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Fr. Fangman at Elkhorn St. Patrick's displays hundreds of holiday photo cards: 'It reminds me to be thankful'

Posted at 7:12 PM, Nov 21, 2022
and last updated 2022-11-21 20:12:50-05

ELKHORN, Neb. (KMTV) — You might never really know what happens when you send photo cards during the holidays. Unless you're mailing one to a pastor at St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Elkhorn.

For years, Father Tom Fangman has cut out and saved the pictures from cards he receives.

"People go to so much extent to get us Christmas cards. So often, you get (them) and you open them up... then what?! You kinda go... 'Should I put them in a basket and kind of look through it?' Or, you might even throw it away," he said.

Father Fangman tapes the pictures to his office walls, creating a collage. A large collage.

"It's taken over places to the point that I've had to take down other things in order to put the pictures up," he shared.

He'll continue to do it because the pictures remind him of the connections which make his life so full.

"In all honesty, I think that there's lots of great peak moments, and I also know there are lots of really low valleys, and life is a lot of all of this. And people say, 'How can you go from this to this to this — back-and-forth in your day?' And I always say, 'I don't know how to answer that, but what I do know, what I really do believe, is that in the midst of all this, is this and that is constant, and that is God's presence and love is there through it all,'" he said.

"So that makes all of this pretty Holy, you know."

SEE MORE: Elkhorn St. Patrick's building new campus

Facing rapid growth, Elkhorn St. Patrick's Catholic Church is building a new church campus: "Just impossible to try to get space for people here"

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