A Lenten Devotion
Read Proverbs 31:10-31
When I was four years old, I decided that I didn't want to go to Sunday School any more. Since my family was not a church-going family, I was allowed to quit Sunday School.
When I married Evelyn Jean Crooker in her family's church, that was the first time I was in a church since I was four years old.
After we were married, church was never mentioned. She knew that I had not been going to church, so she never mentioned the subject. We had been married for about two years when we got into Square Dancing with some friends. One of the ladies happened to be a member of the Grosse Pointe United Methodist Church, and told us there was going to be a Square Dance there. We couldn't miss that, so we went. During one of the breaks, I went to get her a cup of tea. She was having a conversation with a man, and when I got to them, she introduced him. I knew I was in trouble because he was Pastor White. Nothing more was said that evening.
Tuesday evening we had a visit from Pastor White. He came into our home and we talked about what I don't remember, but when he left, Evelyn said that she would like us to join his church. Now I could not say no to anything she wanted to do. The next Sunday, we were members of the church.
It wasn't long before Evelyn was in the United Methodist Women, and seemed to be interested in what they were doing.
She became interested in what was going on in the church. When we joined, there were folding chairs in the sanctuary, and after a bit, they were asking for donations for pews. Soon there were pews in the church. I said to her one Sunday, “The new pews are nice.”
She then said, “We paid for two of them.” It was nice to know, even if it was after the fact.
Now Jack Mannschreck came to the church, and Evelyn and I became good friends with him. He was involved with the children in the church, and he had started a program for children and he asked me if I would help him with it. Once a week the children would gather at the church, and Jack and I would have some kind of activities for them (play games, build bird houses, build rockets and fire then off in the parking lot). After that, they had dinner. Jack needed table parents for that. Evelyn and I took one table. She always had something extra for the kids. There could e candy, gum, a little toy, but always something. When Jack left to get his church, the kids program was taken over by other people, and we were uncomfortable with it, so we gave it up. I will say that when we were at church on Sundays, one or two of the kids we had at our table would come up and hug Evelyn. It would now take two or three days for the smile to leave her face.
At about this time, there was a new office manager in the church. Evelyn wasn't happy with some of the things that were coming out of the office. She felt that Mary needed help, so she offered. She went into the office at eight and came home after five in the evening. Then, when Mary got sick, Evelyn took over the office until Mary got better. She was trying to save the job for Mary, but it didn't work out. Mary did not get better. She stayed until a new girl was hired, and she got her broken in.
I will say that I had a lot of interesting times in the church, and met a lot of nice people.
The time when the church was planning to have the elevator built, there were two or three people who were against it. That was one time when Evelyn had a lot to say, and she told some people off. People were getting older, and the elevator was needed.
Well,l that is enough of that. Anyone that knew Evelyn I feel was lucky. If you didn't know her, you missed knowing a wonderful person. The only bad part was the fact that to get Evelyn in the church, you had to put up with me.
Norman E. Abey
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