Everyone is invited to the annual community worship service at 10 a.m. Sunday in the Grandstand of the Freeborn County Fairgrounds, according to a press release. Admission to the Fairgrounds is free Sunday morning up until 10 a.m., thanks to the Fair Board.

A worship band made up of individuals from six different congregations will provide music before, during and after the service. Pastors from several local churches will help lead the service.

Offerings received as people exit will be delivered to the church designated on their envelope or check. All loose offerings and checks (payable to Az-One) will go to cover expenses, and the remainder will go to help fund the annual Shinefest week of service to the community.

The Gideons plan to give out free scripture testaments to students ages 8 to 25 following the service as people exit.

The message “Prepared for the Journey by Grace” will be preached by Gerald Allen Houge, a man who grew up in Albert Lea and served a career as a United States Air Force chaplain.

Houge was born in and grew up in Albert Lea. His parents were Bernie and Marian Houge.

He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Augustana College in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in 1973; a masters of divinity from Luther Northwestern Theological Seminary in St. Paul in 1977; and obtained a masters of education, family and marriage counseling degree from the University of San Francisco in 1989.

He was ordained into the ministry of Word and Sacrament of the American Lutheran Church — now Evangelical Lutheran Church of America — in September 1977 and was called to serve as pastor of St. John Lutheran Church in Riverton, Wyoming.

Houge was commissioned as chaplain in the U.S. Air Force in June 1983. His professional military education includes squadron officers school, air command and staff college, and air war college.  While assigned to the following locations, Houge was deployed for Operation Desert Shield, Operation Desert Storm, Operation Northern Watch, Operation Southern Watch, Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.

Soon after retirement following 27 years in the Air Force chaplaincy, Houge was called to be interim pastor at St. John Lutheran Church in Riverton, the same church he’d served 27 years earlier.  In January 2012, he accepted a call as associate pastor of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Fort Walton Beach, Florida.

He and his wife, Rebecca (Behrens), from Delavan have been married for 42 years and have three children and seven grandchildren.