By Don Freeman

It was April 2023 when Don Gillen called the Church and left a voicemail that he would like to worship with us, but needed a ride. As simple as it is, this is how Don's journey to salvation started. I think most of you saw him practically every Sunday.  I also recall that most of you witnessed his baptism in November 2024. Don was never married and was estranged from his family. He had only one friend named Andy...until he reached out to Centreville UMC.  God was already changing his heart when he led him to our church.  

If you came to the 9:30 Service, you would have noticed him.  A portly man in his mid-70s, not a conversationalist. For the past several Sundays, Don had been helping to hand out the worship service bulletins at the Church’s Main Entrance nearest to the front door.  He did so while sitting in his rolling walker.  

I knew something was wrong when he did not reply to my text that I would pick him up on Sunday morning at 9:00am, as I usually did.  Yet, I drove to his home and waited for him.  When he did not appear, I had a nagging feeling that something was not right.  After the worship service, I decided to drive by his apartment building and check to see if he was okay.  When I arrived, I found that he had passed away. I said a short prayer to ask God to welcome him home.  Then I called 911 to make the report.

As I came to know Don, I prayed this simple prayer: "God, if it is your desire, please work Your will through me to help Don Gillen on his journey and direct my actions and my sentiments with my interactions with him."  Over the following months, I prayed for God to soften Don's heart and for him to accept Christ.   

Several of you understood Don’s introverted nature and reached out to him when he was in church.  Barb Shaiko worked with him to become a greeter and to help hand out the worship service bulletins as a modest way to get involved.  He started as a substitute when Barb's turn cycled around but Don soon wanted to do it every week. Since Don never had any extra money, I began to give him a quarter each Sunday so that he would have something to put in the collection plate. The last Sunday he attended, I offered the quarter, but Don refused saying, "This week I have a dollar to put in."  I told him I was proud of him.

I now pray that Don's time with us can strengthen our own beliefs and deepen our understanding of our commission to help others to accept Christ.  Don Gillen stands in testimony that the simplest gestures can be the mustard seed of someone's faith.  A kind word, a handshake, our weekly passing the peace after the first hymn, bringing the monthly communion to the back row where Don sat because he was afraid of the inclined aisle, sitting with him after the 9:30 AM service as he enjoyed the home cooked snacks, simple chatting...all Christian gestures that made Don feel welcomed among us.  But, more than all that, I think God placed Don among us to show us living scriptures.  The one that is most pertinent, "What you did for the least of these you did for Me."