EVERYONE HAS A STORY: David Johnson...This Sunday, as always, the Webers will gather at the river

This column, which appeared in Friday's Tribune, is being repeated because it was accompanied by the wrong photo.

People featured in this column have been selected randomly from the telephone book.

RIGGINS - The Little Salmon River Bible Church was built 55 years ago and continues to rest next to its namesake stream about 12 miles south of here, amid a roadside community known as Pinehurst.

Come Sunday, members of the tiny fundamental congregation will rise with the sun to celebrate what Christians everywhere call the gift of Easter.

Carol Weber, 78, will not only be worshiping, but also helping with breakfast between services and otherwise basking in what she calls the miracle of the Resurrection.

"We baptize in the river," says Carol as the Little Salmon churns with spring runoff that cascades down from the mountains above. "We do it about eight miles upstream."

As a deaconess in the church, Carol says she mostly tends to chores that beg for attention and lends a hand to spiritual wellbeing in any way possible. "You always have to have a group of ladies who do lady things," she explains. Take the traditional Easter breakfast for example.

"Biscuits, sausage, scrambled eggs, fruit cocktail, butter and jam for those who don't like gravy, and coffee."

Feeding the body, reasons Carol, goes hand-in-glove with nourishing the soul. As for the latter, she and the rest of the congregation rely on Pastor John Brady to preach the Gospel in line with tenets of the Independent Fundamental Churches of America.

"The only thing I do in the service," says Carol, "is sometimes I sing."

This Sunday, Carol will be singing "Then Came the Morning" at both the early and late services. It will be a solo rendition, and she says nerves have never been too much of a problem.

"I know everyone here. So if I make a mistake, I just start over. They love me just the same."

Carol and her husband, 83-year-old Bucky Weber, have lived in the Pinehurst area for 24 years. They raised three sons and three daughters and brag on request about their 13 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

"We moved from Caldwell to retire, but my husband won't retire yet."

Bucky owns and operates Bucky's Saw Shop in Pinehurst where, as Carol says, "he sells and repairs chain saws and whatever else somebody brings in."

By the way, if Jesus needed a chain saw, he'd probably pick a Stihl. "That's what he would buy," confirms Carol with a lighthearted smile.

Among Christians, says Carol, Easter surpasses Christmas and all other religious observances because it ends Christ's story with the promise of an afterlife.

"Christ is the only one who's living after dying," explains Carol. "So that's the big one, yes, the blessed hope. Because he lives, we'll live."

Not that life here in Idaho's white-water canyon country has been all that bad. The Little Salmon River, for example, has an eternal quality to it that seems to stem whatever earthly beginning and ending time might have. The river flows, even in the darkness and cold of winter. This time of year, the sun works overtime to warm the canyon. And with each longer day, says Carol, the cycle of life seems to undergo a revival.

"This church started in a tent, right at this site," reminds Carol.

Members of the Little Salmon Bible Church, explains Carol, take a literal read of the Gospel and pull no punches when declaring that Christ literally rose from the dead on Easter. Carol labels "a lot of baloney" recent television accounts that the remains of Jesus and his family may have recently been discovered in a tomb.

"There are always those who want to take away the right story and put in the wrong one."

Easter is about the gift of salvation, says Carol. "But some people want to work for it, and they can't because it's a gift."

So Carol, among the other preparations for this Sunday, makes sure the Easter lilies that adorn the altar of the Little Salmon River Bible Church are indeed immersed with enough water to sustain life. The plants, with their trumpet-shaped flowers, seem to bugle the message.

"It's so simple," says Carol, "and such a wonderful gift, if we just take it."

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Johnson may be contacted at deveryone@potlatch.com or (208) 883-0564.