The Heart Part
I had the blessing to go and visit a friend of mine, Mrs. Alice, to get a story. I like to talk to someone to get the “feel.” After all, I don’t write articles, I write the “heart part.” I wanted the “heart part” of why she and her late husband, Mr. Dean, gave an endowment to Pine Valley United Methodist Church. We socially distanced in her garage and driveway. Mrs. Alice is a friend of mine so it was fun and I knew we would laugh a lot.
It did not take long to hear what kind of person Mr. Dean was. He was a godly man and very quiet. If you know Alice Morton, you know she tells it like it is! She kept telling me what a good man he was, and she didn’t know how he put up with her. She said, “in 54 years, we never had an argument!” I said, “Mrs. Alice!” We were both laughing so hard. Then she said, “Dean said it takes two to argue, and he wasn’t going to, so I had to do all the arguing by myself! I would tell him if he would just give me one word, I could beat it to death for 30 minutes!” He always said, “I’ll talk when I have something to say.” We laughed and shed tears talking about their marriage, their life, their church, and their spiritual life. While we laughed a lot, the tears came when we could see God’s goodness, and we were overcome with gratitude. It all came from Him anyway. Gratefulness and joy brought tears, knowing that we belong to God, and our loved ones have gone on to be with our Heavenly Father, and we will all be together again.
In 1969 the Morton family came to PVUMC when they moved from Norfolk to Wilmington. Years later, Mr. Dean and Mrs. Alice sold their business, and they set up an endowment for PVUMC. When you hear about an endowment, you usually hear there is a good income tax break, but, like Mr. Dean, we are talking about the heart part. He believed God had blessed him with the sale of his business, and he wanted to share it. The Dean Morton Evangelism Endowment was established. Mr. Dean wanted the sole purpose of the endowment to be evangelism. Evangelism is the spreading of the Christian gospel by public preaching or personal witness. Mrs. Alice said spreading the gospel was most important to her husband! He always wanted to bring people into the church. Mark 16:15, “He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.” She said through the years, he had been contacted to see if they could use the money to buy a new air conditioner or something else, but he always said no. Evangelism! She said they asked for only the interest of the lump sum to be used every year to share the gospel. This means this is an on-going endowment for evangelism for years to come. Over and over, I heard how Mr. Dean believed that all good things come from God. He had been blessed and knew it was already God’s. He loved to share. 2 Corinthians 9:7, “Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”
Mr. Dean had always wanted to go into the ministry, so having retired, he had the opportunity to go to divinity school! He became a pastor in Kelly, NC, for nine years. Pastor Tim did a revival there for him and said he knew Mr. Dean loved evangelism! Eventually, the Mortons got to come back to their home church - PVUMC - as associate pastor for four years. His framed picture is in the fellowship hallway! They even had a “Dean day” when he retired! Mr. Dean passed away in 2009, but his legacy lives on along with his endowment legacy.
So what do we do with some of that money? We share God’s Word through television spots of PVUMC services on local channels. Mrs. Alice loves the blue PVUMC bags that are given to the UNCW students and the PVUMC ink pens. The money also purchased (prior COVID) a booth at the Azalea festival to give the blue bags and pens with information about PVUMC. Those same bags are given out at trunk or treat. We talked about what Mr. Dean would love about PVUMC now, and immediately Mrs. Alice said, “the growth!” And he would love the blue bags! She said she loves how Pastor Tim and Mark have done so much with the endowment.
While visiting, I was introduced to two of Mrs. Alice’s neighbors. She wanted me to meet them because she has been inviting them to church. Matthew 9:37-38, “Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” Mr. Dean wasn’t the only one who wanted to “bring them in” or loved his church, so does Mrs. Alice! Thank you to the Morton’s for honoring the Lord with their ongoing gift to PVUMC. Proverbs 3:9, “Honor the Lord with your wealth, the firstfruits of all your crops…” Your life and legacy continue to connect hearts to Christ and one another!