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. 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, 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 sale for charity
so he stopped. 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 warmth of the 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 white as 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, 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.