THE GREATEST GIFT I RECEIVED IN MINISTRY
L. Doward McBain
July 1, 1985
Our Bennett, Colorado, charge proved to be a surpassing experience. We lived in a tiny parsonage, worshiped in a tiny church, and served a tiny, rural congregation. It was here we met the sickly but saintly Mrs. Rolf, a symbol of all the really good and sacrificial saints we have known through the years,
She was one of four devout parishioners who met with us for prayer each Thursday afternoon at the church, next door to the parsonage. She rarely missed. She came when she was well enough to stand, and soon we learned her story. She lived with her twelve-year-old son who was spending most of his summer herding sheep to buy school clothes for the coming fall. Mrs. Rolfs husband had left her several years earlier for reasons that never seemed clear. She was destitute and received meager relief from the community. If she had been the only member of the congregation, her strong Christian spirit was enough to make those few weeks in our first parish worthwhile.
Before we knew it the summer was gone; our last weekend had come and one more sermon was to be preached. Saturday night the Bennett people planned a going-away party. They brought many practical gifts for the young couple returning to seminary in Philadelphia—kitchen utensils and enough canned goods from the rural membership that would last for many weeks. But Mrs. Rolf was not there.
The next morning the little church was packed for my farewell sermon, but our special friend was missing again. So, shortly after the service, we finished our packing and decided we should package some groceries and drive the old Model A to "String Town," the poor section where Mrs. Rolf lived.
She answered my knock by a feeble call from her bed. She explained that she was too weak to get ...
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