About Us
Welcome to the Appleton Branch of the People of Praise. We’d like to introduce ourselves! We number about 50 adults and 18 children. We live in Appleton, of course, but also Combined Locks, Green Bay or DePere (along the Fox River to the northeast), Manitowoc or Sherwood (toward Lake Michigan to the east and southeast), Menasha and the shores of Lake Winnebago (to the south), Neenah to the southwest, Greenville and New London to the northwest, and back to Seymour on the north. Our People of Praise Center is located at 1806 S. Lawe Street, on the near south side of Appleton. The Center is a newly renovated building of our own that the Lord provided for us after about 30 years of renting; we’re just beginning to feel at home and learning to use it to the full for God’s glory!
Many of us in the People of Praise-Appleton Branch are transplants whom the Lord has called here from a variety of other locations, including Burundi and Cameroon in Africa, as well as more mundane areas of the central United States. A few of us are “original” members of a prayer group that began in the Village of Kimberly in the 1970s. It was in the 80s that we sought more wisdom and leadership from the People of Praise in Minnesota (now known as Servant Branch, People of Praise) and became a Branch of the People of Praise ourselves.
The Fox Cities—along with Green Bay—is the hub of Northeastern Wisconsin’s population culturally and economically, with excellent venues for performing arts, sports and recreation, symphonies, shopping, etc. Several of our People of Praise members are employed in the well-known paper industry and with the excellent hospital and health care systems in the area. Education systems include Lawrence University in Appleton (known for its excellent music programs), and St. Norbert College in DePere (known for its teaching programs), as well as degree-granting branches of the University of Wisconsin in Menasha, Oshkosh and Green Bay. In addition to the baccalaureate level, the area has a strong technical / vocational education system with campuses in Appleton, Oshkosh and Green Bay. There are many churches—mostly Catholic and Lutheran, several with excellent school systems—and the Lord Jesus is definitely at work in the area.
Actually a Christian presence has its roots in the 1600s when Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet, European explorers, paddled their way along the Fox River, undoubtedly asking God’s blessing on the lands they passed. The Appleton area—also known as the Fox Cities—is recognized as one of the best locations in the United States for raising children. The population is about 230,000, but maintains its “small town feel” due to the number of villages, towns and cities that have sprouted up along the Fox River.
We look forward to sharing our life with you! We generally gather on Sunday afternoons during the school year and Sunday evenings in the summer, although we schedule Lord’s Day Meals regularly on Saturday evenings as well, and sometimes we meet on Mondays. On Wednesdays we have a Soup Luncheon during the colder seasons (and yes, it does get mighty cold here!!), or Cookouts when the weather is mild. (And, true, we do cheer for the Green Bay Packers and play cribbage as well!)
We can be reached by calling the Branch office at 920-731-1058 or by e-mail at pop_appleton@att.net. Drive, fly or come by boat up the Fox River, any way we’ll meet you with the love of Jesus. God bless you until then!