CHAPTER 8
FINDING US A CHURCH HOME
Another new challenge for us was to find a church. We were inexperienced in this since I had belonged to the same church all my life. Bill and I proceeded to visit several churches in the Burlington area and could have “tried out” many more. Moving to the Bible Belt didn’t hurt our feelings at all. I remember so well the first time we received a Saturday Times-News and found the Church section. There were 19 United Church of Christ churches listed! After having lived in an area where Protestants were pretty much a minority, I felt like we had “died and gone to heaven”! We also had never head of being invited to attend church with friends and neighbors. In Connecticut that rarely happened. To our amazement, when we met southern folks, their firs question was “where do you go to church”? And then we’d promptly get invited to attend church with them the next Sunday. Such a delight this was to us.
After so many weeks of this type of worship, Bill was anxious to get some stability into our lives and wanted us to decide on a church home soon. I understand how Bill felt but made a special request of him that we try one more church: New Mission UCC. I had performed my Elon College religious education field work at this site when it was called Edgewood UCC and therefore I knew which entrance door to use and where the seats were. As we did our church hunting, I realized how important those two things are (directional signs for visitors are often sorely lacking).
We did not recognize a single person. The sermon on our first visit was on “What is God’s Purpose For Us Here on Earth?” Believe me, we sure were interested in that subject and felt like the sermon was given just for us. The people were very welcoming and the choir was inspired; we decided to return. The second Sunday we went, the minister, who regularly uses the UCC Calendar of Prayer as a source prior to the offering, prayed for Ron and Edith Seaton, who serve as missionaries in India. Bill and I thought lightening had struck! Ron and Edith had been our house guests in 1985 and they are the ONLY missionaries we know! As we exited the church and shook hands with Dace, the pastor, we asked him why he prayed for the Seaton’s on that particular day (there are hundreds of missionaries listed in that book). He just shrugged his shoulders and said that was where the book opened up to that Sunday.
We didn’t need any more signs from the ANGELS—we knew in our hearts that New Mission Church was the place for us.
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