Janice begins our week with people who have made a difference in not just my life but in the lives of many. These are people who, I am sure, didn't even know they made a difference. Unlikely people!
Janice was 4 years older than me and was the 8th child. She was somewhere in the middle and being the oldest of the younger ones it became her job to take us kids to school and Sunday school. Janice would take me with her when she did her odd jobs. Mrs. Johnson was an invalid. Her furniture and food indicated she had money. She had bananas! We never had bananas! I took a bite of Mrs. Johnson’s banana just as Janice was taking her tray into her. Immediately she saw a bite missing and I couldn’t go anymore. Mrs. Gilmore who lived behind us was bedridden and talked a lot on the old fashioned telephone that seem to be attached to her ear. Janice cleaned bird cages and oil lamps for her. Every night she would boil potatoes that she got out of the eerie dirt basement and Mrs. Gilmore would drink the potato water before Janice mashed the potatoes. Janice always seem to have a job. One Easter she bought me an outfit. She was always generous to me and the other kids. Although she didn’t like it, she let me have the black skirt and white blouse.
After we moved to California Mom told Janice, who was thirteen, to find a church. It was just us little kids that went with Janice. She found a little church on the corner of 147th and Larch, that on the outside looked like a factory. The first Sunday morning we attended, there were five of us. Janice, Layton, me, Joyce and Lynn. The pastor greeted us at the door and took us inside. He introduced us at the beginning of Sunday School morning exercises and again at the morning worship service. We were invited to attend the Friday night potluck. That was the beginning of becoming a part of this family of God that has extended everywhere I have gone.
After I married and had two babies, Janice and I became friends. Jennifer was born during the all cotton era and her little dresses had to be ironed. I was so happy that she had so many clothes. However, I just stuck the ironing into a closet and it began to pile high. Of course it wasn’t all Jennifer’s but Danny’s, Jim’s and mine. Janice suggested she would come and help me iron. She came prepared with her own iron and ironing board. Took us several days, but the job was accomplished. So I loaded up my iron and ironing board and headed to her house and we brought her ironing in check. Joetta along with Clara, Lee’s wife, and Mom decided they needed that kind of help so we grew and went from house to house and caught up the ironing while Mom mended.
I don’t think Janice realized, that even though she didn’t want to, she tried to do what she was told. Have you ever thought; "I wouldn’t be here at this moment, if it hadn’t been for" - you fill in the blanks. I am grateful, when I think about Janice finding that little church and Mom making us go. I thank the Lord everyday for Janice and Mom who directed my paths to the church. I believe that through some of the directions I took in my life, were caused by the influence of this church family.
God has taken some of the most unlikely people to do some extraordinary things. In the Old Testament, the more prominent ones were Moses, Esther, David, Abraham and Lot to name a few. In the New Testament we find the twelve, Paul and all those that walked with him. We have learned of Martha and Mary, sisters who lived in Bethany and who shared their home with the Savior and Lazarus whom He raised from the dead. In Mark 14:8 Jesus talks about Mary after she anointed Him with expensive spices; "She has done what she could"! What an epitaph! You could say about Janice as a young girl; "She did what she was told"! God blesses those who do His will, willingly or otherwise and those who are influenced by it! Janice did what she was told to do but as for me, I am thankful for what she did. By Jane Ann Crenshaw 2/3/08
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