REMEMBERING MY FRIEND CLARA by Janet Huhn Oct. 31, 2024

In 1982 my husband, Fred, and I had just gotten back together after a nine-month separation.  During that time that we were apart I was seeking a divorce.  Fred, who had accepted Jesus to be his Lord and Savior at 19 years of age at a Billy Graham movie, had begun to attend a Pentecostal church at the invitation of friends.  I had been brought up casually in a Presbyterian church but didn’t understand about Jesus.  I believed in a God but was turned off by religion and called myself an agnostic. During a weekend self-actualization seminar called EST, on the last night of the seminar they told us that whatever we were running away from in our lives would keep coming up again until we faced it.  I believed that this was probably true, and so I chose to return to our marriage, even though it felt like we were starting at minus one thousand.

After returning home, and still feeling unsettled about our relationship, a pair of Jehovah’s witnesses knocked at the door.  I let them in and began asking them many questions which they were delighted to answer.  They would keep returning every day for several weeks, opening their Bible and showing what their scriptures had to say about whatever I asked.  However, also during that time Fred had invited me to attend Full Gospel Assembly of God church with him, so each Sunday we went to the service together.  I enjoyed standing up, swaying and dancing while clapping our hands to the upbeat music.

One Sunday a little lady approached me and said that she knew my family.  Her name was Clara Thorne, and she shared with me how her sister had been my Dad’s secretary while he was the manager of our local Coca Cola plant.  She invited me to her home for lunch.  She lived with her husband, Bill, a retired postal worker, in a quaint little bungalow on a lovely, treed corner lot (she loved feeding her birds).  It began an eight-year regular time of fellowship that we would have together (until I moved down to Maryland) at her two-person kitchen table, enjoying Clara’s signature tuna fish sandwiches made with mustard and vinegar.  Even though she was twenty years my senior, I felt very comfortable sharing with her, and she with me, and we were becoming good friends.  She was a plain and simple person (she even still hung out her sheets out on the line to dry even though she had a washer and dryer) who I would come to find contained the glory of the Eternal One in her heart.

Clara, knowing I wasn’t yet saved, was quite concerned that I was entertaining Jehovah’s Witnesses.  I would share with her what they had told me, and then she would begin to explain to me why their beliefs weren’t considered to be Christian.  I began going back and forth to my newfound JW friends and Clara, trying to figure out what they were trying to tell me.  I considered them all to be very nice people who seemed sincere and caring.

However, one Sunday after Pastor Barco had completed his Sunday sermon, he offered an altar call for anyone who would like to come forward.  I don’t remember what the message was specifically about, but I know I saw Jesus as the answer to everything.  I hesitated to go forward because I didn’t want to get into a religion, but I also couldn’t leave the church because I knew something extraordinary had just happened.  After the sanctuary was empty, I ran forward and fell to my knees.  Pastor Barco was brought back in, and he led me through my willingness and public proclamation to have Jesus be my life.  There was no need to understand all the theology; I had seen a Person, Jesus, who was my all and in all.

Now my tuna fish lunches with Clara became rich fellowship centered in Jesus, as she became my sister in the Lord.  What a wonderful foundation those times we had together were for me as a new believer.  The Lord provided exactly who I needed.  Clara had been a member of the church for about thirty years.  In the early years when her children were young, she was very involved in all the church activities and working for the Lord.   At some point she began to begin to question all that she was “doing for the Lord” and began to read books and articles about her union with Jesus, and how we first need to learn to rest in Him before He can begin to do His work through us.  She shared with me her “Union Life” magazines which she looked forward to receiving in the mail.  She also listened to “Let’s Talk About Jesus”, a daily radio program by Wayne Monbleau who shared about Jesus needing to be preeminent in all we are and do.

I’ve been remembering Clara a lot lately.  When I met her back in 1982, she wasn’t involved in any leadership capacity.  She simply would attend the Sunday and perhaps the Wednesday services.  Even though people with her years of experience were strongly encouraged to participate as elders in the church, Clara chose not to be involved.  She had learned to rest in her Lord and nourish that special relationship with Him.  It appeared on the surface, perhaps, that she wasn’t doing much for the church.  But I’m here to say she was there moving mountains for His church that He is building. She was there as His instrument as He began the extraordinary work of revealing Himself through her to me, His new babe.  I’ve heard it suggested that elders are recognized, not appointed.  I can attest to that being what happened with my dear friend, Clara.  When I get to heaven, I’m going to hug her and praise Him for sending the most perfect elder ever! 

Clara shared with me many times about her struggles with being obsessive compulsive, continual hand washing, and her fears of being near people who had cancer.  It could become a great burden to her, except that she had Jesus to turn to and be thankful for her weaknesses as she was forced back to Him and rest in His rest.  What a wonderful example!  What a wonderful elder!  Thank you for your obedience to Him, my dear Clara!  Thank you, Jesus for Your perfect plan, always!

The following is an article Clara wrote back then for Union Life Magazine….