I hope you had happy Christmas and New Year’s celebrations. This Christmas was a little different for me. A good friend of my family, Ginny Nottingham, passed away Christmas afternoon.
My family has been friends with the Nottinghams since the 1950s. Ginny was a longtime, faithful member of my home church, Fallowfield United Methodist.
Ginny was a devout Christian. She never missed church unless she was too ill to attend.
She grew up during the Great Depression and understood how important it was to share her time and talents. I saw her at countless Crawford County Fair pie bakes, chicken pie bakes, United Methodist Women functions, and Bible studies.
For many years she and her husband, Glenn, donated all the apples for the Crawford County Fair project and coordinated picking and freezing.
Ginny believed “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35 KJV). She lived by this code.
I am continually blown away by the generosity of my church family. Like Ginny, they think it is more blessed to give than to receive. More than 120 people packed the church’s basement on December 20, to watch Fallowfield’s Christmas dinner theater, “The Perfect Christmas.”
We collected a free will offering and raised an astounding amount of money for a local needy family. Service, missions, and the presence of the Holy Spirit define my church and its members.
I suppose this is why Ginny fit in so well at Fallowfield. Giving was a way of life for her. God gave the Atlantic community a gift when he loaned Ginny Nottingham to us. I know Jesus welcomed her home with a big hug and said, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21 KJV).