The People (Segment II)

By Larry Downing

A pre-teen sees people through eyes far different from those of an adult.  What follows is a remembrance of what a pre-teen saw as he week-by-week came to the SLO Adventist church.  

Mrs. Neva Richards, at the Buchon St. church, led out in the lower divisions.  She was the sister of Russel Easter, one of the church elders.  I recall we sang Rock, Rock, Rock little boat on blue Galilee while Mrs. Richards gently rocked a small, glass boat and passed it among us kids so we, like she, could rock the boat.  Neva was married to Clarence, who was not an Adventist.  I recall her stating that he resisted giving her money for the church.  Her solution?  When she washed her husbands pants there would often be money in his pockets.  That money went into the offering plate.  

In 1949 a group of us kids traveled to  Wawona Junior camp in  Russel Easter’s flat-bed truck equipped with wooden side-rails.  Clarence Richards drove the truck with us guys playing about in the back.  One of the kids tossed an apple core at a passing car.  The drive turned around, pulled over the truck and gave us what-for.  We were adamant in stating our innocence. I’m sure neither the driver nor Mr. Richards bought our story.  I recall Mr. Richards read us the riot act and we continued our way to summer camp.  This was the first of my two summer camp experiences.

Russel and Adele Easter were church leaders.  Russel, as noted above, was a church elder. Adele was Home Missionary leader.  She reminded us now-and-again that that she was related to Elder Wood, the editor of the Review and Herald, the official church publication.  Mrs. Wood, Adele’s mother lived with the Easters.  Was she Elder Wood’s mother or sister?  I don’t recall.  What sticks in my memory is that Adele liked to sing solos in church. Dad, more than once, remarried to my mother that he would rather have listened to a squeaky door hinge.  

Adele, as Home Missionary Secretary, before the worship hour began, took the Missionary Report   The Missionary Report was opportunity for people to share with the congregation the good things they had done that week:  How many home visits?  How many pieces of literature given out?  How many food baskets or bouquets?  How many hours volunteer work?  At the end of each quarter the response totals were sent in to the Conference Home Missionary Secretary. As an adult, I once asked one of the men who held that office if he ever looked at the reports.  He looked at me like I’d asked him if he came from Mars.  

The Home Missionary Secretary, like the Sabbath Lesson Review, Birthday-Thank Offering, the Mission Story and Investment have joined the Relic category.  (The Reviewwas part of the weekly Sabbath School program.  Each week someone summarized the salient points from the previous week’s Sabbath School lesson. At times, the reviewer’s Review took most of the lesson study time. Investment was a program that encouraged people to create a method to produce money that would then be donated to the Investment Fund for missions.  Some people great vegetables and sold them. Others picked up soda bottles from the side of the road and donated the money.  All manner of other “creative” endeavors were part of an Investment project to support missions.  What people did not know is that the collected money went into the GC budget with all the other funds.)

The Home Missionary Secretary, in addition to the weekly missionary activity report,  was the Harvest Ingathering person.  Adele set up charts in the front of the church to let the congregation in on how we were coming with our Minute Man Goal.  

Someone, who had nothing better to do, had at some point calculated that it took $25.00 each minute to fund the World Mission program.  A Minute Man was one who solicited $25.00, or more, for Ingathering.  Adele wrote the name of each Minute Man on a chart to serve as a reminder to others to get with it and solicit 25 bucks.  Each Sabbath during the Ingathering season, Adele presented a ribbon to the successful solicitors who had achieved their Minute Man goal. Some people had multiple ribbons, a sign of something-or-other. She also announced her personal solicitation successes.  (As a note:  Conference officials made Ingathering a big deal.  Pastors were held accountable for the success or failure of their individual congregations.  In some conferences in the Southern states, the pastor could not take a vacation if the church had not met its Ingathering goal.) 

My mother Ingathered, often with Charlotte Moscomen. Mom did not enjoy the task, and let us know she was a reluctant Ingatherer.  My dad refused to have anything to do with asking people for money.  “What if I met a customer?  How could I ask for money?”  

Contemporary churches have deleted the Harvest Ingathering program from all hard drive memories. Those of us who experienced those days respond by singing the Hallelujah Chorus!