I’ve worked all summer — mowing yards, trying to save enough money to fix my wife’s teeth. I plan to work next summer to finish paying for her teeth.”
Hard work was nothing new for L.C. Jones. After decades of laboring in sewing factories, he was accustomed to sweating it out for the sake of his family. The blazing Texas heat wasn’t going to hold him back from earning enough so that his wife could get her teeth.
Even at age 86.
L.C. and his wife, Jerry, were married in March 1947. Four years later, they would come to faith in Christ and then answer a call to ministry in 1952, a call they were faithful to for 43 years.
“Most of my pastorates were bivocational,” L.C. recalled. “Some churches could hardly pay a small amount and none of them could contribute to a retirement plan. I never pastored any church — never considered any church — based on what money they paid. I just took what they offered and that satisfied me. Moving [around], I had to take whatever work I could find to support my family. That was just a fact. Most of the time, I worked in sewing factories as a maintenance man. In those days, no matter what town you went to, there was a sewing factory.”
But it was now 2012 and there were no more pastorates for the Joneses. No more sewing factories. And no extra money available for dental work — except for what L.C. earned that summer mowing yards. That’s what prompted him to share his story.
Mission:Dignity, a ministry of GuideStone Financial Resources, responded with an emergency grant that helped provide for her dental work and other medical bills. It was in addition to the regular monthly assistance they had been receiving since 1999.
L.C. remembered how their grant started.
“My wife saw an article in our state Baptist paper years ago about help for pastors like me. We applied and started receiving help. That made a lot of difference in our lives. We could stop at Dairy Queen and get a hamburger occasionally.”
The extra resources still make a difference for L.C. since Jerry’s death two years ago.
“I get a $913 Social Security check, and it’s hard to live on that. Sometimes you have different occasions come up when you’d like to go out and eat or something, but you can’t do that on $913 a month.”
Mission:Dignity assists more than 1,800 retired Southern Baptist ministers, workers or their widows in need. Individuals and couples who meet guidelines for income, assets and years of paid Southern Baptist service are eligible for $225–$600 per month.
“I’m more thankful for the opportunity to pastor than I am for the help I receive,” L.C. said. “It was a privilege to be the pastor for these people. I may not remember all of them, but I haven’t forgotten pastoring them.”
For more information, visit MissionDignity.org. (GuideStone)
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