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| Just around from this row of trees a village waits. |
A
funny story---after my first service at the East Pittston United Methodist
Church, it was suggested that I visit someone who lived in the Village. Now I have been serving churches for 12 years
so my mind immediately thought that "The Village" was an assisted
living facility. As I drove out of
church I looked to where this person had pointed from the door of the church,
right toward the center of town, I did not see "The Village". The following Sunday I asked this person,
"Can you point to where this person lives?" The reply went something
like this, "Right there in the Village." Again I drove home looking left and right for
"The Village", asking my husband to look as well. At this point my husband convinces me that
the large Victorian in town is "The Village", two days later as I sat
in the parking lot I knew it couldn't be.
After several missed phone calls, I connected with the person I was
going to visit and she gave me directions to her house...yes that is right...her
house. "The Village", come to
find out, is exactly that--the village--the center of town, "larger than a
hamlet and smaller that a town" according to Webster.
This is the danger of any new
relationship, the assumptions we make based on our own experiences. It was my good fortune that the person I
visited found this misunderstanding as funny as I did. It was also our good fortune that we did not
give up on each other. I kept searching for her and she kept waiting for me.
But Ruth replied,
"Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you.
Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay.
Your people will be my people and your God my God." Ruth 1:16
After three months of sharing our
God together we are getting used to each other, becoming God's family and we
are not turning our backs. I am blessed
to witness the commitment this congregation makes daily to the community
surrounding our church. Members check on
their neighbors and share their needs not as gossip but in order to serve them
best. The "shop" below the
stairs is a source of income but also a place for those in great need to
actually choose dishes and necessities in difficult times of transition. Amazing pot luck suppers, ice cream sundaes
served at 10am after worship and a deep spirit of loving one's neighbor are
just a few of the blessings I have found here.
Like other churches we have our
struggles, we would like a pianist and we would like Sunday School teachers,
and yet we are able to recognize gifts in our wanting. We have someone who plays the piano for us
with her love of God, we have children (!) yes we do and they actually don't
mind being in church!
We have work to do together but we
are firmly grounded in God's love, we are after all, right around the corner
from a village...smaller than a hamlet, larger than a town, with enough to
share, and room to grow.
