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A Christmas Story
The brand new pastor and his wife, newly assigned to their first ministry,
to reopen a church in urban Brooklyn, arrived in early October excited
about their opportunities. When they saw their church, it was very run
down and needed much work. They set a goal to have everything done in time
to have their first service on Christmas Eve.
They worked hard, repairing pews, plastering walls, painting, etc. and, on
Dec. 18, were ahead of schedule and just about finished. On Dec 19 a
terrible tempest - a driving rainstorm hit the area and lasted for two days.
On the 21st, the pastor went over to the church. His heart sunk when he
saw that the roof had leaked, causing a large area of plaster about 6 feet
by 8 feet to fall off the front wall of the sanctuary just behind the
pulpit, beginning about head high. The pastor cleaned up the mess on the
floor, and not knowing what else to do but postpone the Christmas Eve
service, headed home.
On the way he noticed that a local business was having a flea market type
sale for charity so he stopped in. One of the items was a beautiful,
hand-made, ivory colored, crochet table cloth with exquisite work, fine
colors and a cross embroidered right in the center. It was just the right
size to cover up the hole in the front wall. He bought it and headed back
to the church. By this time it had started to snow. An older woman
running from the opposite direction was trying to catch the bus. She
missed it.
The pastor invited her to wait in the warm church for the next bus 45
minutes later. She sat in a pew and paid no attention to the pastor while
he got a ladder, hangers, etc. to put up the tablecloth as a wall
tapestry. The pastor could hardly believe how beautiful it looked and it
covered up the entire problem area.
Then he noticed the woman walking down the center aisle. Her face was like
a sheet. "Pastor," she asked, "Where did you get that tablecloth?" The
pastor explained. The woman asked him to check the lower right corner to
see if the initials, EBG were crochet into it there. They were. These
were the initials of the woman, and she had made this tablecloth 35 years
before, in Austria. The woman could hardly believe it as the pastor told
how he had just gotten the tablecloth. The woman explained that before the
war she and her husband were well-to-do people in Austria. When the Nazis
came, she was forced to leave. Her husband was going to follow her the
next week.
She was captured, sent to prison and never saw her husband or her home again.
The pastor wanted to give her the tablecloth; but she made the pastor keep
it for the church. The pastor insisted on driving her home; that was the
least he could do. She lived on the other side of Staten Island and was
only in Brooklyn for the day for a housecleaning job.
What a wonderful service they had on Christmas Eve. The church was almost
full. The music and the spirit were great. At the end of the service, the
pastor and his wife greeted everyone at the door and many said that they
would return. One older man, whom the pastor recognized from the
neighborhood, continued to sit in one of the pews and stare, and the pastor
wondered why he wasn't leaving. The man asked him where he got the
tablecloth on the front wall because it was identical to one that his wife
had made years ago when they lived in Austria before the war and how could
there be two tablecloths so much alike?
He told the pastor how the Nazis came, how he forced his wife to flee for
her safety, and he was supposed to follow her, but he was arrested and put
in a concentration camp. He never saw his wife or his home again for all the
35 years in between.
The pastor asked him if he would allow him to take him for a little ride.
They drove to Staten Island and to the same house where the pastor had
taken the woman three days earlier. He helped the man climb the three
flights of stairs to the woman's apartment, knocked on the door and he saw
the greatest Christmas reunion he could ever imagine.
True Story- as told by Pastor Rob Reid
E-mail me at:
webmaster@1faith.zzn.com
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