Southside Pride

Evelyn Olson, 97, is a member of Trinity Lutheran Church of Minnehaha Falls, a church that supports the Marie Sandvik Center, an inner-city mission on Franklin Avenue. This year, out of the blue, Olson decided that she would crochet scarves for the center—a more personal form of support than her usual financial contribution. Between September and December, Olson crocheted 37 long, worsted acrylic, washable, dryable neck scarves with fringes on the ends.

Olson’s son, Charlie, and daughter-in-law, Ginny, who moved in with their mother to take care of her after a long illness and unlikely recovery from pancratitis, say she loves to crochet more than anything and often gets up in the night to crochet.
Her hands, gnarled with arthritis, and unusually soft, continue to crochet as we visit. The scarves, all but two of them off-white, are piled beside her. Charlie and Ginny say that, for some reason, she doesn’t like to experiment with colors and patterns. They bought her some variegated blue yarn and some gold yarn and she made one scarf each of them and then went back to the off-white scarves with their varying lengths and widths. Ginny said that in the past her mother-in-law crocheted only for family members—tablecloths, bedspreads, afghans and doilies—and all of those things were mostly off-white, as well. I asked Evelyn—loudly, since she’s hard of hearing—why she doesn’t like to crochet things in colors and she answered, “I don’t know.” I thought she might explain that it’s easier to see whether the things get clean in the wash, or that the white reminds her of the snow falls of her childhood. But no, the way she said “I don’t know” had a hint of humor, as though the idea of having a reason was somewhat comical. Like, why do some craftspeople like working with wood and others with cloth? Well, just because. Like, why did she walk to Taylor’s Falls when she was 20? Well, because she preferred walking to driving. Just because.

Olson clowned for the camera, crocheting away in the cozy, festive, softly-lit living room of the house where Charlie was born, the house where her husband died in 1987, and the house where she wants to die. With the support of her loving children, that will most likely be possible. When they sold their house and moved in with her, at Ginny’s suggestion, Charlie converted the downstairs into an apartment for her. One or both members of the couple are always home for mealtimes and bedtime. Ginny stated, “She’s easy to care for.”

They also help her with the details of her projects. While I was there, both of them helped her untangle yarn and tie ends together. On a daily basis they make sure she has one skein at a time to work with so they don’t get jumbled. It’s evident the scarf project has only been possible because of their support.

Two days before Christmas, Charlie took the scarves over to the Marie Sandvik Center (named after the Norwegian immigrant woman who lived from 1913 to 1992 and dedicated herself to providing food, clothing, medical care and love to Minneapolis’ poor).

Two young women received scarves while Charlie was there. The other scarves were distributed as needs came up or in Christmas boxes which were given away on Christmas Eve.

Caring for Haitian Orphans

Where to begin. There’s a woman living in the Twin Cities who drifted here about 15 years ago. She came here to see something different, and to make a better life for her six children, four of them afflicted with sickle cell anemia. Their father, her husband for 14 years, was not with them.

This woman’s name is Destiny Rose Holiday, Destiny being the name she chose for herself because “I believe whatever destiny I have will be complete and fulfilled.” Compassion should be her middle name because of the generous ways she has shown people she cares about them. She has given of herself despite suffering and obstacles, and maybe even because of them. She said, “When we go through the most difficult times, that’s when we see God.”

Of all the difficulties she has known, the worst has been the illness of her four children. Doctors told her they had the worst type of sickle cell anemia. Paramedics would embrace her to comfort her because her children were in so much pain. Miraculously, her son, who was expected to live to age 18, is now 34, and one of her daughters living with the disease just gave birth.

Holidy grew up, the middle one of 10 children born to sharecropper parents, in Georgia before the Civil Rights Movement. Her mother kept her children within her sight or hearing for fear of the Ku Klux Klan. It was during the time that black people were lynched regularly and public restrooms (and everything else) were segregated. She lived in poverty without realizing it (one flour sack dress per year), but was surrounded by love, not knowing how exceptional that was, and went to church every Sunday. She had the privilege of going to school but never played with other children because she had to work in the fields. She used to stretch her head out the window at night, look at the stars, and dream. Her mother came in to check on her—she was afraid the stick would get knocked out and the window would fall on her daughter’s neck.

Holiday was shy and introverted and suffered culture shock when she got married at 15 and went to live with her husband’s relatives in Florida. After going “home to Mama” a number of times, she ended up on her own and met up with people dedicated to helping people get an education. A woman named Ernestine took her personally to sign up for school. A guy named Al told her to read newspapers for seven weeks to improve her reading. She took all kinds of classes, including sociology, vocabulary and reading at a college level.

When her mother died, life suddenly became too hard for her and she became addicted to drugs. But one day she couldn’t feel her skin when she pulled on it. She told God she was tired of doing drugs and she heard the sound of a voice telling her to “just say no.” After that, her taste and desire for drugs were gone.

Before she came to Minneapolis, she was married to a man who came from Haiti. When he took her there to visit she was overwhelmed with the poverty she saw. “I cried and cried so much. I had never seen such poverty.” In French, people asked her husband why she was crying. He told her, “If you don’t stop, they say they’ll put you in jail.”

But her tears were not idle. In Florida, 20 years ago, Holiday found a ministry to Haiti and worked through that organization. She started going to Haiti to visit orphans who lived in the mountains.

More and more her life moved in the direction of ministry. About 10 years ago, after getting settled in Minneapolis, she went to a meeting of the Spiritual Life Church in Brooklyn Center, an international evangelistic movement. Although the church is, by now, racially mixed, at that time the congregation was all white.

“God, You’ve got to be crazy! I can’t believe you’re doing this to me. I’m black, from the South, … and everything that ever came against me was white,” she said.

Nevertheless, out of the support and mentoring she received from Spiritual Life, and especially from Dr. Judy Fonora, she has done things she would never have dreamed she could do. She has traveled to at least 20 different countries and preached from the backs of flatbed trucks in Africa, preached in Israel, Jordan, Greece, Italy, Turkey, Haiti and the British Isles; stood on the mountain overlooking the place where John the Baptist was baptized; walked the Way of the Cross; and visited the Island of Patmos where John the Apostle wrote the Book of Revelations. She has cooked the best soul food she knew how, rented park buildings and provided meals for hungry people. Supporting herself with a daycare and speaking engagements, she has started radio and television broadcasts, all the while parenting six grandchildren. Her latest enterprise is “You Shall Live and Not Die International Ministries,” the church she opened in the basement of the Anodyne Coffee Shop at 43rd and Nicollet. The renovation and décor has all been done with her own money but many people have donated furniture or equipment for the sound system, the kitchen, the office and so on. The church is very pretty and makes me imagine I’m on a Carribean island.

Her ministry to orphans in Haiti continues to be a major component of her work and is probably the true heart of it. Visiting the children as often as she can, she takes them hard candy and ramen as gifts; pays to have their wells filled with clean water; buys rice and beans for them; and just spends time with them.

In February of 2003 she is planning another trip and is looking for a team of people interested in participating and contributing.

To find out more about the Haitian ministry call Pastor Holiday at 612-823-0436. Or write to her at P.O Box 7005, Minneapolis, MN 55407. To find out more about You Shall Live and Not Die, go to www.yslandministry.org or call Pastor Holiday. Worship times are Friday nights at 7 and Sunday mornings at 11. The Web site shows the schedule for her TV and radio broadcasts.

Endowment Fund Reaches Goal Before Deadline

In honor of its 75th Anniversary, Hope Lutheran Church, 5728 Cedar Avenue South, began a stewardship drive three years ago, intending to raise $75,000 by January 26, 2003. The purpose of the money was to establish an endowment fund that would provide enough interest for projects outside the church’s regular operating budget. Possible projects are: some kind of mission work outside the congregation; start-up money for mission work within the congregation, such as youth work or special music—something that might eventually become an established ministry; or emergency capital needs such as sudden roof repairs. The full $75,000 was in by December 15 and nobody knows what to make of it. At the end of November 2002 they were still $9,000 short, but enthusiasm was generated at the last minute with special offerings and “Miracle Sunday.”

When a goal as large as this one is reached ahead of schedule it becomes news. Several factors contributed to this amazing event.

First of all, the five-member endowment committee operated in a climate where stewardship is an important issue. Ginny Olson, former secretary at Hope Lutheran, said, “The stewardship committee keeps the issue in front of the everyone all the time. They emphasize the importance of giving all the time.”

Secondly, the chairman of the volunteer endowment committee, Gloria Karbo, works for the Nature Conservancy as a professional fund-raiser; her skill and experience were invaluable. As a member, along with her husband, at Hope Lutheran for 20 years, she also brought a strong emotional commitment to the church.

Thirdly, according to Karbo, peoplein this congregation of approximately 600 members were inspired on many levels. When lead gifts came in at the beginning, others were moved to follow suit. People liked the idea of being able to affect the future, to do something that will affect future generations, to do something that can touch lives “long after we’re gone.” Individuals got excited about the possibilities of finding a mission where they could become personally involved. Some members saw the money as a way of helping the church to grow. A core group of members who have gotten a lot out of Hope and love the church, wanted to give back. Some people liked the idea of making money work—giving Lutheran Brotherhood $75,000 to work with and letting that amount generate interest for Hope’s projects.

In the next several months, decisions will be made about the destination of this new income. Decisions will have to be made, too, about the process to use in making the decisions.

Karbo is very enthusiastic about the possibilities of “making Christ known through the spirit of hope.” The new funds will allow the church to reach out on a broader scale.