Terry's 3M's

First, a little background.

Since about the age of 25, I wanted to be baptised by immersion. I considered my Catholic baptism at the age of 2 days old to be inadequate as I had no part in that decision.

I didn't have a church home for a long time. When the kids were little, I found a small Baptist church close to our apartment so that I could walk there on Sundays with the kids.

I took the kids there every Sunday. They were sent either to the nursery or to Sunday school (depending on their ages) while I went to Sunday School.

Eventually, I stopped going for a couple of reasons. One was that the members of the church were an insular group and newcomers (which included anyone who hadn't been there for several years) were almost pointedly ignored. The second and perhaps the most important reason was because I had discussed baptism with the pastor. He told me that they wouldn't fill the baptismal pool for one person and I would have to wait 6 months until they had enough people who wanted to be baptised.

So, when an Assemblies of God church group came be and offered transportation by bus to and from the church on Sundays, we started to go there. The atmosphere was much more friendly. But, I couldn't hang around after services to go forward and perhaps get baptised because the buses left very shortly after the last hymn and I had to get the kids and get them on the bus.

Then things happened in the following couple of years. Among them was that I had left Faye's home for a little while and became a mother myself.

But, I still wanted to be baptised.

Then one Sunday, I watched a TV church service. After the call to come forward was over, the pastor announced that someone had come forward and wanted to be baptised. And that person was baptised within minutes. I wrote down the name of the church where this happened and looked it up in the phonebook. It was right downtown! I could get there by bus!

So, the next Sunday (the Sunday before Memorial Day 1991), I took the bus downtown and found the church. I wandered around and found a Sunday school room with a sign announcing that it was the class for ladies. A woman there directed me to the nursery where I left Johnny.

That's when I met S. She was the Sunday school teacher and she took me in hand and made me feel wonderfully welcome. I told her how I had found out about the church and why I had come.

She sat with me during the service and after I went forward, she led me to the changing room. I left the church baptised and happy.

I kept going back to the Sunday school. Since I was then, (as now) perpetually broke, a member of the class started picking me up and dropping me off at home each week.

Over the course of a year, the classroom was moved, the class was changed to Adult singles and went coed. And there was a division in the church which resulted in the pastor resigning.

Our class still went on. And I was an excellent student who often made comments and gave explanations of things. S and I had become closer friends in that year and when she had to go to the state of Washington for a couple of months, she asked me to take over the class as teacher.

I did. And when she came back, she sat through one of my classes and asked if I'd be willing to take over the class permanently. My class was different than the normal Sunday school classes. Most of those centered on the information in the Sunday school booklets. My usual take on this was: we are all adults; we can all read; we can comprehend what is in the Sunday school booklets. So, I concentrated on verses in the chapter/s that we were covering that were not covered in the provided texts.

S knew what was going on in my homelife with John's father at this time. She knew how inadequate our finances were as well. She often surprised me with gifts of clothing so that I could look nice in church. She also was a whiz with decals and fabric paints. Some of the tops she gave me were custom-made just for me. She made/makes me feel so special!

When I left John's father for the last time, I have a feeling that she probably said a prayer thanking God that I had finally seen the light. She knew what others in the class didn't know--that I had been living with him without being married to him. I'm pretty sure that she rejoiced when I moved back in with Faye.

My move back to Faye's came at the right time for her. She had just fired her last babysitter and while I was babysitting during the day for her, I had been going home at night. As a young divorced woman, Faye wanted more out of life that to just sit home at night with her 4 kids. (Eventually, the oldest boy went to live with his father. He'll be 18 this July [Faye was still 17 when he was born--almost 9 months to the day after she was married.])

S started picking me up (and all the kids) on Sunday mornings. I still taught Sunday school. The others in my classroom thought I was going through a separation/divorce. S knew that it was just that I was no longer living in presumptive sin. [Presumptive sin is a sin that you keep committing, trusting in this verse: 1John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.]

I continued my usual way of teaching and S surprised me with another gift! One Sunday, she gave me a large box. In it was a 5 volume set of the Bible commentary "Thru the Bible with J. Vernon McGee". It is a very handsome set and I found the information inside useful. I'm not sure I agree with everything in it, but, I still find myself reading from it. There is usually one volume off the upstairs bookshelves and downstairs.

Throughout the years, she has always remembered my birthday and the kids birthdays.

Soon after the Sunday school board had a meeting in which it was decided that the women would be relegated to teaching kids sixth grade and under while the men took over teaching the adults, I found myself facing my class without understanding what they were talking about. They told me that they had each received a letter telling them to report to a different class the following Sunday.

That Friday, I was sent a postcard directing me as a student to another class. That's how I found out that they wouldn't let me teach anymore and that next Sunday I found out what went on in that board meeting. I told the Sunday school superintendent that I thought that the way they had gone about it was sneaky and underhanded and that I would have understood if someone on the board had monitored my class and decided that they had a problem with what I was teaching, but, to be dismissed summarily without cause was wrong.

I felt kind of flattered at which class they wanted me to go to: Single adults 19-29! [I was 43!]

Around this time, S was getting ready to move to Boulder City.

If I hadn't been dropped as a Sunday school teacher, I would have found a way to get to the church from here each week. But, since I no longer had a class to teach, it didn't seem worth the effort that it would take. Instead of living just over a mile from the church, we're now probably about 8 miles from the church.

From the beginning of our friendship, S and I have communicated during the week by telephone. Since her move to Boulder City three years ago, it has been our main means of communication.

We talk of many things. To me, S has been friend, mentor, teacher, and inspiration. She is the most selfless person I know. She's always been there for me. I love her and wish that I could do something for her once in a while.

Yesterday, she came here and she brought a wonderful present! A 26-inch woman's bicycle! Just what I needed!

God bless her! She always comes through for me!

Yesterday, I took a bike ride in the afternoon. This morning, before anyone else was up, I took off on the bike for half an hour. It feels great to be able to get out and get some exercise. But, more importantly, I'll have a means of tracking down errant kids this summer. It had been about 28 years since I'd gone bike riding anywhere. The kids were not only delighted but they were also shocked. They kept hearing me say that I wanted a bike, but deep down, I don't think that they really believed that I could ride one.

This summer should be fun!