Between
1979 and 1993 I pastored a church in Vista, California. In that congregation there was an older woman
that my family came to love. Her name
was Mary and to everyone in the congregation she was Grandma Mary. She loved the children and became surrogate grandmother
for many of them, including my children, Alison and Scott. They loved her, and she loved them.
One
day while visiting in her home I asked, “Grandma Mary, what is your story? How did you come to know Christ?” She said, “Pastor, do you really want to
know?” I said yes, and then sat back and
soaked in the awe and wonder of grace.
She
told me that she was a runner for bootleggers in the 1920s in West
Virginia. She was responsible for
getting information from location to location, so she had a lot of knowledge of
the illegal activity.
She
was pretty wild and tough. One night she
angered some woman over something and the woman started chasing her down to
kill her. In a desperate act to escape
the woman, Mary ran into a church that happened to have an evangelistic service
under way, and the woman chased her in but backed off when she lost her in the
crowd. Mary said that before she could
collect herself some usher seated her near the front where she felt trapped.
She
told me that as the service progressed she began to feel a peace she had never
known before. The evangelist gave an
altar call and Mary went forward. The
young pastor of the church prayed with her and told her that she needed to give
everything in her life to God. So, she
put her purse on the altar, opened it up and took out a switchblade knife and
laid it on the altar. She then took out
a pistol and put it on the altar. She
put some cigarettes and chewing tobacco on the altar, along with the other
items, and told the pastor that was all she had.
They
prayed and Mary said that’s the moment she came to Jesus. I’m not sure all that happen in her life that
night but I know Jesus showed up, changed her life, and captivated her
imagination.
When
the bootleggers found out about her conversion, they challenged her on it. She told them she would have to give up the
bootleg business because Jesus had changed her life. When they found out about her decision they
put a contract out on her life. Somehow
she found out about the contract and left West Virginia immediately, telling no
one where she was going, and headed for as far away from there as she could get
– California.
Whatever
happened that night in that little church took hold of Grandma Mary’s life, and
she never turned back. For the rest of
her life she would say, “I want to stay
near the spout where God’s glory pours out.”
She did, and once in a while I got pretty wet just hanging out with her.
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