Ferndale widow contributes time, talents to church

BY SANDRA K. REABUCK
The Tribune-Democrat

December 14, 2007 10:41 pm

— Wilma Dale of Ferndale could easily be described as one of Jesus’ tireless workers, ready to serve Him – in prayer, song, making gobs or volunteering as a puppeteer.
The energetic, 73-year-old widow hardly has time to take a breath as she squeezes in myriad church and family activities, including visits to out-of-town children and grandchildren.
Her religious activities are centered around Franklin Street United Methodist Church in downtown Johnstown. She’s been a member since 1962 – shortly after she and her husband, Bob, moved here.
It was only by chance they ended up at that church. An acquaintance, the late Earl Hunt, picked up the Dales and their children and drove them one Sunday to the church for worship.
“He just put us all in his car and took us there. And I’ve been there ever since,” she said.
Going to a Methodist church came naturally for the Clearfield County native. Her father, a coal miner, was active in a Clearfield Methodist church and made sure she and her two brothers attended church and Sunday school.
As a youngster, she began singing in a church choir and went back to that choral heritage in 1990 at Franklin Street.
It was after joining the downtown church that Dale began working on a kitchen crew for many years helping to cook and serve succulent turkey dinners, a fundraising activity for the church.
“I have the scars to prove it – from burns,” she said with a chuckle. “Once I started a fire when a pan split open as I opened an oven door, and the juice started dripping down. All of a sudden there were flames.”
But the quick-thinking woman averted a disaster by covering the turkey with a lid and putting the fire out.
In more recent years, she’s been a member of the “Gob Team” – making those luscious gobs, the small round cakes with icing in the middle. Her assignment: Mixing the cake batter.
The gobs are sold to raise money for mission trips by church members to a sister church in Lithuania and to Mississippi to assist Hurricane Katrina victims as they rebuild houses.
But all is not kitchen work. It turns out she’s an entertainer too as a puppeteer with The Puppet Company of Franklin Street. “We bring a message of God to any place we’re asked,” Dale said.
The puppeteers have performed for youth and senior groups, in Sunday services and at the New Year’s Eve Celebration Johnstown!
“I’ve been known to put up the wrong puppets, lose my place in the script and get the giggles,” she laughed.
The “entertainer” side may have started when she told jokes in high school minstrels.
But another activity also brings a lot of joy to her and others – the Eucharist ministry of taking communion to shut-ins once a month.
“They’re always glad to see us and are so grateful,” she said.
The partaking of the bread and wine – juice at Franklin Street – is an important part of Dale’s spiritual life.
“I re-dedicate myself to what the Lord wants me to do. I do feel a connection to God,” Dale said.
Dale also has been active in the United Methodist Women, serving as president of both her church group and the UMW in the Johnstown District. The women raise thousands of dollars for mission work.
Although she doesn’t call herself a born-again Christian, Dale said, “I’m sure at some point in our lives we were born again to give our life to Jesus. I feel a great connection to Him because I’ve experienced a vision, and I know there are angels.”
That happened in 1991 when she turned to God in prayer for a healing for her husband, who was ill and in pain for several months.
“I told him I can’t do this any longer. I took my Bible to the dining room table and said, “Whatever healing, I accept,” she recalled.
At that point, she suddenly saw “two angels, and the message they gave was one of joy because they were smiling. They were golden with wings. Their gowns were floating. They were happy and joyful.”
That day when she went to the hospital, she found her husband sitting in a chair and eating for the first time in months.
Although he died soon after her arrival, Dale said she was able to accept his death “because I knew his healing was to be in Heaven, not here. It (the vision) was very real to me.”
The Dales have four children: Pamela Abirchard, Cincinnati; Dawn Guy and Robert Jr., both of Windber; and Susan Johns, Macungie, Lehigh County. There are 10 grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
Dale’s willingness to serve her church “is an inspiration to those of us coming behind her.”
“She sets the bar high. Her faith influences everything she does,” her friend and fellow church member Alicia Garrison said.

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