It’s amazing what you find out when you actually talk to people! Over the past few months, I have come to know many wonderful people at St. George’s. Each week that passes by, I meet more new people and enjoy finding out about so many common interests. Maybe it is because our congregation is based on St. George Island, such a beautiful and serene place, that the people in and around the church seem to match. I was telling someone today that I had never felt really sure about becoming a member of any church since I arrived in America in 1976, that is, not until I found St. George’s.
I grew up in a church family, a small parish, and the church really was a part of our every day lives. Our vicar, Mr. Evans, was a jolly, middle aged Welsh man (with a thick Welsh accent) who rode around everywhere on his bicycle as he did not own a car. He and Mrs. Evans lived in the parish vicarage, a small, simple cottage type house, nothing fancy. Mr. Evans knew everyone in the parish, especially the children. He knew your name, when you were born, where you lived, etc. He instinctively knew where we were supposed to be at any given time. Should he come upon us while out and about on his bicycle, he would simply give us “the eye” and we knew we were caught and better get back to what we were supposed to be doing. He was never stern or cross with us. I don’t ever remember him raising his voice. He didn’t have to.
We didn’t have a church secretary, or office staff (or even an office for that matter). Mrs. Evans took care of all the church business, including making cakes and cookies to take around to the sick and elderly. If anyone in the parish needed anything, they would just go and knock on the front door of the vicarage. The church survived on donations from the weekly collections, two services on Sundays and one on Wednesday, as well as more substantial donations from the wealthier parishioners. Since I was in the choir and spent quite a bit of time in and around the church, I was sometimes “recruited” to help out with various tasks. I remember going with Mr. Evans one day to empty the donation boxes as it was time to do the books. By the main door entrance, there were 4 letter box type holes in the wall so that people could select which area of need they wanted to donate to. One was flowers, another was building & grounds, another was for the sick & poor, and I forget what the last one was for. My mother would give us a handful of spare change on Sundays to put in the donation box. I always carefully considered which one I would pick, trying to make sure that over a period of time I had covered all the bases. It was a small but empowering decision to make each week. I would see others making the same kind of deliberations, and the ensuing satisfaction after the decision was made and the money put in the right box.
To my great surprise, when Mr. Evans took out his church keys to open up the boxes, there was one big hole in the wall, with all the money in one place, not the four individual boxes. My wide eyes and open mouth prompted Mr. Evans to explain this newly revealed system, and once I understood the concept, it was a much broader and more powerful lesson than it first appeared to be. As the leader and caretaker of the church, Mr. Evans was responsible to see that all needs were met to the best of his ability. There were never enough donations to cover everything. There were the “must have to survive” priorities, and the “nice to have” extras. He said that while it is nice to have the church filled with flowers, or get new bible covers, or something like that – it was much more important that an elderly parishioner had help to pay her heating bill in a harsh winter month or that a young mother had enough food for her children. He said (with a twinkle in his eye) that sometimes it was good to go a couple of weeks without any flowers, because donations in the “flower” box would go up considerably. He said that God works in the same way – the priorities have to get taken care of first, and that we shouldn’t worry about anything we pray for. All the prayers go into the same box, then it is up to God to take care of all the needs, in His order, not ours. It all made sense and I could see from his explanation that it was a really good system after all. I still enjoyed putting my coins in each of the 4 boxes, and watching others making their selections. The difference was that I now knew something a little extra, something about the good purpose of the box(es)… and I knew that because of the system, and a call for more flower donations, Mr. Evans could take care of the needs of the church. It just gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling 
