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 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 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. 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