Della came into her own and found
her place in ministry during our years in Regina. She left working with me in
youth ministry when we had children. The preschoolers just took too much time. Two
decisions came into play of open these doors.
First, she became an Avon purposely
to meet the lady to meet the ladies in the neighborhood. She got to know most
of them. Those were still the days that a great number of women were home
during the day. She made two significant relationships.
One was our immediate next-door neighbor who had a son the
same age as Rod. The boy was hyperactive and often out of control. His mother
was exhausted by the boy and often depressed and lethargic. We were convinced
she was just plain worn out. She could stay closed up in her house for days at
a time. It seemed she would just forget to give her son his medication to keep him
calm. To her, life was often unbearable. Della reached out to her beyond the
call of duty.
Joan did not like to cook and when
depressed would let her house go until it was unsanitary. Her husband did
nothing to help her. On many an occasion, Della was at her house cleaning her
kitchen. Every dish and pan was dirty and the sink, table, some chairs and
spots on the floor were covered with dirty dishes and old hardened food.
While the rest of the house was
dusty and piled with clothes and toys, it was never the unlivable mess of her
kitchen. Della was concerned about the family’s health. Della was excellent at
not laying guilt or accusing Joan. Her compassion abounded.
Her best neighborhood friend was
Geniène, a French Canadian Catholic lady who lived down our alley a block away.
They were real good friends and did a great deal together. Geniène was a woman
of faith who talked about God all the time and how she prayed and what she
believed. Roger, her husband, became my friend. He built a box for the top of
his station wagon so he and his family of five girls could take a vacation. He
asked me to paint snoopy characters for him, which I did. In turn her helped me
insulate an extension of our living room (and
old porch that was now part of the house proper) and replace the single pane
picture window with a double pane sealed window. That really helped our heating
bill. Besides, Roger was a glass man.
We wanted a separate area for our
TV and set it in that tiny ex-porch space. We went and bought a very narrow
love seat that just fit the space for our seating. Without knowing it, the
furniture company had a drawing among their customers and we ended up getting
our money back in a monthly drawing. How cool was that. We wished we had bought
a better quality.
Geniène would come down to visit
with Della every school day about 3:15 and stay till 5:00. We were both often
trying to figure out why she came at that time. Out of the blue she told Della
she came because that was the time of day her five girls all came home from
school and she just didn’t fight with them if she was out of the house. Made
has laugh.
Della developed a significant women’s
ministry in the neighborhood and also with the Student Wives program. I don’t
know how she really did it, but many women passed through her kitchen and
dining room table for tea. I didn’t really know how many until we moved to
Oregon and I would come home for lunch at times and find her listening to one
woman or another. After she passed away I received letters from dozens of young
women she had been writing to encourage them in ministry. She took a special
interest in younger women whose husbands were in the ministry. Most we never trained for that “job.”
She also reached out to several of
the Portrait Player girls. Some came just to hang out with Della and talk. She
was an expert had giving comfort and encouragement.
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