a bit unbending, and she may have a small stool tucked under her arm on her way to her chair up front, but she’s always impeccably dressed and has a beautiful smile and a twinkle in her eye whenever you speak to her. Meet another of our faithful founding members!

Martha Helmuth Schrock was born on April 27, 1927, at home on the traditional Amish farm of her parents, Chris and Mary (Miller) Helmuth. She was the seventh of eight children which included five older brothers, one older sister, and 1 younger brother, and all contributed to farming the 120 acres of corn, oats, wheat, hogs, and cattle that supported the family. Her father was a carpenter as well as a farmer, and he used his skills to increase the size of their large home to accommodate his growing family. As was customary in the Amish community, their home had no electricity and no phone. School was a mile and a quarter walk from the farm where all the grades gathered in a one room school house. Life wasn’t easy by today’s standards, but there was always someone there when Martha came home from school. Between games of hide and seek and horse back and buggy rides, Martha did her part to help out by corn husking, helping to gather eggs each day, and other farm chores as she grew up. Everyone did their part to help out.

The Amish women are known for their handwork, so Martha’s mother began teaching her to sew when she was very young, even before she could reach the treadle pedals! One of her first projects was a dress for her doll, and that would eventually lead to helping to sew for the whole family. Martha fondly recalls attending many quilting bees at the homes of relatives and friends that were attended by aunts and cousins and other family members. During her childhood everyone spoke in the Pennsylvania Dutch dialect, and the whole group would talk and visit, share a grand lunch, and hand sew large quilts together. Every newly married Amish couple was with blessed with four of these handmade wonders!

The Helmuth family neighbors were mostly conservative Mennonites from their original church group who had begun to incorporate some more modern conveniences into their lives and homes. The Amish split off when they felt that the Mennonites were becoming too worldly, and began to host church services in their homes. The Amish divided the area surrounding their community into six districts, each with three ministers who officiated at services, and families within each district would take turns hosting the house church. The Helmuth family home had ample space for these gatherings which were generally attended by relatives that lived nearby. Martha recalls how the living room would be filled with benches where the men would assemble, while the women would sit separately in the adjacent bedroom and dining room. During these assemblies, Martha learned right from wrong and to honor her heritage and the many rules they lived by. In school, she remembers that their Christmas programs honored the birth of the Savior and they sang Christian Christmas carols that her Mennonite teachers taught them. But she was never taught that she was really “saved”. That would come many years later.

On Sunday evenings, the youth would gather for a hymn sing (half in German, half in English). This was generally where the young people got to know each other and made dates to get together. One Sunday a young man from an Amish community in Pennsylvania, Arthur Schrock, attended one of the group’s morning services. He was visiting cousins in the community, and Martha was surprised when he stood up and started a song, which was generally done by the older men. A week later at the evening hymn sing, one of the fellows in the group came and asked Martha if that same young man could take her home. She was helping out at one of her brother’s homes after the birth of a new baby at the time, so Arthur took her there. It was the Sunday before Thanksgiving, 1948, and they began to see each other regularly. After dating for three months, Arthur asked Martha to marry him, and they did just that – on February 17, 1949.

At that time Arthur was working on a neighboring farm for a Catholic family in the community, so Martha moved into his one room upstairs and helped care for the family’s one child, and also did sewing and housework. During this time, in 1950, she and Arthur welcomed their first child, Mary Anne, into the world. Martha never felt isolated as she and Arthur had their own horse and buggy so she was able to take the baby and visit with family regularly and go to church services as well. Within the year, they moved back to the “home place”, Martha’s childhood home, and her parents moved into another home on the property called the “grandpa house” next door. Martha and Arthur took over farming the property as all of her brothers had bought their own farms close by. But the move was difficult for the young couple who had come to enjoy some of the more modern conveniences that their former employers had in their home. They joined the old Mennonite church that her parents had rejected, and that decision made them no longer welcome on the “home place” and they had to move. They returned to their former employers, and in 1952, Virginia Mae was born. The Schrock’s were blessed to work there for several more years until Arthur began working for a farm equipment company in Kalona. After renting an apartment for a time, the couple bought a round roof Quonset style home and were there when Clarence was born in 1957 and Chuck in 1958. The young family stayed in the Kalona area until Arthur landed a new job as a traveling salesman covering the state of Iowa for another farm equipment company. In 1964, they moved the family to Prairie City, Iowa, which was more centrally located and stayed there for thirteen years, long enough for all of the children to graduate from high school.

In the early 70’s, Martha and Arthur visited friends at their cabin near Colorado Springs. Art, (as well as Martha and Chuck), was having health issues related to the weather in the Midwest, and found that he felt better after visiting Colorado’s dryer climate. In 1976 he and Martha made the decision to move, sold their home in Iowa, and moved to Colorado. In January, 1977 they found the home that Martha still lives in 36 years later. Art worked for a furniture outlet store to begin with, but eventually moved into a sales position with Crown Hill Cemetery & Mortuary where he stayed until he reached 65 years of age. He went into semi-retirement, but continued to help out at Crown Hill until 1995, when he passed away from a heart attack at the age of 68, ironically, while working at a funeral.

A talented seamstress, Martha was doing custom sewing projects and had many clients, but in 1985 she decided to do something different and went to work for Cloth World. She stayed with that company for three years, even through a bout with cancer, but moved on to the fabric department in the WalMart store on Youngfield in Lakewood where she stayed until she “retired” in 2000. After that she continued to do custom sewing for clients making everything from drapes and upholstery to wedding dresses and mending. To this day, she still does alterations at the age of 86 years young!

Martha’s children live in Illinois, Iowa, and Wheat Ridge, so she talks on the phone with one of them every day of the week (they all take turns). She has six grandchildren (3 boys and 3 girls) as well as seven great grandchildren spread around the country to keep track of as well. Still feisty, she hates politics, loves the Broncos, walks 7 blocks every morning despite 7 surgeries on her right knee (which doesn’t bend any more), and she likes to read, watch movies, forward amusing and thoughtful emails, and keep in touch with family and friends. Asked if she misses the lifestyle she left behind, Martha acknowledges that it was a simpler, slower way of life – but she wouldn’t return to it because frankly, she LIKES the modern conveniences the Amish reject (refrigerators, lights, computers, cars, phones, etc.). She just knows that it is time for her to slow down a bit from what she has been used to. Well…maybe just a little… When Art and Martha first came to Denver they attended a Methodist, then a Presbyterian church, but it just didn’t feel right. They started attending Arvada Covenant Church, but went to Arvada West when 4C’s was newly formed and have been with us ever since through all of our ups and downs. During these years Martha has learned that she can do more than just “hope” for salvation and heaven as she was taught in her youth. She believes the real truth lies in the words of Romans 10: 9 and 10, “9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.” Amen! ~