God said, “I need somebody willing to get up before dawn and put the
coffee on in the rectory, then come over to church to say their morning prayers
and return to the rectory and make breakfast for the pastor, work all day, plan
meals, make the beds, clean the rooms, answer the door, shop for healthy food and
the pastor’s favorite snacks. Then wash the laundry, have dinner ready when father
returned from his communion calls, and then go to the lady’s church meeting to plan
the next fund drive to make baked goods for the school and leave on the kitchen
table a bedtime snack after father returned from another late night parish
meeting. So God made a rectory housekeeper.
I need somebody with arms strong enough to keep up with the pastor
yet gentle enough to cuddle their newborn baby from her home. Somebody to run
for parts for the custodian, help in the fields, move trucks, deliver meals,
look the pastor in the eyes and tell him ‘The people love you for all your
kindness and the community you built – and mean it”. So God made a rectory
housekeeper.
God said, “I need somebody willing to sit up all night with their
newborn baby. And raise her right. I need somebody who can use a wrench and
know where to find it, doesn’t mind getting dirty, who can remove stains, and
keep a house clean.
God had to have somebody willing to make appointments and change
plans and be ready in a minute’s notice and yet would never stop and complain
about this way of life. So God made a rectory housekeeper.
God said, “I need somebody strong enough to clean windows, vacuum
the rooms, scrub the potties, empty the trash then come over to church to dust
the statues and pews and clean linens for Sunday services, and then make more baked
goods for the next parish fund drive and pack bags of food for the poor, yet
gentle enough to raise kids and bottle feed the newborn kittens and tend to the
house, who will drive the car to doctor appointments and pray to God about the
weather. It had to be somebody who’d be able to handle her own house and church
work and not cut corners. Somebody to seed, weed, feed, breed and wash and dry,
cook and clean and remember scheduled events and feed the pastor and stock the
cupboards and finish a hard week’s work with a pray on Sunday for her family,
her kids and all the people she welcomed in the rectory in gratitude for all
the gifts she had received from the Lord.
Somebody who’d held her family together with the soft strong bonds
of sharing, a strong faith and love for God, and all her neighbors in North
Java, who would laugh and then sigh, and then reply, with smiling eyes, when
her kids say they want to spend their life “being kind and generous to all because
that’s what a mom does.” So God made a rectory housekeeper.
