Overnight Guests and Their Hosts
We got to Oxford, Mississippi, a little after 6:00 p.m. last night. First, we stopped by Jim and Glenda’s house, and then the four of us headed to Newk’s Eatery, a healthy soup, sandwich, salad, and pizza chain, founded in Oxford about a dozen years ago.
Jim and Glenda have been in Oxford since they were young. When we came in 1977, they had two boys in elementary school. Sharing a meal and conversation with them last night was a special treat. It was a weekly event back in the late 1970s. Jim was the church deacon who served the campus ministry and Glenda was the secretary at the University Christian Student Center. Week after week, we met to discuss the future of the ministry.
After eight years in Oxford, we headed north to Illinois. Jim and Glenda stayed and served countless students. Glenda is one of those women whose picture could be next to the word serve in a dictionary. Jim has taught the gospel to many, many international students and he continues to do so.
After supper we drove a little way out of town and turned into the same driveway we turned into on September 19, 1983. In 1983 we were there to drop off four-year-old John and two-year-old Bethany, so we could go to the hospital for the birth of Mary Evelyn. As we approached the turn and began our way down the winding driveway, my heart went back to that long ago Monday morning.
Last night we were there to spend the night with Doug and Cora Beal. The lights on the front porch beamed a bright welcome when we pulled up to the walkway. Through a wall of windows, I saw the familiar living room. In the fall of 1977, this twenty-four-year-old new, green, campus minister’s wife taught the morning ladies Bible class Cora Beal hosted once a week in that room. How patient they were to listen to this inexperienced, immature young woman whom they eventually would teach so much. Yet, how wonderful it was for me to get that experience.
We rang the doorbell and waited for Doug and Cora Beal to come from the back of the house. First, I saw Doug through the window. He was wearing blue jeans (rolled up once at the bottom) and a crisp long-sleeved shirt. Â Then, when the door opened I saw smiling Cora Beal, also in jeans and in a blue and white striped turtleneck.
After hugs, Doug and Cora Beal led us to their new comfortable den at the back of the house. As we headed that way, I spotted a large, beautiful, framed picture on the wall between the living room and dining room. I was pretty sure I knew its origin. I asked Cora Beal. Sure enough, that velvet picture with its large tree made from dozens and dozens of pieces of antique costume jewelry was the creation of Gladys, the lady who cooked dinner at the University Christian Student Center each Monday through Thursday and who shared her godly wisdom with flock after flock of college students.
It was good for Cora Beal and me both to chat about Gladys who is long gone. We talked about Gladys’Â son Bennie, who is also long gone, and I learned that Cora Beal is friends with his widow who lives in what was once Gladys’ home and who reminds Cora Beal of our precious friend who was her mother-in-law.
As the guys settled in the den, Cora Beal and I went into her kitchen which looks the same as it did when we left thirty-two years ago. As we made tea, she told me about a Chinese girl with whom she studied the Bible. And, of course, she asked about our children.
The four of us reminisced in the den with our tea and cookies. Just before ten, Cora Beal led us to the top of the stairs and to our room. We passed color pictures of their descendants and black and white pictures of their ancestors.
Above windows with white sheers and ruffled valances were shelves with pretty arrangements of eclectic objects: photos, pink china, small pillows, a basket, and a well-worn copy of Horton Hears a Who! On the maple dresser between white lamps with embroidered organza lampshades was a bottle of hand lotion. In front of a window was a card table and chair, in case we could use them for something — I wrote this blog for you on it. In the bathroom were fresh towels and every toiletry we could need.
Doug and Cora Beal have always exuded hospitality — and at 90-plus years, they’re still doing it.
Let love be without hypocrisy.
Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.
Be devoted to one another in brotherly love;
give preference to one another in honor;
not lagging behind in diligence,
fervent in spirit, serving the Lord;
rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation,
devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints,
practicing hospitality.
Romans 12:9-13