One extra benefit of attending the State Evangelism Conference is meeting all sorts of fine folks. This year’s meeting was no exception. Two of those who attended were retired pastor Otho Machen and his wife Eleonore.
Brother Otho met his wife in her native Germany while he served in the U.S. Army after World War II. She was wearing red, white and blue when he first saw her.
Later, when he proposed to her, he said, “I love you, but my first love is Jesus. The Lord called me to be a preacher, so you will be a preacher’s wife.”
Eleonore accepted his proposal, and they were married in 1947 in Syla-cauga. They have five children.
Brother Otho worked for the telephone company and served as a bivocational pastor. As the churches grew too large to be served bivocationally, he would get them to call someone else as pastor. Eleonore worked part time at Sears for 22 years to help with expenses.
He served churches in the Quad Cities area, including Pine Ridge, Valley Grove and -Nitrate City, as well as interims at Eastside and York Terrace. Later he served Tallassahatchie in Talladega County and two churches in Birmingham Association: Bluff Park (twice) and Rocky Ridge First Baptist (twice).
Brother Otho went with a group from Rocky Ridge to help with the cleanup after Hurricane Frederic hit coastal Alabama in 1979. The members of Lagoon Baptist Church in Gulf Shores asked him to become their pastor, and he resigned from the telephone company at 58 to serve there full time.
After serving at Lagoon three years, Bro. Otho had to stop because of heart problems. Later he was called back to the church, and he served until being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 1993. He resigned again, not wanting to read his sermons to the congregation. Following his diagnosis, Bro. Otho and Eleonore began playing Scrabble to give his brain exercise.
Although it has been more than seven years since his diagnosis, Bro. Otho is doing well. Eleonore said, “The Lord is still doing miracles.”
She said, “We still play Scrabble every day. It’s good for the mind.”
The game is good for Eleonore, too. “I am still learning English words,” she said. “Sometimes he beats me. We have a good time. The Lord gives us the strength to go on and the mind to praise Him. He is good to us.
“Every night we tell each other, ‘I love you!’ and ‘Goodbye; if I’m not here in the morning, I’ll see you in heaven.’ Every morning we say, ‘Hello, I love you!’ ”
What did Eleonore like about this year’s Evangelism Conference? The singing, the preaching — and the jokes! She also liked the emphasis on visitation, “Through Every Door.” She noted that through the years “the Lord made it possible for us to visit people together. I have -always enjoyed it so much.”
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