The words and music of two longtime area residents combined more than 15 years ago create a message of hope for harmony in the world.

Eva Irene Voeller sat down in her home in 2004 to write “Our World,” which celebrates the harmony of God’s creations in the world and asks, “Why can’t we live in harmony here?”

“This poem has a question that we could even ask today,” Voeller’s friend Dave Halvorson told the Tribune. Halvorson is well known as a musician, composer and teacher in the Rugby area.

Voeller died the year after she wrote her poem, but Halvorson gave her words another way to live on and be appreciated by a wider audience.

“I put her poem to music,” Halvorson said.

Soon after Voeller finished her poem, which was published in the Pierce County Tribune in 2004, she was diagnosed with cancer, according to her daughters Michelle Lake and Leanne Pfeifer. Around that time, Halvorson put her words to music.

“I remember the song was performed by the Village Arts Choir,” Pfeifer said.

“The Little Flower Church Choir sang the song to her after that,” Lake noted. “Mom was in palliative care at the hospital at that time. It was Christmas.”

The song, “Our World,” created by Voeller and Halvorson will reach beyond Rugby this weekend when it is performed at Sunday worship services under the direction of Mui Cheng at Holy Cross Lutheran Church of Prior Lake, Minn. Cheng is a member of the Twin Cities Music Guild in the Minneapolis area. The song came there by way of Corey Einarson-a college friend of Halvorson.

Worship services for Holy Cross Lutheran Church are scheduled for 8:15, 9:45 and 11 on Sunday morning.