Lake Park memorial mailbox honors family, shares Gospel

In December 2021, Carla Baumer and her son Chad passed away from complications with COVID. Chuck Baumer, Carla’s husband and Chad’s dad, decided to have memorial donations made to Lake Park. The family’s plan was to purchase a bench in their memory.

“My brother had special needs but always enjoyed walking around the area by the horses but would tucker out right along the pathway behind the baseball field. He would always want to sit down, but there wasn’t a bench there. So we knew exactly where we wanted to place our memorial bench,” daughter Cara Renner said.

The bench is located by the large flagpole near the baseball field.

After the bench was placed in 2022, the family enjoyed dressing it up for each season with garden flags and flowers.

“But we wanted it to serve a greater purpose. We wanted a way to reach people with the Gospel message — that Jesus is our hope. God is still good even when the world around us is falling apart,” Renner said.

Renner and her sister Crista knew their mom was a living witness for Jesus Christ.

“She was quick to explain that he was the reason behind her smile," Renner said, "her hope in life and death. We knew she would still want to make an impact on people for the Lord, even after her death.”

The sisters decided they needed a mailbox and purchased one from the Dollar Tree. They put simple Bible verse cards in it.

“The response was incredible," Renner said. "People were taking them. So we knew we needed something bigger.”

In 2024 they bought a large mailbox with a pole and added the inscription “Mammaw’s Ministry Mailbox.”

“This became a true ministry," Renner said. "We stock it with Bibles, bracelets, Bible verse cards, and just about anything that can point people to Christ and give them hope.” 

The family checks the mailbox on their walks and fills it every two to three weeks.

“The mailbox ministry is a way to honor our mom and keep her memory alive," Renner said. "We plan to keep it going and may add different items in the future. The goal will remain the same, though — to get the Word of God into the hands of people so that they would come to know him. If one life is changed, it will all be worth it.”