11.15.05

The Gift of Faith

Posted in Uncategorized on November 15th, 2005 at 6:51 pm by PatrickMead

by Patrick Mead I served as minister in Morgantown, West Virginia for eight years. They were some of the best people I’ve known in my soon-to-be 49 years on this planet, but one of them stays with me everyday. The lessons she taught me were life changing… and she didn’t know it. Phyllis Johnson lost her husband several decades ago in a coal mining accident. Since that time she has had to subsist on a widow’s pension; tiny by any standard. Her life had enough pain in it that no one would have blamed her if she complained constantly… but she never did. She had the gift of faith in a way that I just don’t see very often. No matter what her week was like, she greeted everyone with a smile and a reminder of the love of God. Her faith wouldn’t stay in, so I had to change the way I preached. No more rhetorical questions such as, “So, is God good?” for she’d say “Yes!” And so on. I truly believe that, if her legs had just fallen off in the parking lot, if you asked Phyllis “How are you doing today?” she would have responded “God’s been very good to me.” And she’d mean it. She went to yard sales and charity shops to buy left over cards which she’d then painstakingly address and send to anyone who needed encouragement or a kind word. She spent her days in doing as much good as her few monthly dollars and advancing years would allow. And, as far as I know, she still does. When I get down, want to whine, or feel doubts nibbling at my heart I remember Phyllis. What would Phyllis do? Ah…. okay. I’ll believe.

Grace at the Chain Pharmacy

Posted in Uncategorized on November 15th, 2005 at 11:08 am by Raymond Fleming

by Raymond Fleming My wife, Gale, was sick. It was one of those weeks when everyone in the family got sick at once. Slowly, we recovered and returned to work and to school and went about our normal routines. Gale’s flu-like symptoms returned, however, after a couple of days. She said to me one morning, “I’m tired of feeling so bad. If I don’t feel better by the end of today, I’ll make an appointment with the doctor.” She couldn’t make it to the end of the day for an appointment. About mid-morning, she drove herself to an urgent care office near where we live. The doctor diagnosed her with pneumonia, prescribed antibiotics and told her to go home and get some rest. On her way home, she stopped at the pharmacy near our home. Gale handed Dean, the pharmacist, her prescription and our insurance card. We don’t get many prescriptions, so the problem with the card wasn’t any surprise. Maybe she gave him the wrong card? She checked her purse and found another more recently issued card. Dean slid that card through the reader. There was still a problem. “Well, I can pay for it,” said Gale. “I’m not feeling well and I need to get home.” “It’s going to be well over a hundred dollars,” said Dean as he handed her a bag containing the bottle of pills and an inhaler. “Come in or give me a call tomorrow,” he said. “Maybe there’s a problem with the Blue Cross computer.” “What about the money?” asked Gale. “I’m not worried about it,” said Dean. “Go home and get some rest.” The next day, an even newer card with a different identification number arrived in the mail. Apparently, the insurance company was rolling out the new cards and we just hadn’t received ours yet. Gale called the next day, gave Dean the new number and we owed only the co-payment on the prescriptions. Who said you don’t get personalized service from a chain pharmacy?