Tearing Down And Building Up Part 1
As most of you know, it has been determined that Pine Valley United Methodist Church’s Building B must be demolished due to safety and security issues. Through your stories, I have learned that you did call it “Building B,” but it is so much more than a building. I like how Linda Gregson, PVUMC Wee Care Preschool Director, said it, “So many memories! It’s not just a building but people’s beginnings where they put prayers to build it, and then where marriages began, babies were baptized, children were taught about Jesus, Wee Care began ...it’s not just a building.” I know that is how many of you feel, so let’s celebrate how God has used this place of worship for 59 years!
I shared, in an earlier blog, the letter that Pastor Tim received from Rev. Belton Joyner, the founding minister of PVUMC. Rev. Joyner shared the bulletin from the groundbreaking on June 11, 1961. The call to worship that day was, “Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name; bring an offering and come into His courts.” This comes from Psalm 96:8, “Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; bring an offering and come into his courts.” His name is glorious and excellent because He is perfect. Because of His great works. Because of all of the blessings He has poured on PVUMC, is pouring on PVUMC, and will continue to pour on PVUMC!. He is due, and it is our duty to give Him glory. Only a few of our staff members were at PVUMC in the beginning, but Theresa Meares, Bookkeeper, said when she was a little girl, she went to Brownies in Building B. Shirley McLeod, Food Services Coordinator, told us, “lots of memories of my kids and church family in that old building.”
Thanks to those of you who shared your memories and glory sightings from Building B!
Julia Pindell wrote, “The original sanctuary at PVUMC was the ‘saw-toothed’ building. The interior was an open two-story rectangular space with a small loft at one end. The loft was for the choir and piano. The choir was three or four volunteers, and when it was time to collect the offering, Rev. Belton Joyner would step down from the pulpit, run to the far end of the room, up the stairs and join the choir. Then when the offertory was over, he would reverse the process, back to the pulpit and complete the service.”
“The original kitchen for PVUMC was a very modest one, furnished with an average residential stove and refrigerator. The youth group, back in the 1960s, included present members, Mike and Linda Page, Yvonne and David Culp, and Steve Wilkie. They wanted to have a spaghetti supper as a fundraiser for outreach. We made the sauce at homes in several batches. The teens prepared salad, tea, and lemonade and planned to cook the noodles at the church to serve hot. What we didn’t realize was that a commercial size pot of water on a residential stove will take a couple of hours to boil. This found us scrambling to find smaller saucepans to boil water quickly as our first customers began to arrive. The supper was a success, but a chef gave us the tip to cook noodles ahead, freeze them and drop in hot water before serving.”
Linda Page shared, “Mike and I were married in Bldg. B when it was the sanctuary - Aug. 31, 1968. Rev. Al Morris was the minister. We filled up that warm little sanctuary with our relatives and friends. The choir of about 8-12 sang from the balcony because there was no room downstairs. Jack Pindell was our Choir Director. Jack and Julia were also the youth counselors back then (called the MYF - Methodist Youth Fellowship). The younger kids once put on a play downstairs but used the MYF as the speakers. My voice was the part of a loud little kid who yelled out ‘Pregnant!’ when they were describing Mary.”
The Nunalees moved to Wilmington and decided to visit churches near our Pine Valley Estates home. We visited PVUMC (they only had one building, later called Building B). Dean Morton and Louie Clark were greeters that Sunday and they visited us the next week. Al Morris was the pastor. The church was so welcoming, so friendly. We never visited anywhere else! We joined and have happily been members for over 47 years.
The church office was the first room on the right. It housed the pastor and the secretary. The main part of the building was built in 1961, and four classrooms were added in 1968. At some point, Pastor Lovell Aills moved into the second room on the right, making a nice large office. The pastor's office remained there through the building of the new sanctuary (1974) and the new Fellowship Hall building (1986), at which time pastor Billy Seate moved into his new FH office. At some point, the secretary (Marie Sammons) needed a larger, nicer desk, and Tom had an extra one at Cross Seed Co., which he donated to the church. Then some years later, the church was going to get rid of that desk, and Tom bought it for $50 and still uses it in his office.”
During the breaking of the ground in 1961, the minister said, “That a church may rise here in which the Gospel of her Lord shall be proclaimed.” I believe PVUMC is a church in which the Gospel of the Lord is proclaimed, 59 years later! I pray that we will continue to be guided and governed by the Holy Spirit and that people will know that PVUMC is a place where they can come and call upon Jesus!