Authors: Leona Norwell
Chapter 2
Several weeks later, Nathan stood at the podium of the church he was the new pastor of and looked at the crowd trying to see if he could guess who Faith was. She had patiently answered his questions and helped him with his move here, he wanted to thank her personally.
“Good morning. I’m so glad to be here with you. Thank you for all your help since my arrival and my preparations for my arrival.” Nathan continued with his opening remarks then asked them to turn to the book of James.
Faith was thrilled he was going to be preaching on this topic. She pulled out her tape recorder and pushed record so she could listen to it again when she got home. Faith enjoyed his insight and found out that some if it matched hers and some of it was new insights to her. As the sermon and the service ended, Leah came to direct Faith out the side of the church.
Nathan was learning people’s names as they shook his hand but he didn’t ever meet a Faith. He was a little disappointed; he really wanted to thank her for her help and prayers on his behalf.
Monday morning, Nathan sent an email to Faith. “Did I meet you yesterday?” he asked Faith.
“No, you may have met some of my family members though. We all attend there. I really enjoyed your sermon.”
“Thank you” he wrote back “I’m sorry to have missed you. I really appreciate all your help on my move here.”
“You are welcome, but all I did was answer a few questions.” She responded “That’s what the Ministry is all about.”
Nathan responded that he was still very grateful and he hoped to meet her next week. Faith didn’t respond but she thought that is was very doubtful.
Faith went back to work and studying as Nathan went on with his day. Faith was reviewing a message from another church member about organizing a prayer team for the new pastor. Faith volunteered to host it and she would round up about five more people.
“Faith?” her sister called from upstairs
“Yeah” Faith answered
“Can you email Tom Green and get the details on the Christmas pageant scenery? I need to get started on it but I’m in the middle of a project.”
“Sure, I’ll do it.”
“Thank you.” Leah said escaping back to her workshop. It was only August but she needed to be working on the sets for the church’s Christmas program soon.
Faith wrote the email that Leah had requested and then went back to studying. She was transcribing the notes from the sermon on Sunday. She learned more the second time she listened to his sermon but she had a question. She decided to email him and see if he would answer.
“Email program on.” She said into her microphone then waited for the signal that it was open. “New email.” She stated next then waited for the signal that a new email page was available. She read off his email address and then told the computer program the subject. After dictating her question into the body of the message and telling the program to send she went back to her studies. Shortly, her email program told her she had a new email. “Received new email open.” She commanded and then waited for her program to read the message to her.
First it read off the name of the sender and she was surprised to find that it was from Nathan already. “Good question. At least someone was listening to my sermon.” He joked and Faith laughed at him. He answered her question but that lead to another question from Faith.
“I’m sorry to bother you. But I have another question now.” She stated before she asked her next question. Nathan’s reply came back just as fast as the first one. “Another good question, are you spying for the personnel committee to see if I really know my stuff?” he asked jokingly before he answered her question then told her at the end of his message that she wasn’t bothering him. Faith laughed at his reference to the personnel committee but didn’t respond to him other than to say “thank you for your help.”
He seems to have a sense of humor anyway.
Faith thought to herself as she went back to reading James. Faith closed her Bible and went in search of her sister. She carefully opened the door to her sister’s shop but didn’t venture in past the first step. Faith knew from experience that it was a bad idea, she had no idea where things were on the floor of Leah’s shop.
“Hey” Leah called to her “don’t move from that step”
“Got it.” Faith responded “What are you working on?”
Leah answered bringing Faith an example to “look” over. “It is a miniature rocking horse.” Faith could feel the designs that Leah had carved in the face and body. “They will love them.” exclaimed Faith.
As they were finishing their lunch the phone rang “Hello?”
“This is Tom Green.”
“Hi Tom, its Leah. Did you get Faith’s email?”
“Yes, I need to talk to Nathan before I can give you many details. I’ll show him what I was thinking but he may have some changes. Will that give you enough time?”
“Sure, but the sooner the better.”
“Thanks Leah. I’ll see you Sunday if I don’t talk to you before then.”
“Bye”
Leah returned to her lunch. “Thanks for emailing him, he isn’t ready yet. He needs to run his ideas by the pastor first.”
“No problem. Glad to be of help.”
Help was Faith’s middle name, she would help whomever and whenever she could. She could organize better than anyone Leah had ever known and she accomplished more than anyone could imagine.
Monday morning, Faith was reviewing the sermon notes from Sunday when her front door buzzer sounded. “Hello.”
Nathan was puzzled that someone didn’t answer the door. “I’m looking for Leah.”
“Stay there and I’ll buzz her to tell her she has a guest. Who may I say is here?”
“Nathan Lindstrom”
“One moment.” Faith said. Faith buzzed Leah in the workshop and told her that Nathan Lindstrom was at the front door. Leah said she would go see him and signed off. Faith returned to the front door intercom and announced that Leah would be right there.
“Thank you.” Nathan replied to the intercom box
“Hello” Leah said rounding the corner of the house “I’m Leah Newham.” She said as she extended her hand to him.
“It’s nice to meet you.” He said shaking her hand “You sing in the choir right?”
“Yes. What can I do for you?”
“Tom wanted me to talk to you about the Christmas pageant set.”
“He did? Why?”
“He said after I looked over his plans to bring them to you with my changes.”
“Okay, come on back to the shop and let’s go over your changes.” Leah said leading the way to her shop. “Watch your step. I’m not a neat craftsman.”
“Who cares when your work is the beautiful? I’m impressed.” He said looking at the miniature horses she was creating.
“Thank you. They are Christmas presents for children around town.”
“Here are Tom’s plans.” He said getting down to business “I only had minor changes. But I hadn’t met you yet so I decided to make a pastoral visit at the same time.”
“Welcome. Have a seat while I look these over in case I have any questions.”
“Can I wander around and look at your work instead?” Nathan asked
“Sure” she smiled and went back to reviewing the plans “I think I understand what he is looking for” she said a few minutes later. Nathan asked her a few questions about her work and then started for the door.
“Can I ask you one more thing?”
“Sure.” She answered
“Do you know a Faith that attends our church? She was a great help to me when I moved here and I haven’t met her at church yet. She answers the phone at a Help the Flock.”
“That would be my sister. She is in the house, I’ll introduce you.” She said pointing the way to the house
“Wonderful” Nathan said following her
Leah led Nathan to the door that went down to Faith’s office. She turned on the light and opened to the door to lead him down when someone knocked on the door. “Just go on down, I’ll be right back.”
Nathan walked cautiously down the stairs when he heard talking. As he was halfway down, he recognized his own voice and sermon. “Do I really sound like that when I preach?” he asked.
Faith jumped and spun around in her chair. Her hand went to her face in surprise from his appearance. “What?” she asked stupidly
“Do I really sound like that when I preach?” he asked as he approached. Faith reached over and found the off button and shut the tape off.
“Sorry. Pastor Lindstrom?”
“Nathan please.” He said extending his hand but she didn’t take it in hers.
“I’m Faith Newham” she said extending her hand. He finally noticed she was wearing sunglasses inside in a basement. He grasped her hand in his and said hello. “You didn’t answer my question?” he joked
“Well, I tape your sermons so I can listen to them again. I happened to be studying James before you started preaching on it, so you are helping me study.”
“I’m glad. That explains the insightful questions you had last week.”
“Sorry about that. I shouldn’t have bothered you with those.”
“Nonsense. That’s what I am here for. And it wasn’t a bother, it made me think too.”
“Did you and Leah need something?” Faith asked nervously. She was not used to strangers in her office space.
“No, I wanted to thank you again personally for helping me with my move. It was greatly appreciated.”
“Anytime.” Faith shrugged
“You have quite a setup down here.” He said looking at her computers and machines. “Can I ask an extremely rude question?”
Faith laughed and said yes. She liked people who weren’t shy around her handicap.
“How do you type on the computer without sight?”
“Watch and learn.” She said joking with him. “Email program on” she said into her microphone. “New email” she said when she heard the signal that indicated the program was open. After she heard the next signal she began to spell his email address. Then she commanded the program to the subject line and said “Hi”. She moved the cursor down to the body of the email with another voice command and then with one more voice command she activated the typing feature. “Hi Nathan. I am teaching you how I do my work.” Then with a command to close typing program and then “Send email”, he watched her send him an email. She couldn’t sense where he was in the room so she stayed facing the microphone on her desk.
“I’m impressed.” He said from over her left shoulder “Want to do my correspondence?” he joked
“No thanks. Long emails get very tedious.” She explained
“I’m still impressed. Well, I’d better be going, I’ll see you Sunday hopefully.”
“I’m usually there.” She stated as she turned to hold out her hand. Nathan shook it and wished her a good day as he left her office. Leah met him at the doorway and apologized for getting held up.
“No problem. I was just talking with Faith. She has quite a setup down there. She showed me how she works on the computer, I’m impressed.”
“She did? Wow, that isn’t like her. I mean she usually isn’t as forthcoming with people she doesn’t know real well. That sounded rude didn’t it. Forgot I said anything.” She said embarrassed
“It wasn’t rude. I think I know what you meant. Strangers are not something she is comfortable with.”
“Exactly.” Leah agreed as she walked him to the door. “Thank you for bringing the plans over. The sooner I get started the less my mother will fret over when they will be done.”
“You have one of those too, huh?” he asked laughing
“Absolutely. You may have met her. My parents are Jacob and Pearl Newham.”
“I’m going there for dinner tomorrow night.” Nathan stated
“Well, amazing coincidence so are we. See you tomorrow.”
Nathan said his goodbyes and walked to his car. The Newham sisters were extremely talented. He had to get back to his office, he had an email to answer.