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OLD NEWS

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www.rogate-rake.org is run for the village communities of Hillbrow ~ Rake ~  Rogate ~ Terwick

 

A beautiful story, makes you wonder if things really do happen for a reason, well sometimes anyway!

 

The brand new pastor and his young wife, newly assigned to their first ministry, to reopen a church in suburban Brooklyn. Arriving in early October excited about their opportunities but 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, re-plastering walls, painting, etc. and on December 18 were ahead of schedule and just about finished.  The very next day a terrible 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 beginning about head high just behind the pulpit. The pastor cleaned up the mess on the floor as best he could and not knowing what else to do, headed home to postpone the Christmas Eve service.

On the way he noticed that a local business was having a flea market sale for a local charity so he popped in. One of the items was a beautiful, handmade, ivory coloured, crocheted tablecloth with exquisite work, fine colours and a Cross embroidered right in the centre. It was just the right size to cover up the hole in the front wall. He bought it and headed straight back to the church as 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 real 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 centre aisle. Her face was like a sheet. 'Pastor,' she asked, 'where did you get that tablecloth?' The pastor explained and the woman asked him if he would please check the lower right corner and see if the initials EBG, were crocheted into it there. They were. These were the initials of the woman, the same woman who had made this tablecloth 35 years before in Austria and now standing talking to the Pastor, the woman could hardly believe what she was hearing as the pastor went on to tell her how he had just that moment gotten the Tablecloth from the market.

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. He was captured, sent to prison and never saw her husband or indeed her home again. The pastor wanted to give her the tablecloth but she made the pastor keep it for the church. The pastor then insisted on driving her home, saying that was the least he could do.. She told him that 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 happily return.

One older man, whom the pastor recognized from the neighbourhood continued to sit in one of the pews just staring, 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 in all the 35 years in between.

The pastor asked him if he would allow him to take him for a little ride. They drove  back 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.

A True Story so they say- submitted by an American Pastor, Rob Reid.  Well whether its true or not, I bet it still made you feel good inside,

A Very Happy Christmas Everyone. 

A Christmas Ditty to amuse you at

this Festive Time!

{some of you may have heard it in Church the other night, thanks Stephen}

 

Twas the night before Christmas and Santa's a wreck...
How to live in a world that's politically correct?
His workers no longer would answer to "Elves".
"Vertically Challenged" they were calling themselves.
And labour conditions at the North Pole
were alleged by the union to stifle the soul.

Four reindeer had vanished, to the Northern Lights
Released by the campaign for Animal Rights.
And equal employment had made it quite clear
That Santa had better not use just reindeer.
So Dancer and Donner, Comet and Cupid
Were replaced with 4 sheep, and you know what! ... that just looked stupid!

The sleigh was ready and made all decorous,

But Health & Safety said the runners were dangerous

And people had started to call for the cops
When they heard sledge noises on their rooftops.
Second-hand smoke from his pipe had his workers quite frightened.
His fur trimmed red suit was called "Unenlightened."

And as for the gifts, why, he'd never had a notion
That making a choice could cause so much commotion.
Nothing of leather, nothing of fur,
Which meant nothing for him and nothing for her.

Nothing that might be construed to pollute.
Nothing to aim, Nothing to shoot.
Nothing that clamoured or made lots of noise.
Nothing for just girls, or just for the boys.
Nothing that claimed to be gender defined.
Nothing that's warlike or bad for mankind.

No chocolate or sweets...they were bad for the tooth.
Nothing that seemed to embellish a truth.

Dolls were said to be sexist, and should be passé;
And Nintendo would rot your entire brain away.
So Santa just stood there, dishevelled, perplexed;
He could not figure out what to do next.

His sack was quite empty, limp to the ground;
Nothing fully acceptable was to be found.
Something special was needed, a gift that he might
Give to all without angering the left or the right.
A gift that would satisfy, with no indecision,
Each group of people, every religion;
Every ethnicity, every hue,
Everyone, everywhere...even you.

So here is that gift, it's price beyond worth...
May you and your loved ones, enjoy peace on Earth.

 

“Twas the Night before Christmas” was written in 1822 by an American academic, Clement Clarke Moore. This parody has been adapted from one written in 1992 by Harvey Ehrlich.