Pastor Joe Arellano welcomes Hope Hellige (seated), Sandy McCollum (in yellow) and Mildred Rempe into the Ft. Madison Adventist Church on profession of faith. Photo by Harry Scanlan.
I was baptized into the Seventh-day Adventist Church in October 1967 at the Marshalltown (IA) Church. What brought me to attend a Saturday keeping church after already being baptized into a Sunday keeping church? “The perfect girl.” If I wanted to see Sharon on Saturday, I had to go to church with her. I obliged, but struggled with some of the doctrines that were drastically different from what I was raised to believe.
In time Sharon Reid became Sharon Scanlan. As I got to know my new mother-in-law, Gen, I learned about Grandma Hendrix, who was “a sermon in apron strings,” as Gen put it. Grandma Hendrix was a loving woman who led Gen to Christ and the Adventist Church. Grandma Hendrix would feed her neighbors and the local hobos during the Great Depression. If she didn’t have the food or money, she would borrow it so no one went hungry.
My wife and I are now members of the Ft. Madison Church and in 2011 we were asked to take over a Bible study (for someone who was moving away) with a lady who had learned of our church from watching 3ABN. We began studying with her weekly at the retirement facility where she lived.
One day while leaving after our study my wife thought she recognized someone. She approached the woman and asked if she was Bud McCreedy’s sister. Indeed, the woman said she was Bud’s sister, Hope Hellige. Bud, who passed away 10 years prior, had been an elder in our church and my mentor and dear friend.
We chatted with Hope for an hour about her life and how she had been baptized into the Adventist Church at age 10 but stopped attending when she got married. As we were leaving Hope expressed her wish to rejoin the Adventist Church after being away for more than 70 years. She started attending our Bible study and invited a friend to join us. Hope rejoined the Adventist Church on May 24 along with Sandy McCollum.
Here’s the fun twist. Grandma Hendrix led an estimated 50 people to Christ—one being Sandy McCollum many years ago. As I learned more about Grandma Hendrix it turns out she is not related to my wife at all. She was the real grandmother of Hope Hellige and Bud McCreedy. God has an awesome way of bringing people together in His name!
This article was written by Harry Scanlan, a member of the Ft. Madison (IA) Church. It was also published in the December 2014 print edition of OUTLOOK.
