Only God Needs Boys
Child’s first sentence: “Jesus loves me.” That’s written in my baby book. Think God was at work then? When I was 6 or 7, I remember standing in Bethel EUB church and hearing the pastor ask my two brothers if they might become pastors one day. Why not me? The pastor’s response: “Oh honey, God only needs boys.”
So I followed my dream to become an elementary school teacher to Malone College where Deuber Avenue United Methodist Church sent a bus to pick up three or four students for church. There, W.A. Amerson and his wife Virginia had a powerful impact on my life, as well as Dennis and Debbie Rinehart. They modeled for me what unconditional love was all about. During a Sunday evening service, when the altar call came, it was for those being led into pastoral ministry. I found myself at the altar, and remember W.A. talking to me that maybe God was calling me to be a pastor’s wife, not a pastor. W.A. had difficulty back then with the concept that God might call a woman. I too had that struggle, for there were no women pastors in my history. How could God want me to be a minister?
I continued with my college degree, volunteered at the church, and upon graduation and application to seminary, I discovered that I needed a letter of recommendation from my pastor. He struggled with writing such a letter. So, I continued to work at Aultman Hospital, I volunteered at Deuber for various ministries, and I knocked on his door asking for the letter. Nearly a year later, he consented, and I was off to Ashland Theological Seminary at a time when some of the professors and students just couldn’t accept women in ministry.
And the struggle continued. A week of silent retreat at a Franciscan Convent was the confirmation needed for my call. Time spent studying the scriptures, praying, arguing with God: “I’d go to some far-off place and be a missionary, but please God, don’t ask me to get up in front of people and preach.” And it was in a moment in the chapel alone with God, that I heard the Lord say, “Donna, give me your life, and I will show you what we will do.” From then on, there was no doubt in my life concerning my call.
Still having never experienced a woman preacher, I discovered Sally O’Donnell, a pastor not to far from Ashland. I went to one of the services at her church, and I remember the cathartic moment, sitting in the back pew (a good UM tradition) and crying through the entire service. To visually see God’s call lived out in the life of a woman -- God works in amazing ways! Only God knew that 30 years later, Sally would be my district superintendent.
Rev. Donna J. Van Trees, Tiffin Ebenezer UMC, Fireland District
