A pastor and his wife were assigned to their first ministry to reopen a church in Cuba. They arrived in early November. They were excited about their new opportunities. When they saw their church, it was in a bad state and needed renovation. They set a goal to have everything done on time before their first service on Christmas Eve.
They repaired pews, plastered walls, painted, etc. It was on the 19, December that a terrible Tempest - a driving rainstorm hit the area and lasted for two days.
The pastor went to the church after three days. His heart sank when he saw the roof had leaked, causing a large damage to the plastered area. What ever they had repaired were all damaged. The roof had collapsed off the front wall of the sanctuary just behind the pulpit.
The pastor cleaned up the mess on the floor. Not knowing what to do, he postponed the Christmas Eve and headed home... On the way he noticed that a local business was having a flea market sale for charity so he stopped in. Amongst the displayed items, there was a beautiful, handmade, ivory colored, crocheted tablecloth with exquisite work, fine colors and a cross embroidered right in the center. It was just the right size to cover up the hole in the front wall of the church that was damaged because of the Tempest. He bought it and headed back to the church.
By this time it had started to snow. An older woman running from the opposite direction was trying to catch the bus, but she missed it. The pastor invited her to wait in the warm church for the next bus that was scheduled 45 minutes later.
She sat in a pew and paid no attention to the pastor while he got a ladder, hangers, etc., to put up the tablecloth as a wall tapestry. The pastor could hardly believe how beautiful it looked and it covered up the entire problem area. Then he noticed the woman walking down the center aisle. Her face was like a sheet... 'Pastor,' she asked, 'where did you get that tablecloth?'
The pastor explained. The woman asked him to check the lower right corner to see if the initials, GOD were crocheted. They were. These were the initials of the woman, and she had made this tablecloth forty-five years before, in Jamaica. The woman could hardly believe it, as the pastor told how he got the tablecloth. The woman explained that before the war she and her husband were well-to-do people in Jamaica. When the Nazis came, she was forced to leave. Her husband was going to follow her the next week. He was captured, sent to prison and never saw her husband or her home again.
The pastor wanted to give her the tablecloth; but she made the pastor keep it for the church. The pastor insisted on driving her home that was the least he could do for her. She lived on the other side of Staten Island and was in Havana for a housecleaning job only for a day.
After three days, the Pastor organised Christmas service. They had a wonderful service on Christmas Eve. The church was almost full. The music and the spirit were great. At the end of the service, the pastor and his wife greeted everyone at the door and many said that they would return. An old man, whom the pastor recognized from the neighborhood, continued to sit in one of the pews and stared. The pastor wondered why he wasn't leaving. Suddenly, the man asked Pastor, where did he get the tablecloth that was on the front wall, because it was identical to the one that his wife had made years ago when they lived in Jamaica before the war and how could there be two tablecloths so much alike?
He told the pastor how the Nazis came, how he forced his wife to flee for her safety and he was supposed to follow her, but he was arrested and put in a prison. He never saw his wife or his home again all these forty-five years in between.
The pastor asked the old man, if he would allow him to take him for a ride. They drove to Staten Island and to the same house where the pastor had taken the woman three days earlier. He helped the man climb the six flights of stairs to the woman's apartment, knocked the door. The old man saw the greatest Christmas reunion he could ever imagine.