I can still remember her "whooshing" into the church office as though she were in a great hurry to do something important. She'd stop at the secretary to give her a quick greeting and hug...usually leaving some make-up behind. Then she would continue her "whooshing" and head for me.
She would grant me the same terse greeting and hug, complete with my fated share of make-up. She would proudly announce: "I remembered!" Then she'd drop a small envelope on my desk and bid her "good-byes," while "whooshing" back out the door. She's gone now...a victim of cancer...but I still remember.
It was not always the case. One fine fall day before her first "whooshing" visit, she came into the office for something I cannot remember. But the real purpose of her visit was to ask why the church was in a tight financial situation. I explained that it often happened over the course of the summer. People go on vacations and weekend trips and do not make up the offerings from the Sundays they missed. I explained that supporting the church was not like buying a ticket for an event. We can't "pay for a ticket" when we go and not pay when we don't.
She found the whole thing hard to follow. She couldn't see how a few missed Sundays could make such a difference. She blurted out, without my asking, that she gave "about $500 a year" to the church. She added that if every family did that we wouldn't be in trouble. It was 20 or 30 years ago, and she may have been right about that amount. She was still lacking something in her stewardship education.
I asked her if she had any idea how often she attended and how often she failed to put in her offering. I had a reasonably good idea of the correct answer to both questions. She said that she came three or four times a month and always put in the same amount. I suggested that she examine it carefully by asking her elder about her attendance and the financial secretary about her offerings.
Not long after that, she made her first "whooshing" visit to the office. She had made a significant gift to the church a few Sundays earlier, but she missed the Sunday before her first "whoosh." When she came in that first time, she sort of sheepishly admitted that, because of their travels, she didn't even attend two times a month and never made up her offering. Her "$500" a year was more like $210.
"But," she announced, "this day marks the end of that. I had a long talk with Bill (her husband) and with God. Here is the offering for last Sunday." It was the first of many, many "whooshes" for many years of her generous and loving life.
(Pastor Feddersen serves as the manager of internet donor communication with The LCMS Foundation. He is the Foundation's webmaster and manager of the "Giving Catalog," where individuals can select a mission or ministry project and give online. He is also the author of "Edit-O-Earl," a weekly devotion sent by e-mail and posted on the LCMS World Mission home page.)