Pastor: Rev. Ilze Larsen

(former name: Rev. Ilze Goforth)

 

President: Arnolds Ruperts

Treasurer: Baiba Lejiņš

 

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Why did Rev. Ilze change her last name?

Read the following letter from her husband Steven

On March 6, 2008, my family went to Probate Court to change our last name from ‘Goforth’ to ‘Larsen’

Why would we change our last name? The answer lies in our two young children. Our son, Lars, who turns five years old in August 2008 and our daughter, Marija, who turned three years old this month. They deserve to have a last name that has a rich history and meaning.

When I was ten years old my Mom remarried to a hardworking man named Duane Goforth. My natural father left my Mom and six children when I was 5, and did not keep in contact or provide any support. So when my Mom remarried she asked if we would allow our stepfather, Duane, to adopt us and take his last name, as she had. Duane was a good man, in many ways, he was strong enough (with Mom’s help) to join his version of AA when I was a teenager, and that helped a lot. He passed away in 1994. ‘Grandpa Goforth’ (who was still alive when Dad died) basically disowned our family after Dad’s death. We made efforts to include him, but it seems he did not feel we were his ‘real’ grandchildren. There are no other ‘Goforths’ in our lives.

So, as I look back, …I can easily see how dysfunctional we were (just kidding)! Thank God for my wonderful Mom, her strong faith and my siblings’ positive attitude. We had a lot of laughs, even in adversity. I guess we put the ‘fun’ in dysfunctional.

Seriously, though, growing up, the family that I remember as most caring and loving has always been my Mother, born Luella Larsen, and her Dad, Grandpa Larsen (Grandma Larsen died young). This caring feeling was confirmed in the 1990’s when I visited Denmark with my Mom and met my Grandpa Larsen’s family and visited the family farm near Aarlborg, Denmark. All the Larsen family members in Denmark were all wonderfully kind and helpful. It was interesting to visit the First Baptist church of Aarlborg, Denmark where a bronze plaque listed all the names of the Pastors during the history of the church. There at the top of the list was the name of the founding Pastor, George Larsen, my Grandfather’s Grandfather. That is the family history I want my children to know and be proud of.

I thought about changing my name to Larsen before. Now I have young children who will soon realize and use their last name. Especially as they gain their identity with the start of school and learning to write and use their last names daily. Now is the time for their names to be fixed, as they ready for life.

Ilze is very supportive and actually likes the name Larsen better than Goforth. The members of the Latvian Lutheran Church of Grand Rapids, where she has pastored since 1999, are wonderfully supportive (even though they went through a name change when we married 6 years ago). So, Ilze, myself, Lars and Marija will now all make this change in last name to Larsen. I will keep, for business, a hyphenated name for a few years, so my name will show as Steven Goforth-Larsen for a while.

The name change has not been easy. Probate court, state police fingerprinting, background checks, notices and court dates, plus the many documents to update. But, overall it has been uneventful.

We see this is a very positive issue for Ilze and I, and we look forward to ‘getting back to our European roots’. But the real reason for doing this is our children. They will now have a last name that means something to them… and me … Grandpa Larsen … and Mom.

Steven Goforth-Larsen