|
THE RICH FAMILY IN OUR CHURCH
Eddy Ogan
I’ll never forget one Sunday in 1946. I was
14, my little sister Ocy, 12, and my older sister Darlene, 16. We
lived at home with our mother, and the four of us knew what it was
to do without many things, My dad had died five years before, leaving
Mom with seven school kids to raise and no money. By 1946 my older
sisters were married, and my brother had left home.
A month before, the preacher announced that a special
offering would be taken to help a poor family. He asked everyone
to save and give sacrificially. When we got home, we talked about
what we could do. We decided to buy 50 pounds of potatoes and live
on them for a month. This would allow us to save $20 of our grocery
money for the offering. Then we thought that if we kept our electric
lights turned out as much as possible and didn’t listen to
the radio, we’d save money on that month’s electric
bill. Darlene got as many house and yard cleaning jobs as possible,
and both of us babysat for everyone we could. For 15 cents we could
buy enough cotton loops to make three potholders to sell for $1.00.
We made $10 on potholders.
That month was one of the best of our lives. Every
day we counted the money to see how much we had saved. At night
we’d sit in the dark and talk about how the poor family was
going to enjoy having the money the church would give them. We had
about 80 people in church, so we figured that whatever money we
had to give, the offering would surely be 20 times that much. After
all, every Sunday the preacher had reminded everyone to save for
the sacrificial offering.
The day before the “big day,” Ocy and
I walked to the grocery store and got the manager to give us three
crisp $20 bills and one $10 bill for all our change. We ran all
the way home to show Mom and Darlene. We had never had so much money.
That night we were so excited we could hardly sleep. We could hardly
wait to get to church.
When the offering was taken, we were sitting on
the second row from the front. Mom put in the $10 bill, and each
of the girls put in a $20. As we walked home after services, we
sang all the way. At lunch Mom had a surprise for us. She had bought
a dozen eggs, and we had boiled eggs with fried potatoes!
Late that afternoon the minister drove up in his
car. Mom went to the door, talked with him for a moment, and then
came back with an envelope in her hand. We asked what it was, but
she didn’t say a word. She opened the envelope and out fell
a bunch of money. There were three crisp $20 bills, one $10, and
seventeen $1. Mom put the money back in the envelope. We didn’t
talk, just sat and stared at the floor. We had gone from feeling
like millionaires to feeling like poor white trash.
On Saturday Mom asked us what we wanted to do with
the money. What did poor people do with money? We didn’t know.
We’d never known we were poor. We didn’t want to go
back Sunday, but Mom said we had to. Although it was sunny, we didn’t
talk. Mom started to sing, but no one joined in and she only sang
one verse.
We had a missionary who talked about how churches
in Africa made buildings out of sun-dried bricks, but they needed
money to buy roofs. He said $100 would put a roof on a church building.
The minister said, “Can’t we all sacrifice to help these
poor people?” We looked at each other and smiled for the first
time in a week. Mom reached into her purse and pulled out the envelope.
She passed it to Darlene. Darlene gave it to me, and I handed it
to Ocy. Ocy put it in the offering. When the offering was counted,
the minister was excited. He hadn’t expected such a large
offering from a small church. He said, “You mush have some
rich people in this church.”
Suddenly it struck us! We had given $87 of the
“little over $100.” We were the rich family in the church.
From that day on I’ve never been poor again. I know how rich
I am in Jesus.
Copied from The Visitor,
Adamsville, Alabama
(Original Source: The Informer,
June 10, 2001, Shelbyville Road Congregation, Indianapolis, Indiana)
Submitted by Judy York
|
Guest Speaker
