The old parsonage was a rather large two story house, with an unfinished upstairs and an open stairway leading to it. With absolutely no insulation and a lap-side covering, which was common in those days, it would have been impossible to heat. With donated labor, and Addison Collins as the faithful supervisor, the metal roof was removed the top story taken off and another bedroom and a breakfast room added to the downstairs. Water from the well was piped into the kitchen and a pitcher pump installed at the end of a sink. The Vienna Church bought electric wiring and fixtures and sent out volunteers to install it. Somewhere we secured wall paper for the house and Troy and I did our first job of wall papering. No matter that the seams did not always match on the rough, canvas covered walls. It was clean! In three months time we moved in and we did not have a single leak in the second hand metal roof, which was returned to the building.

We had stored our furniture in the attic of the Dicksons, who were neighbors, and also members of the Vienna Church. They had five daughters from about five years to thirteen or fourteen. I often helped the older girls with their school homework, and the family visited us in later years. We had foresight enough to hang onto our possessions, instead of selling them for a pittance when we left for the seminary. The only thing we sold was our living room rug. When we got straightened up I was happy with the result, with the exception of that bare floor. We visited a lady who had moved in with her parents and she told us she had a rug which she would like to sell. We looked at it and after measuring found that it would almost completely cover our floor. She asked $10.00 for it, but alas! We did not have the $10.00! Not even one dollar that we felt we could spare. We did not have nerve enough to ask her to wait for the money.

I kept thinking and praying about that rug. A short time later Troy had a wedding and the young people gave him $2.00. By tradition all wedding fees went to the ministers wife for her pin money and I put that precious $2.00 away to help on the rug. I never seemed able to add to it but one morning I said to Troy, "I am going to ask Mrs.(?) if she would be willing to take $7.00 for that rug." Troy asked, "Where are you going to get $7.00?" 1 replied, "I have the $2.00 from the wedding and I think I will get the other five before long. We really need that rug to make the room look nicer for guests and weddings."

That day I wrote a note and sent it to school by Marion, to give to the son of the rug lady, making the offer of the $7.00. She sent a note back the next day that we could have it for that price. That same day when Troy came home from the post office he had a letter with a $5.00 bill in it. With it was a note which said "When I was having my devotions this morning the Lord told me to send you this." Was our faith strengthened? Of course! We had prayers answered before in just as dramatic a fashion, through some of God's children!

We never seemed to have any money for anything except basic needs, but we never had to go hungry. Some uneducated preacher of the past had convinced these country people that it was wrong to take up an offering during the church service. That would somehow spoil the worship experience! Each church had one or two people from each congregation called, "stewards." These especially appointed people were supposed to raise the money for the pastor's salary by soliciting funds from the different members. They could pass a hat for the other expenses of the church and did not realize how inconsistent were their beliefs. What they gave through the stewards counted on the salary, but sometimes someone would hand us a few dollars as a gift. If it had not been for these gifts which seemed to come when most needed we could not have survived on this circuit. When we heard from friends at the Vienna Church, the letters would many times have a dollar bill or occasionally five dollars would be enclosed.

Since we had to watch every penny we spent we always had oatmeal for breakfast. The worst part of this was that we did not have cow's milk to use on it. All of us hated the taste of canned milk. I would cook the oatmeal very thin and it was not bad with brown sugar and toast. After several months of this the McVays, who were neighbors  and members of our Big Run Church, started sharing with us a quart of milk a day. Marion had gotten so used to eating his breakfast cereal without milk that he did not like it with milk.

The McVay family had two small boys. Billy was between three and four years of age and Bobby a little less than five. The boys were playing "church" one day and their mother, Pearl, listened in on the conversation. Bobby said to his brother, "Billy, you pray and then I will preach." Both little fellows knelt on the floor, beside their chairs, and Billy prayed "Oh, Lord, send us something to eat" He hesitated a short time than continued, "But don't send us any old 'taters.  I'm tired of old taters!"

The churches were each assessed so much each year on the pastor's salary and to help finance the work of the state conference and the denomination as a whole. The lay people were usually concerned about the salary and the work of the local church, but not very worried about raising the money for denominational expenses. This fund was called the "Benevolent Fund," and it was usually up to the pastor to see that it was paid. It was a "black mark" against the pastor more than the laity* if this was not raised. We paid a tithe of everything we received into this fund and Troy collected the remainder from the members.
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* Laity - (Gr. laos, "the people"; whence laikos, "one of the people"). Laity means the body of the faithful, outside of the ranks of the clergy.


On one of the later charges we served there were an elderly, unmarried brother and sister who lived together. While Troy was calling in their home he asked if they could spare some money on Benevolences. Etta went to her purse and handed him a $10.00 bill. Peter, who had been taking part in the conversations, although somewhat hard of hearing made no move toward his wallet. His sister raised her voice and said, "Peter, the preacher would like some money on the Benevolences." Peter said, "Hay?" and Etta repeated her statement. Still Peter could not hear. Etta, in a very loud and fine voice said "Give the preacher some money on the Benevolent Fund." Peter took out his wallet and extracted $5.00, which he handed Troy and his sister said quietly, "Peter can hear what he wants to hear."