The brand new pastor
and his wife, newly assigned to his first
pastorate, arrived in suburban Brooklyn in early
October excited about their opportunity to reopen
a church. 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, and whatnot. 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 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 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 and hangers to put
the tablecloth up 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,
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, feeling 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 had gotten
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 the man would allow him to
take him for a little ride. They drove to Staten
Island, 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?
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