The brand new pastor and his wife, newly assigned totheir first ministry, to reopen a church
in
suburban 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 December 18 were
ahead
of schedule and just
about finished. On December 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 sank when he saw that the
roof had leaked, causing a large area of plaster about 20 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
of sale for charity so he
stopped in. One of the items was a beautiful, handmade, ivory
colored,
crocheted tablecloth 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 crocheted into it there. They were. These
were the initials of the woman. 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
spirits 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. 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 prison. He never saw
his
wife or his home again 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 -
submitted by Pastor Rob Reid
Who says God does not work in
mysterious
ways