TLC/PoG Story Project
We
are collecting stories of how members of the TLC/PoG community have
recognized what God is doing to meet the deep needs of the world and
discovered and assumed their unique roles in partnership with God.
With their long history at the
church, they recall the days when Sunday School was a thriving ministry and
they’re eager to see today’s forms of ministry expand and grow. They enjoy handling maintenance issues in
Trinity’s Preschool and Child Development Center, where the children call them
“the grandpas.”
When we talk about “making space”
for people to recognize what God is doing to meet the deep needs of the world
and discover and assume their unique roles in partnership with God, we might
think primarily of the spiritual, emotional, relational space where people
learn more about God and themselves and develop their gifts. But all of that rich, life-enhancing action
unfolds in a physical space.
Dick Gourley and Vern Vaders have
quietly been exercising their ministry of caring for the physical spaces at Trinity
Lynwood/Point of Grace day after day and year after year for many years. Both very
long-term members of Trinity (Vern for 56 years and Dick for 47 years), in
their retirement years, they have contributed almost daily service to
maintaining our buildings.
Over the years they likely
contributed thousands of hours of labor, saving tens of thousands of dollars
that would otherwise have been spent on hiring work done. They fix locks, handle plumbing problems,
change faucets and re-set toilets. They
change light bulbs, minor electoral problems and maintain equipment in the
pre-school. At Pointe of Grace, they
have taken out trees, repaired broken sprinkler lines, and worked on other
maintenance issues. Dick is the
caretaker of the organ, having worked closely with the builder in its early
years so that he knows how to make small repairs and keep it clean. He contributes his time as an usher at
funerals to save families costs that would be associated with that. Vern has spread bark and supervised young
people looking for community service opportunities at the church.
With their long history at the
church, they recall the days when Sunday School was a thriving ministry and
they’re eager to see today’s forms of ministry expand and grow. They enjoy handling maintenance issues in
Trinity’s Preschool and Child Development Center, where the children call them
“the grandpas.”
The Trinity/Pointe of Grace
community is like a family to Vern and Dick and they treasure the personal
connections (as well as the hugs) they enjoy with folks here. Their quiet commitment to maintaining the
place where a lot of ministry happens is often unseen and unnoticed. Sometimes it can be frustrating because
things that are often used often break and often need cleaning. Yet they continue to come regularly,
expressing their gifts in service of the whole so that many other gifts can
emerge through what happens in the facilities they work to maintain.
