Some call it
Fate, others call it luck, but I prefer to think that the Lord above led me in
1992 to my incredible wife Judy and that Judy led me to St. Andrew’s. In the bargain I gained a beautiful, loving
wife, a church family, a church home, and a church community, for the rest of
my life.
My story
begins with the replacement of a small drawer in the cabinet used for storing
linen in the sacristy. Judy had served
on the Altar Guild for many years and when she asked me to take a look at a
drawer that was missing, I gladly agreed.
The drawer had been removed for repair some time earlier and never
returned. Having some skills and a love
for woodwork, I made the drawer and in the process of installing it realized
that the entire cabinet needed to be painted and the drawer handles could be
updated. It was then that I noticed that
the wood behind each handle was deeply grooved and worn. I realized that the grooves were the result
of thousands of openings and closing by the wonderful, dedicated ladies of the
Altar Guild, including my sweet Judy. I
pondered the countless hours of hard work over all those years by those amazing
women. How the repetitive touch of those
gentle, loving hands could literally wear away paint and wood; like the
imperceptible wearing away of solid rock by the constant flow of a gentle
stream. It was then that I realized that
I had a calling, that I had been offered an opportunity to give back in some
small measure for all that I had gained by being a part of the St. Andrew’s
family.
Over the
next twenty-eight years I have found extreme pleasure and satisfaction in
building furniture, making repairs, painting and refinishing. I built the two pedestals on either side of
the altar and oaks bases to raise the flower vases. I also built the healing stations and the
pedestal used at baptisms. My good
friend Carey Curtis and I built and installed the Tree of Life Memorial in the
small side chapel. We noticed that two
of the stained-glass windows were reversed and, amazingly, one of them had been
installed upside down and had been that way forever.
I was on my
knees one Christmas putting a fresh coat of varnish on the altar rail and the
altar furniture. From that perfect
posture I was able to listen to Brad Norris and two young men playing brass
instruments practice for the Christmas Eve service. The sound was so wonderful and so powerful
that I recorded it with my cell phone looking up at the altar and gradually
raising the camera to the stained-glass window.
I was blessed to be at the right place at the right time and on my knees
to boot. Over the course of the years
there were projects large and small and too numerous to mention. All it took was a phone call from Rachel
Roby, Bill Wilds or anyone of the many people serving the church and the Lord
in their own way and who needed something fixed or replaced.
I mention
these things not for myself, but rather, to illustrate the gift of giving
something of yourself back to those you love and cherish. We all have different skills, interests and
abilities. It is the combination of
those things into a unified team effort that moves us forward as a church. Together we can move mountains, one stone at
a time. I thank my darling Judy and the
Lord above for giving me the opportunity to play a small part in making St.
Andrew’s the family home that it is.
Greg Edwards