Last month's column was about baseball super hero, Albert Pujols. It touched on his faith and inspiring charity work.
In vivid contrast, Clarence and Pagette are everyday people who just might live next door. The couple raised five children and one would think they've been busy enough.
But through the years, even while tending to their family, they regularly served others in the community, largely through their church.
Whenever there was a need on the part of individuals or a ministry, both Clarence and Pagette consistently made themselves available. In recent years Pagette has spearheaded their church's involvement with Special Olympics, serving families impacted by Down syndrome.
Last spring this grandmother of five joined others in a strenuous trip far up the Amazon River, into the jungles of Peru. The project was with a Christian organization that provides humanitarian services, including the digging of wells for village people desperate for clean drinking water.
Clarence and Pagette are not so unusual. In their church, and many others like it, it's common for people to sacrifice financially and to invest time and labor in serving the poor, children in need, internationals, people in crisis, the developmentally challenged, refugees - you name it.
For every famous humanitarian like an Albert Pujols, there's tens of thousands who silently serve in obscurity. Quiet heroes. Salt of the earth. People whose faith reflects Christ's wisdom that "it is more blessed to give than to receive" and who live out the Judeo-Christian ethic, "As we have opportunity, let us do good to all people..." (Acts 20:35; Galatians 6:10).
But while consistently there for others, Clarence, an engineer and manager at Boeing, has had a tendency to put off the physical upkeep of their own 70 year old North County home. Recently, Clarence and Pagette went on a rare and long-dreamt-of vacation for just the two of them. Upon their return, they were shaken by what they found.
Their grown kids and spouses greeted them in the yard and the surprise tour began. The neglected, mold-laden fence had been repaired, stripped and stained. Concrete was repaired. Sections of the yard were leveled and re-sodded. The fascia and gutters of their two story brick home were scraped and painted. Inside, the antiquated wallpaper had been removed and the walls, trim and doors, worn over the years by five energetic children and hordes of youth group kids, were repaired and stylishly repainted. Carpeting replaced. New wood flooring. Banisters stripped and re-stained. The ancient leaking basement was gutted and sealed. Furniture refinished. And on and on.
Over thirty volunteers, largely unrelated, had spontaneously jumped in to help, having simply observed the couple's lives over the years. Naturally, during their tour, tears were flowing. All that was missing was a stirring musical soundtrack.
I doubt Clarence and Pagette will ever again be able to watch "Extreme Makeover," or the moving but fictional Christmas classic, "It's a Wonderful Life," without being gripped by the memory of this real life tribute to their own quiet lives - lives consistently oriented toward others.
Neither will I.
Pastor Bob Levin serves at North County Community Church, 7410 Howdershell Road in Hazelwood. He can be reached at bob_levin@sbcglobal.net.
