Monday, April 21, 2014

an easter story...

Our Heavenly Father indeed works in beautifully amazing ways. I have a little Easter story for you. If you have been following us for long, you likely know of the building project I've been spearheading for my parents to move to Cleveland from their home in Canton to help us look after Sarah and allow all of us to be available for them. For forty seven years they lived in the same home. My mom had the inside decorated just like she wanted and my father took immaculate care of the outside. He along with a little help from my sons, built a stunning sunroom with a surrounding garden that was the talk of the neighborhood. I knew asking them to give that up was going to be hard.

But even harder, was going to be leaving their church family. For more than fifty years they belonged to the Canton Baptist Temple, where for decades my mother was a Sunday School teacher and my father sang in the choir. Their friendship circle was mostly built around fellow parishioners. Once they settled into their new home, I knew they would be seeking out a new church. For various reasons, my husband and I never really identified with a church here, so on special Sunday's like Easter, when Sarah was healthy enough to travel, we would get up very, very early and drive to Canton to join them in their church, which of course meant we had no leads to help with their search.

A few weeks ago, while I was dropping Sarah off to spend the night, my mom told me they had driven over to see the Cleveland Baptist Church. Now this may by a very fine church, but I knew that meant they had to drive across I-480 to get there and although I did not tell them this at the time, that drive was quite worrisome to me, especially in the winter. The next day I had to take some old computer equipment down to Ret3 which is located near E40th and Chester. Just to be different, or so I thought, I decided to come back home by way of Cedar and that's when I spotted Cedar Hill Baptist Church.

I stopped at my parents that afternoon and used my dad's computer to see if the church had an online presence. Sure enough they did and as I was scrolling their website for details, I came across a photo of the pastor and his wife. I immediately recognized Beth as being one of our kind and wonderful customers. I knew instantly that this was meant to be. 


Then out of the blue last week, our seventeen year old mentioned he wanted to go to church. So today he (photo) accompanied his grandparents to Cedar Hill, just the three of them. I'm sure they were beaming from ear to ear. It is indeed a very Happy and divinely planned Easter in our family this year. Many blessings to you all.

 

2 comments:

JEllen said...


127 others like this.

Caryn Moore What a beautiful story. Happy Easter to you and your family.

Barbara Hnath Bagdonas Thank you for sharing this beautiful "God-moment". Happy Easter to you and your family.

Ann Wakefield Great story!

Pat Onderdonk What a blessing! Happy Easter to you and the family.

Cindy Fellabaum A Blessing

Becky Harris-Ross beautiful story...God is good all the time...

Paula Schryer Dabel So sweet

Ann Fagner Thanks for sharing, it is always a joy to hear how God works things out, if we would only get out of his way:)

Stephanie Peck Cheng An Easter blessing. Love this story, thanks for sharing.

Beth Green Thanks for sharing "the rest of the story", Joyce!

Jan Pickering Love this story! Hope you all had a Happy Easter

Kathie Ives Smith Joyce, there are some wonderful people at Cedar HIll who have been there for years. I think your parents will be happy there.

Lindie Pyle-Otto What a wonderful Easter Blessing.

Cissie Schmidt Elberson lovely story!

Mary Gant Awesome!

Betsy Carter Booth So glad they found a new church home. Your mom had said she was listening to Canton Baptist on the radio, but it's just not the same.

Deborah OKeefe Cedar Hill Baptist Church wonderful Church ! Awesome !

Deborah Sivley Burtis The work of our Lord

Judy Rightmire McKay God always has a plan

Marilyn Maher We just need to trust in God. Wonderful for your family!

Lynda Schildhouse Leciejewski God does work in the most wondrous ways!

Belle Blair I can relate I taught Sunday School for 20 yrs. in NC and led a very active Bible Club for many years and it is so hard to say goodbye to the ones you taught, watched grow up, graduate etc. So happy they found a church they can worship in!

Sabrina Steyling said...

What a blessing! God indeed does work in mysterious ways, Joyce! It's interesting that we have a church not too far from where I live that's also called Cedar Hill Church, where my aunt and uncle and cousins attend! I do believe that your parents will be blessed by their new church family (and vice versa). God bless!