The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. (Psalm 145:18)
On the first floor of my college dormitory, just down the hall from the front desk and past the mailboxes, there was a payphone. You remember payphones, don't you? This one hung from the wall in a slight recess. It had shiny metal push buttons and the receiver, which seemed particularly heavy, was connected by this flexible metal cable. It only took quarters, as did the laundry machines in the basement, which made those silver tokens far more valuable than just twenty-five cents!
Home was a three-hour drive away and I did not have a car. My, how times have changed. That payphone, along with the letter my mother wrote me every single week I was in college, was my only connection. Again, how times have changed.
On Sunday evenings, after another bland dinner in the dining hall, I would go to that payphone, drop in my quarter, press -0- and ask the operator to make a collect call to a number I knew by heart. Inevitably, my mother would answer the phone (dad never answered the phone) and before I would even say hello, she would say, "Hi Wayne!" At that point I would hang up and mom would call the number on the payphone because that was how you got around over-paying for collect calls. For the next 15 or 20 minutes she would tell me all the news from home and I would fill her in on everything that was fit to tell my mother from college. Then she would say, "Here, say hi to your dad. I love you." She would hand him the phone and he and I would talk a few minutes and then say goodbye and I love you.
We never set a time to call again. It was just what we did on Sunday evenings. I knew they would be home. I knew they were not too busy. I knew they would take my call.
"The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth."
Worship This Week
Sunday, 10am
In-person and streaming on Facebook Live
Lent 2021: The Story of Jesus in Mark
If you join us in-person, you must wear a mask and follow safe distancing.
If you are not well or have been exposed to someone with the corona virus, please watch from home.
Keep In Prayer:
Sherry Williams, Mary Wallen, Alvin Shelley, Dee Kuhlman
Our shut-ins: Kate Shelley, Dot Ann Smith, Nora Smith, Helen Payne