Day 793: 5 Minute Freewrite: Sunday - Prompt: stovetop
Magdalena Thornton, born Milano, was a widow who had lost none of her cooking skills.
“The Lord told me to keep them up … He knew that He would have stovetop evangelism for me to be doing later on.”
A year after her husband's death, she had found a job in a non-officer clerical position as one of three secretaries to then-Commissioner Thomas of the Big Loft, VA police … she alone, of those secretaries and the commissioner himself, retained her position. She had survived quite a disaster (how big? Check out Black, White, and RED All Over, first published on Steemit, now on Amazon!), and the stress was tremendous still.
However, that job had led her to discover the Church in the Midst of Life, to be able to walk there for spiritual refreshment on her lunch break, and to meet Mrs. Onyx Baxter, wife of one of the co-pastors, and the founder of the church's battered women's ministry.
“Good food is part of the love of Christ – put me in to contribute on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.”
And so, Mrs. Thornton did stovetop evangelism – the women coming to eat her world-class Italian cooking doubled the ministry in size, which meant more women in need than ever were able to receive temporal help in a Christian environment, which also led to them being open to hear the saving gospel of Jesus Christ, how His death on the cross for sins, His burial, and resurrection would avail them for salvation for time and eternity if they put their trust in Him.
One more thing had happened on Mrs. Thornton's job that made her stovetop work easier and more joyful; she had met someone there who, once he found out, would never let her and her cousin Margie move heavy pans again, before or after bringing food to the church.
“Y'all moved how many pans, and I live right upstairs?” said Captain Henry Fitzhugh Lee, Mrs. Thornton's professional colleague at BLVD, her neighbor one flight up, and the man intent on making her name Mrs. Maggie M. T. Lee as soon as their professional relationship ended. “Y'all have a perfectly good Southern gentleman around who will soon officially be family to you, but y'all want to pull muscles. I would be insulted if I didn't intend to do something about it.
“The past is the past. Y'all are never doing that foolishness again, not as long as I am at home in this building. I get up at 5:00 and will be at your door at 6:30 on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday with a dolly or rolling table. I will roll up to the Church in the Midst of Life at 5:30pm with the same unless my official duties require overtime – in which case I'll make other arrangements that do not involve y'all breaking a single nail. You, Maggie, are too precious to me, to the commissioner, and to a whole bunch of people for you to be overdoing – and on behalf of my cousin Hoppy, Ms. Margie, the same goes for you too.”
And so, Mrs. Thornton, soon enough to be Mrs. Lee, continued her stovetop evangelism with more joy than ever, knowing the Lord was going to end her widowhood with a husband who understood all about it and insisted on supporting it!
Photo by Le Creuset on Unsplash