Welcome to Spotlight! In each issue, we focus on someone who calls Harvest Fellowship home. It may be an artist, a missionary, a businessperson, a teacher or an astronaut. In addition to our featured story, previous stories are archived here.

 

 

Subscribe to RSS Feed to be notified when new Spotlight storys are added.

 

Stay connected with your Facebook account. You can also "like" the Harvest Facebook page.


Prefer Twitter? "Follow" us on our Twitter page.

Velma Brown

For many years, Velma Brown, Pastor Paul's Mom, has been a part of Harvest Fellowship. Whether she's seeking out newcomers at the church or giving a high-five to the kids who gravitate to her, she's an encouraging, faithful woman of God. I sat down with her recently and asked some questions.
 

♦ ♦ ♦

 

bw:  Were you born and raised around Angola?

velma:  In the Lagrange/Angola area.

bw:  You lived in that area all your life?

velma:  I went to school there. We lost everything in the depression and then moved to Fort Wayne. I remember that, as a little girl, if there was a house down the block that was a little cheaper than the one we lived in, we'd move to save money. So we moved a lot.

bw:  Were your mom and dad Christians?

velma:  Mother was. My dad wasn't.

bw:  She took you to church regularly?

velma:  No. To be honest, with so many kids, mom felt she never had the clothes she would feel comfortable to go to church in. She would listen to sermons on her little radio.

bw:  But your dad wasn't interested?

velma:  No. He was raised in a church but, after he came back from World War I, he just wasn't interested.

bw:  How many brothers and sisters did you have?

velma:  Seven sisters and five brothers.

bw:  And which number were you?

velma:  The first one! I'm the oldest.

bw:  So, when did you become a Christian?

velma:  Well, if there was a church nearby, Mother would always send us to sunday school. We lived near St. Joseph Hospital In Fort Wayne. I remember walking up Calhoun Street to get to the Salvation Army school. When we lived in Lake Gage, there was a little church right across the road, so all us kids went to that.

bw:  So, when did your faith in Christ begin to play an important role in your life?

velma:  It was during the war and I was working at the old Bowser factory—I assembled gun and bomb sites. We were locked in a room as we worked because it was supposed to be secret. I was working nights, and on Good Friday, several of the churches were having services in the old Paramount Theater. Every half-hour, a different church would have a service with a different pastor and singer.

bw:  How old were you then.

velma:  I was born in 1920, so I would have been in my twenties.

bw:  And you were still single?

velma:  Oh no! I was married and already had my son, Duke. I was only 17 when Duke was born. I still remember, at the Paramount that night, there was one black woman singer and, oh man, could she sing! She sang Were You There When They Crucified My Lord, and that was it. I accepted the Lord there that night, in 1940.

bw:  Did this experience have an immediate impact on your life?

velma:  It made me want to stay home instead of going to work. I had Duke at the time, and I wanted to stay home and take care of him. After the war, my husband said one day, "Come next sunday were going to church." I don't know if I influenced him or what, but after that, we always went to church

bw: So your husband was a Christian?

velma:  Oh yeah, the kid's dad was—but not my second husband, Mr. Brown. Mr. Mowery felt like it was important for us to take the kids to church, so from then on, we did.

bw:  How did your first husband die?

velma:  He had asthma from the time he was a child, and he died of a heart attack when Paul was 3-months old.

 

 

 

PHOTO: Velma & Orell Mowery

 

 

 

bw:  How long was it then, before you married again?

velma:  Paul was 7 when I married my second husband, who was not interested in going to church. He had a wonderful Christian mother who lived church and served church, but not one of her children followed her example. I've never been able to figure that out.

bw:  It was your practice to take Duke and Paul and Sandy to church?

velma:  Yes. I remember that I wanted to have Paul baptized when he was 3-months old, and Duke carried him down the aisle to the front of the church. The kids' dad had just died, and someone told me there wasn't a dry eye in the place. We rarely missed a sunday in church. I taught sunday school from the time Mr. Mowery died until Sandy was in high school, so we were in church a lot!

bw:  Do you remember how you felt when your first husband died? Where you concerned about what would happen to you and the kids?

velma:  No, I was never concerned about that. I just knew that God would take care of us, but I made up my mind that I would stay home until Paul was a year old. The neighbor woman, whose daughter was the same age as Duke, took care of Paul until he started kindergarten. She was a Christian woman, and it worked out real well. One day, this woman's husband asked me if I wanted a job with the company he worked for. Turns out, he worked for Mr. Brown, which is how I met my second husband. I made out payroll and did office general office work.

bw:  Along the way, you and Mr. Brown fell in love?

velma:  I guess you'd call it that!

bw:  After Mr. Brown died a few years later, did you worry then?

velma:  No I didn't. Again, I just knew that God would take care of us.

bw:  When did Paul first express an interest in become a pastor?

velma:  Well, from the time he was 3 months old, he was in church. I think he was just a freshman in high school when we were going to the Mongo church and he became friends with an older boy who started taking him to the Friday night concerts at the old Adam's Apple in Fort Wayne. From that time on, Paul started going to Bible studies and became very committed to his faith.

bw:  Now that you've reached an older age, do you have any advice for the younger crowd?

velma:  One of the things I try to do is reach out to newcomers in the church. If I see someone who might be new, I try to get to them and say hello. If we aren't friendly to people, why would they want to come back to our church? When I hear people say that people aren't friendly to them, I think, you have to do your part too. You have to go half-way with people if you expect to have friends.

bw:  Now that you're 90 years old, what do you want to be when you grow up?

velma:  What do I want to be? A better person than I am, I guess. I think that's what we should all strive for.

♦ ♦ ♦

Velma has 3 children. Duke lives in California, Sandy lives in Angola and Paul is the pastor at Harvest Fellowship in Leo, Indiana. She recently celebrated her 90th birthday and lives with Paul and his wife, Sheri, in Leo. She has 9 grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren, including a brand new great granddaughter, Patagonia, born on August 24, to Paul & Sheri's daughter, Lindsay, and her husband, Matt Hawkins.

Story & Photography by Brad Wieland.

 

published 09/01/2010