VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, [2] ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 14:11:14 01/17/04 Sat
Author: siempre
Subject: "the tablecloth" .... a true story

THE TABLECLOTH

The brand new pastor and his wife, newly assigned to their 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 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, but 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, 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 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

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]
[ Contact Forum Admin ]

Forum timezone: GMT-8
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.