Teddy-Bears, Bibles and Hugs

It happened last night.

He was a big, husky man of 35 years or more.  I wish I had thought to take his picture.  He looked tough.  He came to me before service with a hug, like many others.  But this hug was not for me, it was for my wife, Frances.  

He told me he had been a little boy, a pastor’s son.  You see, Frances always tried to bless PKs.  A brother in some church in California made it his ministry to supply her with a wide variety of soft, stuffed animals which she distributed to PKs as we traveled ministering throughout Argentina with our mobile home.  Now this big, rugged stranger hugged me and with teary eyes said, “I still have my Teddy bear!” 

Frances also kept a fresh supply of nice, new Bibles to give to PKs.  We were ministering in a little desert town down south in Patagonia.  I was with her when she asked a 9 year old PK if he owned a Bible.  He had been sitting at the drums practicing when we entered.  He was the official church drummer, and a good one, too.  His response was, “I really don’t have a Bible of my own.  I just get to use some old one that someone has left behind with pages torn or ripped out and the cover is torn off.  I never had my own Bible.”  Frances went out to our STL pickup truck and brought him in a nice new Bible.  He was delighted.  He was still sitting at the drums up front as people started coming in the church door.  Every time someone would come in he would call them by name, hold up his new Bible and yell, “Look, I have a new Bible, all my own!”

Teddy-bears, Bibles and hugs!  When people saw that Frances was quiet and reserved they would ask her what her ministry was.  She always answered, “I hold the suitcase for Ralph’s dummy, Felipe.”  True, Frances didn’t preach much, although whenever she did, she did a great job at it.  Hers was a ministry of love.  She loved me… even sometimes when I was a jerk… and kept me alive and sane.  She loved her sons and grandkids.  She loved little Argentine children… and she loved young PKs.

I wonder if she is going around giving away soft, fluffy teddy-bears in heaven.

Ralph