Bethesda Home, KS

Background

In the early 1940's, Richard Burson was a Baptist pastor in Kansas, and about 1943 had started editing a devotional called The Word. While attending a bible college in Salina, Kansas, and was doing odd jobs for the locals, he was cleaning out a woman's attic when he discovered an archive of "Help and Food" magazines, that he initially thought were cookbooks, and asked if he could take them, which introduced him to the open brethren, with the eventual help of the Littlefield family via Walterick Publishers of Kansas City.

This eventually led to the start of Hutchinson Gospel Chapel where he eventually landed, in the mid-1940's, and he was also the primary founder of Kansas Bible Camp in 1946. And the magazine he edited grew to include many Brethren writers during its tenure thru minimally 1953, both regional authors as well as globally known.

Bethesda Home

Viva Leota Willis Gunn was born in 1899 in New Hartford, Missouri, the daughter of John William Willis (b. 1862 Farmer, MO - d. 1933 Fulton, MO) & Mary Elizabeth Mudd Willis (1864-1901 New Hartford, MO). Viva was married to Ewart Stewart Gunn (b. 1881 Stonewall, MB, who died in 1968 in KCMO. They in fellowship with at an assembly started by Dr. Lawrence Littlefield in Kansas City, MO in the mid-1960's, Spruce Hill Bible Chapel, KCMO, as a hive-off from the central Troost Avenue Gospel Hall, MO, with land donated by Lawrence's brother John Littlefield.

Around 1966, Viva planted an idea in Richard Burson of developing a home for retired missionaries. The retirement home was to be in Nickerson, Kansas, just five miles from Kansas Bible Camp. The burden for Richard was that there were many workers retiring from the field to find their spiritual gifts not as highly sought, and the idea was to utilize their knowledge of the Word, evangelistic fervor, and seasoned input to influence the campers and staffers, while perhaps bringing a sense of purpose for the retirees. He settled on the name "Bethesda" as it referenced "healing at the pool".

He formed a small corporation, and a few of the Lord's people assisted in providing funds towards purchasing a spacious three-story house near the gradeschool in Nickerson. Golda Pope, a young married nurse from Concordia, Kansas was encouraged towards the idea, as was likely George Easter, who was in the midst of planting an assembly in his home in nearby Salina, which would eventually become Sunset Bible Chapel, and possibly Stanley & Edith Bloom, who had strong ties to the camp and assembly.

The house purchase did not materialize, however it was purchased by a large family, and one of the children, as a young man, Thomas Stafford, would eventually be led to Christ after a period of rebellion thru outreach efforts of individuals at Hutchinson Gospel Chapel, and was in fellowship there in the 1980's.

Richard then used the funds to purchase a small tract of land outside of Nickerson, with the intent on building a structure, and had a listing the 1966 Waltericks Assembly Address Book with a P.O. Box for the upcoming Bethesda Home. With funding from Viva Gunn, Richard, as well as Dr. Lawrence Littlefield, and Russ Farwell took an excursion thru the Midwest thru Canada visiting various assembly retirement homes along the way, including El-Nathan in Missouri, possibly Linn Manor in Iowa, definitely Rest Haven Homes in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and a retirement home near Toronto, Ontario, possibly Markhaven, and/or Elim Homes in Waubaushene.

However, the idea did not materialize, and so Richard focused the remainder of his life in the growing children's work at Kansas Bible Camp, as well as a popular itinerant preacher in assemblies all throughout the Midwest, until his homegoing in 1976. Viva relocated to Bay City, Texas for a decade in fellowship with Braeburn Bible Chapel (now First Colony Bible Chapel), then retired to the El-Nathan Home (founded by Sister Abigail) in Marble Hill, Missouri where she died in 1989.

Sources

• phone interviews with Golda Pope & Stephen Burson on 11-23-2020, Dan Burson & Sarah Littlefield Townsend 11-27-2020;