Some Christmas Cheer

A helping of Christmas cheer, since, as my friend Matt pointed out, yesterday's posts were a little Grinchy.

There weren't a lot of news headlines when Alfred Ulner died this past August. After serving in WWII, he went to seminary and served 30 faithful years as a pastor. Never at big, flashy churches, in his early days in Washington State, he drove the Sunday School bus to bring kids to church along with his other duties.

He also went door to door sometimes, visiting people. Today, he'd be seen as some kind of fanatic invading privacy, but in 1955, he was a kind man out to visit his neighbors.

One day he knocked on the door of the Read family. It was a visit that changed the family's life---again not in flashy ways, but in ways that have lasted. Sharon Read recalls the difference this one visit made in her family's life.

Here's a bit:


Through my eyes as a child, the church seemed kind of formal . . . the grownups seemed intimidating. Maybe I felt that way because it was the 1950s and we were the little kids that came on the bus without our parents. But my memory of Pastor Ulner will always be of his kindness to us, how his faithfulness in reaching out to my mother changed the course of her life, as well as saved the life of my brother.


There's more like this on the website of the Companion.

Here's a few recommendations (all are PDF's)

December 2004
• Am I a Stranger to You? by Amy Beth Augustin Barlow

• Lessons from an Unplugged Life Dena Luchsinger [PDF version]

November 2004
• Small Graces by Bunny McKnight
• On a Roll by Colette Claxton
• God's Moving Crew by Bill Nelson