July 22, 2002
FLOWER POWER: Sanctuary flowers born again
___By George Henson
___Staff Writer
___Sunday's decorations can become Monday's bouquets of blessings, two churches on opposite ends of the state have learned.
___Both First Baptist Church of Amarillo and First Baptist Church of Texarkana have perennial flower ministries that blossomed out of their worship preparations.
___The Amarillo church has been delivering altar flowers to hospital patients and home-bound members for almost 20 years. The Texarkana church has been doing the same for 24 years.
___Both churches' flower ministries are led by veterans. Ora Mae Bartlett has been chairwoman of the Texarkana flower committee for 18 years. Wilma Tomes has led the flower ministry in Amarillo since its inception.
MEMBERS of the flower committee at First Baptist Church of Amarillo pose with some of their creations prepared for distribution on a recent week.
___Flower committee members never are in short supply, said Larry Sims, associate pastor at First Baptist Church in Texarkana. "This is not a rotating committee. These ladies don't want to leave after a few years. This committee is not one where we ever have to go looking for members."
___Lila Cockrell, one of the Texarkana church's newest flower committee members, certainly isn't looking to go anywhere. "I just love fresh flowers, visiting people and making them happy, and just seeing the awesomeness of the Creator," she said.
___"This is definitely a God-given ministry," Cockrell continued. "It's one of those things where you think it's going to be nice to do something for someone and you wind up being the one who is blessed."
___Both Tomes and Bartlett agreed that those who become a part of the ministry stick with it because it feels so good to help people at a time when they need a blessing.
___"It's really a rewarding ministry," Bartlett said. "It thrills people to death just to be remembered more than anything."
___"We feel like it's a very worthwhile ministry," Tomes agreed. "Our members, it's been going on so long, they expect and appreciate the flowers when we deliver them on Monday."
___Numerous thank-you notes bear out the appreciation recipients feel for the ministry.
___"I hope you know that your ministry brings a lot of beauty into an otherwise drab and impersonal room," Ruth Dawson wrote to the flower committee in Amarillo. "I was able to see the sanctuary flowers on TV, and I knew I could look forward to an arrangement of my own on Monday."
___Both ministries include a similar card with the flowers. It says, "These flowers have been in the sanctuary of First Baptist Church. They were present when the hymns were sung. They were present when the sermon was preached and the prayers were offered. Now they come to you, and in their silent way are telling you of God's love and healing power and the prayers of the members of this church that you will be blessed with faith, health, hope and happiness."
___That the flowers were included in Sunday services is important to many who receive the bouquets, said Robby Barrett, minister of education at First Baptist Church in Amarillo. "They don't feel like they're receiving leftovers, but that they're receiving something that's very special."
___On some Mondays, the flowers are given only to church members in the hospital. But when the arrangements outnumber the patients, other patients are given arrangements. Sometimes those visits are the most special, participants said, because those people were not expecting anything. And sometimes that small gesture leads to a relationship with the church.
___This ministry is a means of caring for people that almost any church could do, Barrett said. For many years, the Amarillo church performed its flower ministry at no additional expense.
___"For the first 12 or 13 years, we did not buy a vase," Tomes said. "Members would bring us vases they had around the house. When we took flowers to someone, they would usually bring the vase back to us--usually with two or three more to go with it. They generally came in two or three at a time, but the Lord always provided." A local florist gave them ribbon to tie around the vases for decoration.
___Florists in Texarkana also give the church leftover flowers from big flower-giving holidays like Valentine's Day. These flower windfalls are then arranged in vases for the church's homebound members.
___"It's just an incredible ministry that touches a lot of lives," Sims said.
___Bartlett remembers when she first began working in the flower ministry many years ago, church members brought large juice cans to use as vases. She would cover them in foil and attach ribbons--and recipients were just as proud to get them.
___"This would be a good ministry for any church," she said. "We don't have a lot of training. This is more of a learn as you do thing."
___She's also learned it's a bless-as-you-go thing as well.
___
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