old pastor marquette

old pastor marquette

fiction
edward w pritchard

Because of the recession and bank foreclosures Pastor Marquette lost his parish house when the church closed and with our church not allowing marriage he ended up alone and homeless. We had no national religious affiliation and the remaining members of the congregation who didn't move away were unable to help old Pastor Marquette because of struggling to survive on their own.

All was not hopeless for the Pastor however. He received a small check from the State for unemployment for a year or more and he was able to find shelter because of his previous good works to the local community. The goodwill industries allowed him to live in the local large yellow collection box used for collecting and storing clothes and other items from charitable giving. Pastor was allowed first choice of any items donated so he always had a warm coat, gloves and usually comfortable shoes. He also had his choice of used golf clubs, out of print books or board games.

It was a little crowded in the yellow collection box sometimes but the Pastor didn't complain. In fact any time someone would make a donation he would recite an appropriate piece of scripture. This created a lot of warm feeling in the hearts of the givers of the kindly donations.

Many people in our town credit old pastor Marquette with helping our area successfully endure the last recession. He's gone now but I can still see him climbing out of the old yellow collection box, cheerfully greeting the charitable givers and humbly blessing them with an appropriate scriptural reading.
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