Discount Coupon Codes
Dad pastored mostly small town or rural churches. Seldom, did they pay what most of us would call a living wage or even minimum wage. Of course, they usually gave gifts of food and other necessities many times, so they survived.
In late 1957, Dad was in bad health because of asthma and a heart condition. They moved to a rent house in Jacksonville, Texas. One of my sisters was attending college in Jacksonville. She could live at home with them and not have to pay dorm rent. Dad couldn’t work at that time because of his health.
An uninsured drunk ran into Dad’s car parked on the street and totaled the car. Dad only had liability on the seven-year old car. I located a cheap, used car through a friend and took it to Dad.
Mom had a low-paying salesclerk job in a local store. It looked like a very meager Christmas that year. They did not have money for gifts nor for a turkey dinner. Christmas dinner would be beans and cornbread, as usual.
On Sunday before Christmas, their pastor told the congregation about a family in the area who could not afford Christmas and the church planned to take up a collection to buy gifts, food and other items for the family. He did not name the family.
When the offering plate was passed, Dad put his last five dollars in the plate. From things the pastor had said, Dad felt that someone needed the five dollars more than he did.
After church, the family sat down for a Sunday lunch of beans, pan-fried potatoes and cornbread. They had plenty of dry beans, cornmeal, and potatoes.
On Monday, the pastor and several church members showed up with food, gifts and some money. They brought in a turkey and plenty of food for a Christmas dinner and many more meals. Dad had contributed his last five dollars for a needy family that turned out to be his own family. What a wonderful Christmas gift!
The family survived those hard times and a few months later as Dad’s health improved, he accepted the call to pastor a small rural church near Corsicana, Texas.
We drove in from Oklahoma after Christmas to see Mom and Dad and found out about this incident. I knew they were having rough times, but we were not financially able to help them either.
Many times while growing up, I saw Dad give the last money he had to someone else because he thought they needed it more than we did.
Copyright © Jerry Blackerby 2006, 2009